Chapter 8 - Samuel Voss)
The claim was almost too strange to believe.
Samuel Voss.
The disgraced doctor.
The keeper of stolen medical records.
The man who had blackmailed grieving families for decades.
According to Vanessa, he was Charles Morrell's illegitimate son.
Eleanor rejected it immediately.
"Impossible."
Vanessa looked at her.
"You know your father had affairs."
"That does not make Voss his son."
"No."
Vanessa's expression hardened.
"The DNA test does."
Adrian stared.
"You tested him?"
"Richard did."
The room fell silent again.
Vanessa explained.
Three years earlier, she had been working as a junior development consultant at a medical foundation when Voss contacted her.
He told her the truth about Melissa Grant.
Or part of it.
Melissa had given birth to a girl.
Vanessa.
The adoption had been arranged through Charles Morrell.
Her birth certificate had been altered.
Her adoptive parents had known almost nothing.
Voss offered to help Vanessa uncover the rest.
Instead, he gradually turned her anger toward the Morrell family.
"He told me Charles stole me from my mother."
"Did he?" Adrian asked.
"I don't know anymore."
"He told you my father knew?"
"Yes."
"Did he?"
"Later."
Vanessa looked at the floor.
"Richard found me before he died."
Adrian stepped closer.
"What?"
"He knew who I was."
"When?"
"Nine months before his death."
"And you never told me."
"He asked me not to."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"Apparently everyone in my life had private agreements with my father."
Vanessa flinched.
"He said he was trying to fix everything."
"What did that mean?"
"He wanted to expose Voss."
Eleanor frowned.
"If Voss was his brother, why protect him for so long?"
Vanessa looked at her.
"Because Charles made Richard promise."
Eleanor's expression changed.
Vanessa saw it.
"You knew."
"No."
"You knew Voss mattered."
"I knew my father paid for his education."
Adrian stared at Eleanor.
"You never thought that was strange?"
"Charles supported many people."
"Did my father know Voss was his brother?"
Eleanor looked away.
"Eventually."
Adrian's patience snapped.
"When?"
"After Caroline died."
The room became very still.
Eleanor sat down.
"Our father told Richard because he was ill. He wanted the family matters settled."
"Family matters."
Adrian's voice was filled with disgust.
"You mean the secret son."
"Yes."
"What did Richard do?"
"He gave Voss money. Access. Protection."
Michael stepped forward.
"And Voss used all three to blackmail families."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"I didn't know that."
Vanessa continued.
"Richard eventually discovered what Voss had become. That is why he started investigating St. Catherine's again."
Adrian began to understand.
Project Second Son had not been designed to find Caroline's missing child.
It had been created to investigate Samuel Voss.
His father's secret half brother.
"What's in the file?" Adrian asked.
Vanessa's face tightened.
"Everything."
"Such as?"
"DNA. Payments. Hospital records. Names."
"What names?"
Vanessa looked toward the police officer.
"People whose careers could end if that file becomes public."
Adrian's phone rang.
Detective Palmer answered before he could.
He listened.
Then cursed.
"What?"
Palmer looked around the room.
"Voss left the estate."
Adrian stared.
"How?"
"We found a maintenance tunnel beneath the greenhouse."
Mrs. Alden looked shocked.
"There hasn't been a tunnel there in decades."
"Apparently there has."
Palmer continued.
"A vehicle was waiting on the access road."
Vanessa whispered, "He has the file."
Grace looked at her.
"What will he do with it?"
Vanessa's expression became grim.
"Sell it."
"To whom?"
"Anyone whose name is inside."
Adrian thought of hospitals, judges, attorneys, families.
If Project Second Son contained evidence of illegal adoptions and falsified deaths, countless powerful people might be implicated.
Michael asked the question nobody else had.
"What about Melissa?"
Vanessa looked toward him.
"My mother?"
"Was she alive after you were born?"
Vanessa swallowed.
"Voss said she died."
"When?"
"A week after delivery."
Michael shook his head.
"That's not true."
Vanessa stared.
"What?"
Michael reached into his folder.
"I found a bank account in Melissa's name."
Vanessa looked confused.
"So?"
"It received deposits until 2012."
Her face changed.
"That doesn't mean she was alive."
"No."
Michael placed another page on the vanity.
"But this might."
It was a photocopy of a driver's license renewal.
Melissa Anne Grant.
Renewed in 2009.
Vanessa stepped backward.
"My mother was alive?"
"At least ten years after you were born."
Vanessa's anger shattered into confusion.
"Why didn't she find me?"
Michael's eyes filled.
"I don't know."
Grace watched them and felt the emotional center of the story shift.
Vanessa had deceived Adrian cruelly.
Nothing excused that.
But beneath the lie was a woman whose entire identity had been built by other people's secrets.
Adrian seemed to understand the same thing.
He did not forgive her.
But his anger changed.
"Voss knows where she is," Vanessa whispered.
Michael nodded.
"Maybe."
Vanessa turned toward Adrian.
"We have to find him."
Adrian stared at her.
"You mean the man you helped enter my father's archive."
"I know what I did."
"You faked my child."
Her eyes filled.
"I know."
"You planned to use the trust."
"I know."
"You were going to make me mourn someone who never existed."
She could barely speak.
"I know."
Adrian's voice became quiet.
"Then don't ask me to trust you."
Vanessa lowered her head.
He continued.
"But if Voss has evidence about missing children, we find him."
Vanessa looked up.
"Together?"
"No."
Adrian stepped toward Detective Palmer.
"We find him legally."
He looked back at Vanessa.
"And for the first time since you entered my life, you tell the complete truth."
Vanessa nodded.
"I will."
Then every phone inside the room began ringing.
Adrian checked his screen.
A breaking news notification appeared.
Someone had leaked a portion of Project Second Son.
The headline contained three words.
MORRELL BABY SCANDAL.
May you like
And beneath it was a photograph of Adrian's mother.
Caroline.
