Chapter 10 - The Mother Who Never Came Home)
Vanessa did not speak for almost an hour.
She sat alone in the conservatory while rain struck the glass roof.
Adrian watched from the doorway.
Part of him wanted to leave her there.
Another part remembered what it felt like to discover a parent had built your life on secrets.
He entered.
Vanessa did not look up.
"Did you know?"
"No."
"About Melissa being alive."
"No."
"Did Voss ever suggest it?"
"He swore she died."
Adrian sat opposite her.
"Why did you trust him?"
Vanessa laughed weakly.
"Because he was the first person who told me I had been stolen."
"That doesn't make him trustworthy."
"I know that now."
"Why didn't you go to police?"
"What would I tell them? A disgraced doctor gave me photocopies of altered records about a secret adoption organized by one of the most powerful families in the state?"
"You could have come to me."
"I didn't know you."
"Later."
Her eyes met his.
"Later I loved you."
"That should have made it easier."
"It made it impossible."
Adrian's expression hardened.
Vanessa continued.
"If I told you how I entered your life, I lost you."
"So you continued lying."
"Yes."
"And created a child."
She closed her eyes.
"The pregnancy was Voss's idea."
"But you agreed."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because the trust required genetic verification."
Adrian frowned.
"The child would have needed DNA."
"Not immediately."
"What was the plan?"
"Your family attorney prepared an amendment allowing prenatal provisional control if the pregnancy was medically certified."
Adrian went still.
"What attorney?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"Martin Kell."
Adrian stood.
Martin Kell had worked for the Morrell family for twenty three years.
He had prepared Adrian's father's will.
He had advised Adrian after Richard's death.
And he had been scheduled to supervise the trust signing the morning after the reception.
Adrian immediately called Detective Palmer.
Kell did not answer his phone.
His office was empty.
His home was empty.
At two thirty, investigators discovered that he had left Boston on a private charter before dawn.
The conspiracy widened again.
Grace joined them in the library.
"Why would Kell help Voss?"
Adrian looked at Eleanor.
His aunt sat quietly.
"Because Martin's father was Charles Morrell's attorney," she said.
Adrian stared.
"What?"
"He handled private family matters."
"Like Melissa's adoption."
Eleanor nodded.
"Possibly."
Adrian paced.
"Voss had the medical records. Kell had the legal records."
"And Vanessa had access to you," Grace said.
Vanessa looked down.
Michael added, "And I had spent years collecting the names."
Adrian stopped.
"Names?"
Michael nodded.
"Families connected to St. Catherine's."
Adrian understood.
"Voss used all of you."
"He gave each of us part of the truth."
Grace finished the thought.
"So nobody knew enough to expose him."
Adrian looked toward the photographs of his mother.
"And Melissa?"
Nobody knew.
That evening police traced Voss and the mysterious woman to a motel north of the city.
The room was empty.
But investigators found blood on a towel.
Not much.
Enough for DNA.
Testing would take time.
They also found a disposable phone.
One message remained.
THE GIRL KNOWS THE CLOSET. FIX IT.
Grace felt ice spread through her chest.
"Lily."
Palmer immediately placed officers around Mrs. Alden's apartment.
Grace ran upstairs.
Lily was safe.
She was coloring at the kitchen table.
Grace dropped to her knees and hugged her so tightly Lily complained.
"Mommy, I can't breathe."
Grace loosened her arms.
Lily looked at her.
"Are the bad people gone?"
"Not yet."
Lily thought about this.
"Is Mr. Adrian sad because the baby isn't real?"
Grace looked toward the doorway.
Adrian was standing there.
Lily saw him.
She climbed down from the chair.
"I'm sorry."
Adrian crouched.
"For what?"
"I said the belly was a pillow."
"You told the truth."
"Mom says truth can hurt."
"She's right."
Lily looked worried.
Adrian continued.
"But some lies hurt more."
She considered this.
Then she reached into the pocket of her red dress, which she had insisted on wearing again because it was now her favorite.
"I found this."
Grace frowned.
"What is it?"
Lily handed Adrian a small folded card.
"Where did you get that?"
"The party."
"Where?"
"When the lights went dark. Someone bumped me."
Adrian opened the card.
It contained no words.
Only a sequence of numbers.
17 9 3 11 4.
Eleanor entered behind him.
She saw the sequence.
Her face changed.
Adrian noticed.
"What?"
"Those aren't random."
"What are they?"
Eleanor looked at the card.
"Your father used a numerical filing system."
Adrian stood.
"For what?"
"Private deposit boxes."
"Where?"
"First Morrell Bank."
The institution had been sold sixteen years earlier, but its original vault remained beneath Morrell Holdings headquarters.
Adrian studied the numbers.
"Could this identify a box?"
Eleanor nodded.
"Maybe."
Grace looked at Lily.
"Who put it in your pocket?"
"I don't know."
"Was it a man or woman?"
Lily frowned, trying to remember.
Then she said something that made Vanessa stand up.
"The old lady said not to lose it."
Michael stepped forward.
"What old lady?"
"The one who smelled like flowers."
"What did she look like?"
Lily thought.
"Gray hair."
Michael's voice shook.
"What coat?"
Lily pointed toward the airport security photograph on the table.
"That one."
Nobody moved.
The woman who might be Melissa Grant had been inside the ballroom during the blackout.
And while Vanessa escaped and Voss stole the file, Melissa had approached Lily.
May you like
Not to threaten her.
To give her a code.
