Chapter 11 - The Attorney’s Blood
No one spoke for several seconds.
Samuel looked from the photograph to Margaret.
“I was adopted.”
Margaret rose unsteadily.
“By whom?”
“Eleanor and James Pierce. They told me my biological parents died when I was an infant.”
“What year were you born?”
Samuel gave the date.
It matched the date of Margaret’s supposed miscarriage.
Harrison stared at him.
“You have worked for our family for twenty-three years.”
“My father introduced me to Edward after law school.”
“Your adoptive father?”
“Yes.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Did Edward know?”
Samuel looked toward the photograph again.
“I don’t know.”
Elena did.
“He knew.”
Everyone turned to her.
“If Edward believed Samuel was his son, he placed him close to the family. Close enough to protect him, but not close enough to reveal the truth.”
Samuel shook his head.
“He never treated me like a son.”
“Perhaps guilt was the only affection he understood.”
Margaret touched Samuel’s cheek, then stopped before making contact.
“I need a DNA test.”
He stepped back.
“Of course.”
The rejection hurt her, but she accepted it.
Harrison looked at the Carter file.
“Thomas discovered Samuel’s identity.”
“And Victor feared what that meant for control of the company,” Julian said.
Samuel’s legal mind moved quickly.
“If I am Edward’s eldest biological son, certain inheritance provisions could shift.”
Vanessa entered the lobby.
No one had called her.
She had seen the building fire on the news and arrived with Vane and Sloane.
“What is happening?”
Harrison looked at their daughters.
“Not here.”
Vanessa noticed the photograph.
She took the phone from Moreno’s hand.
Her face changed as she read the writing.
“This is ridiculous.”
Samuel took the phone back.
“Perhaps.”
“You cannot simply appear and claim to be an Ashford.”
“I have claimed nothing.”
“But you will.”
Margaret’s voice cut through the room.
“Vanessa, go home.”
“Which home? The one Elena may own? The one Samuel may inherit? Perhaps you should tell me where I am permitted to stand.”
Sloane began to cry.
Elena knelt beside her.
“Would you like to sit somewhere quieter?”
Sloane looked at her mother, then nodded.
Elena led both girls to a waiting area across the lobby.
Vane resisted at first but followed her sister.
Sloane sat beside Elena.
“Does Mia hate me?”
The question was so direct that Elena paused.
“She is hurt.”
“I broke her present.”
“Yes.”
“Vane told me everyone would laugh at me if I liked it.”
Vane looked down.
Sloane wiped her eyes.
“I did like it.”
Elena studied her.
“Then why did you throw it?”
“Because everyone was watching.”
“That is when your choices matter most.”
Sloane began to sob.
“I want to tell her I’m sorry.”
“You should.”
“Will she forgive me?”
“That will be Mia’s decision.”
Vanessa approached.
“Girls, we are leaving.”
Sloane stood.
“I want to apologize to Mia.”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“You told me to throw the music box away before the party.”
The lobby became silent.
Vanessa looked around.
Sloane continued.
“You said if Mia brought something cheap, I had to make sure everyone saw it.”
Harrison stared at his wife.
“You planned it?”
Vanessa grabbed Sloane’s wrist.
“Children misunderstand.”
Sloane pulled free.
“You said Grandma kept giving money to poor people and we had to show her they did not belong.”
Vane began to cry too.
“She made me write the note.”
Vanessa turned toward her.
“What note?”
“The one about finding the bluebird.”
Margaret stepped closer.
“Who told you about the bluebird?”
Vane shook her head.
“I don’t know. The message was already on Mom’s desk. She told me to copy it so nobody would recognize the writing.”
Vanessa looked trapped.
Harrison’s voice became quiet.
“Who gave you the original message?”
“No one.”
“Vanessa.”
She glanced toward the lobby entrance.
A black car waited outside.
Elena noticed the driver.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
The figure she had seen in the upstairs window after the party.
Vanessa ran.
Harrison reached for her, but she shoved him into a chair and rushed through the doors.
The black car accelerated before she was fully inside.
Federal agents ran after it.
Moreno radioed the license number.
Sloane screamed for her mother.
Harrison stood helplessly on the pavement as the car disappeared.
Samuel examined the security footage.
The driver’s face was partially visible.
Margaret leaned closer.
Her cane slipped from her hand.
She recognized him.
The man driving Vanessa’s car was Richard Ashford.
May you like
Edward’s brother.
The man who had supposedly died in prison seven years earlier.
