Chapter 11 - the dead doctor
Nobody moved.
Diane lowered her voice.
"Window."
Mark stared at her.
"What?"
"Get Emily out through the back window."
Daniel shook his head.
"We're on the second floor."
"Roof below it."
Emily held the folder tighter.
"Why are you afraid of him?"
Diane looked at her.
"Because Samuel Keller is the reason I know Lily should never have been part of this family."
Footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs.
Mark positioned himself near the bedroom door.
Daniel moved beside him.
Diane whispered, "You're both idiots."
Keller appeared.
He was older than Emily expected.
Late sixties.
Gray hair.
Glasses.
An ordinary face.
That made him more frightening.
He smiled.
"Diane."
Diane said nothing.
Keller looked around the room.
Robert.
Daniel.
Mark.
Then Emily.
"Quite the reunion."
Emily asked, "You're supposed to be dead."
Keller smiled.
"I've been told that."
Daniel's voice was cold.
"Veronica said you died in a car accident."
"Veronica has always been easy to convince."
"Did you alter Lily's records?"
Keller looked at Emily.
"Not exactly."
Mark stepped forward.
"Answer her."
Keller's smile disappeared.
"You must be Mark."
"You know who I am."
"I knew your mother before you were born."
Mark glanced at Diane.
She looked away.
Keller continued.
"The Hayes women always believed blood was destiny."
Emily looked at the red folder.
"The trust."
"Money makes people romanticize genetics."
"What happened the night Lily was born?"
Keller's gaze settled on Emily.
"Three babies were born within twenty-two minutes."
Emily's throat tightened.
"Three?"
"Two girls. One boy."
Mark moved closer.
"Where is this going?"
Keller ignored him.
"Your daughter required observation."
Emily remembered.
Lily's breathing had been irregular.
She had been taken from the room.
"For seventeen minutes," Emily whispered.
Keller nodded.
Emily felt sick.
"Where was she?"
Keller's expression became unreadable.
"Exactly where she was supposed to be."
Daniel spoke.
"Then why erase the tracking chain?"
Keller looked toward Diane.
"Because someone wanted to create doubt."
Everyone turned.
Diane whispered, "Liar."
Keller smiled.
"You paid Veronica."
"Because you told me the records were wrong."
"I told you the records could be made to look wrong."
Diane's face changed.
Emily understood.
"You manipulated her."
Keller laughed softly.
"Diane needed very little help."
Mark looked at his mother.
"You spent ten years tormenting Lily over something this man told you?"
Diane snapped, "He showed me evidence."
"What evidence?"
"A blood test."
Daniel interrupted.
"From whom?"
Diane looked at Lily's photograph on the dresser.
Mark's anger returned.
"You tested my daughter without permission?"
Diane didn't deny it.
"The Christmas market," Emily whispered.
Diane looked at her.
Emily's stomach turned.
"Those eleven minutes."
Veronica had met them.
A sample could have been taken.
Hair.
Saliva.
Anything.
"You used her."
Diane said, "I needed certainty."
"About what?"
Diane looked at Keller.
He answered for her.
"Whether Lily could inherit."
Emily frowned.
"That doesn't make sense. The trust would need proof."
"Exactly," Keller said.
"So what did the test show?"
Diane's voice shook.
"That she wasn't Mark's daughter."
Silence.
Mark looked at Emily.
Not accusingly.
Just stunned.
Emily couldn't speak.
Diane continued.
"I tested Mark first."
Mark stared.
"You stole my DNA?"
"A drinking glass."
Emily felt rage rising.
"And Lily?"
Diane looked away.
"She isn't his."
Mark whispered, "No."
Keller smiled slightly.
"That's what Diane believed."
Everyone turned.
"Believed?" Emily said.
Keller nodded.
"The samples were never reliable."
Diane stared.
"What?"
"The laboratory never tested Lily."
Diane went completely still.
Keller continued.
"I switched the sample."
Robert whispered, "Why?"
"Because Diane paid me to answer a question she shouldn't have been asking."
"So you lied?"
"I gave her uncertainty."
Diane's voice cracked.
"You told me she wasn't Mark's."
"I told you the sample wasn't genetically consistent."
"You said"
"I said what you paid me to say."
Mark stepped toward his mother.
"Ten years."
Diane's face had lost all color.
"You treated my daughter like garbage for ten years because of a fake test."
Diane looked at Keller.
"You son of a"
"Careful," Keller said.
Then he looked at Emily.
"The interesting question isn't whether Lily is Mark's child."
Emily's heart hammered.
"What is it?"
"Why Eleanor believed Lily mattered before she was even born."
He pointed toward the red folder.
"That document isn't the real reason you're here."
"What is?"
Keller extended his hand.
"The photograph inside the back cover."
Emily checked.
There was a hidden sleeve.
Inside was an old photograph.
Two pregnant women stood outside St. Catherine's Medical Center.
One was Emily.
She recognized herself immediately.
The photograph had been taken without her knowledge.
Beside her, several yards away, stood another pregnant woman.
Emily had never seen her.
Keller pointed.
"That woman gave birth seventeen minutes before you."
Emily stared.
"Who is she?"
Keller smiled.
"Ask Diane."
Emily looked at Diane.
Diane's expression revealed something deeper than fear.
Recognition.
Emily whispered, "Who is she?"
May you like
Diane answered.
"My sister's daughter."
