Chapter 13 - Linda's Last Secret
Linda fainted.
When she regained consciousness, Claire was sitting beside her in a private room upstairs from the bank vault.
“I didn’t take him,” Linda said immediately.
Claire believed she believed that.
It was no longer enough.
“What do you remember?”
“Everything I told you.”
“Think harder.”
Linda closed her eyes.
“I was seven months pregnant.”
“Thirty-two weeks?”
“Almost.”
“Why were you at St. Catherine’s?”
“Robert said Dr. Hale had privileges there.”
“Samuel?”
“No. Patrick.”
Claire frowned.
“Patrick Hale was a lawyer.”
“He had a brother who was a doctor.”
“Samuel.”
“Yes.”
Linda pressed a hand to her forehead.
“I remember hearing the baby cry.”
Claire’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“Before they sedated me.”
“You heard him?”
Linda began crying.
“I told Robert he was alive.”
“What did he say?”
“That the medication was making me hallucinate.”
Claire stood.
Her entire body trembled.
“And you believed him?”
“I had just hemorrhaged.”
“Afterward?”
“Your father refused to discuss it.”
“For eighteen years?”
“I tried.”
“How many times?”
Linda looked ashamed.
“Not enough.”
Claire turned away.
“Why does Luke think you took him?”
“I don’t know.”
The door opened.
Margaret entered carrying a document.
“We found something.”
Claire took it.
Hospital discharge paperwork.
Linda Bennett.
No mention of fetal death.
No stillbirth certificate.
No neonatal death certificate.
Nothing.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret said, “Either the hospital records were altered later or the child’s death was never documented.”
Linda whispered, “He lived.”
Claire looked at her mother.
“Maybe.”
Linda’s face crumpled.
For the first time Claire understood that some punishments were not delivered by courts.
Some arrived as truth.
Ethan entered.
“Luke called again.”
Claire straightened.
“What does he want?”
“To meet.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Margaret shook her head.
“That building closed ten years ago.”
“Exactly.”
Claire took her coat.
Ethan blocked the door.
“No.”
“What?”
“We call police.”
“Luke may disappear.”
“Good. Let him disappear until police find him.”
“He may be my brother.”
“And he just accused your mother of kidnapping him.”
“That’s why I need answers.”
Ethan held her gaze.
“I promised today I’d protect you.”
“You also promised to respect me.”
That landed.
Claire softened.
“I’m going.”
Ethan sighed.
“Then I’m going too.”
Margaret said, “So am I.”
Linda stood slowly.
Claire shook her head.
“You stay.”
“No.”
“Mom.”
“If that boy is my son, I have already stayed away from him for twenty-two years.”
Claire looked at her.
Linda’s voice steadied.
“I am not doing it one more night.”
At nine seventeen, four cars pulled into the abandoned St. Catherine’s complex.
Police remained two blocks away at Claire’s insistence, although Ethan had shared their location.
The old hospital was dark.
Windows boarded.
Weeds splitting the parking lot.
A single light glowed inside the entrance.
Luke Hale waited beneath it.
Twenty-two.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Claire stopped walking.
Linda made a sound behind her.
Because Luke looked like Robert.
Not exactly.
But enough.
Luke stared at Linda.
“You came.”
Linda whispered, “Are you Daniel?”
His jaw tightened.
“My father named me Luke.”
“Samuel Hale?”
Luke nodded.
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Why did you say my mother took you?”
Luke reached inside his jacket.
Ethan immediately moved in front of Claire.
Luke stopped.
“I’m getting a letter.”
He slowly removed an envelope.
Eleanor’s handwriting.
Luke handed it to Claire.
She unfolded the page.
Linda,
Robert believes the baby died.
Let him believe it.
What he intended for that child was worse.
Claire stopped reading.
Her eyes lifted.
Linda swayed.
“What?”
Claire continued.
Samuel has agreed to protect him until I can remove Robert from the family holdings.
You cannot know where.
You cannot contact him.
Robert watches you too closely.
Forgive me.
Your son is alive.
Claire slowly lowered the letter.
Linda collapsed to her knees.
Luke stared at her.
“So you didn’t know.”
Linda shook her head violently.
“No.”
Luke’s expression cracked.
For twenty-two years, apparently, he had been carrying hatred toward the wrong woman.
Claire stepped toward him.
“Where did you get this?”
“My father.”
“Why didn’t he give it to Linda?”
“He never had it.”
“What?”
Luke looked into the darkness behind him.
“I found it three days ago.”
“Where?”
“In Eleanor Bennett’s third archive.”
Claire stared.
“The vault had a third archive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
May you like
Luke’s answer changed everything.
“Under your father’s house.”
