Chapter 5 - THE NAME BENEATH THE NAME
The forensic team restored part of the cassette recording that night.
Everyone gathered in the library: Celeste, Ivy, Ellen, Sebastian, Detective Cross, and Arthur Bell, the Whitmore family attorney.
The tape began with static.
Then a child’s voice whispered through the speakers.
“My name is Clara Vale. I am nine years old.”
Celeste gripped the arms of her chair.
The voice continued.
“They told me my name is Celeste Whitmore, but that is not my name. My sister is Rose. They took her after the fire.”
A woman’s voice spoke in the background.
“Clara, stop recording.”
The child answered, “You promised I could say goodbye.”
The woman began crying.
It was Margaret.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
A man entered the recording.
His voice was younger, but unmistakable.
Sebastian.
“You were instructed to erase her memories, not encourage them.”
“She remembers everything,” Margaret said.
“Then increase the medicine.”
“She is a child.”
“She is an asset.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
On the tape, young Clara began shouting.
“Rose is not dead! You sent her away!”
A sharp sound followed, as if someone had struck the recorder from a table.
Then Sebastian spoke again.
“The younger girl must never be found. If they are reunited, the trust becomes active.”
The tape ended.
Silence filled the library.
Julian turned toward Sebastian.
“Would you like to explain?”
Sebastian remained seated.
“A recording with no verified date and no authenticated voices proves nothing.”
“That was your voice,” Celeste said.
“It sounded like me.”
“You called me an asset.”
“I was twenty-three years old. I may have repeated something our attorneys told me.”
“What trust?”
“I have no idea.”
Arthur Bell cleared his throat.
“There is an old provision connected to the estate, but I have never seen the original document.”
Celeste looked at him.
“You have represented this family for twenty years.”
“My father represented the family before me. Certain sealed records were never transferred.”
“What provision?”
Arthur glanced at Sebastian.
Celeste noticed.
“Do not look at him. Answer me.”
Arthur opened his leather folder.
“The Whitmore fortune did not begin with the Whitmores.”
Sebastian stood.
“This conversation is privileged.”
“I am your client,” Celeste said.
“You are one of several family beneficiaries.”
“Sit down.”
For the first time, Sebastian appeared uncertain.
Arthur continued.
“In 1985, a scientist named Dr. Elias Vale developed a battery technology that was eventually sold to Whitmore Industries. He received shares, patents, and property rights worth hundreds of millions.”
Ivy looked at the letters engraved on her pendant.
R. V.
“Vale,” she whispered.
Arthur nodded.
“Dr. Vale died in a laboratory fire in 1993. His wife and two daughters were believed to have died with him.”
“Clara and Rose,” Celeste said.
“Yes.”
“But we didn’t die.”
“Apparently not.”
Celeste looked toward Sebastian.
“My mother raised me as her own daughter.”
“Eleanor Whitmore had no biological children,” Arthur said. “You were introduced publicly as a distant relative she adopted after a private family tragedy.”
“And Rose?”
No one answered.
Ivy’s breathing became shallow.
Ellen put an arm around her.
Arthur opened a photocopied document.
“My father once mentioned a contingency in Dr. Vale’s trust. If both daughters survived, control of the Vale holdings would transfer jointly to them when the younger child turned eighteen.”
Ivy stared at him.
“I’m twelve.”
“Yes.”
“So in six years, we would control everything?”
“A substantial portion of Whitmore Industries, the estate, and several patent funds.”
Sebastian laughed quietly.
“This is absurd. The girl has no proof of identity.”
Julian held up a sealed evidence bag containing the photograph.
“We have a photograph, matching pendants, a recording, and a hidden room.”
“Circumstantial.”
“We will perform DNA testing.”
Sebastian’s face changed almost imperceptibly.
Celeste saw it.
“You don’t want us tested.”
“I do not want this family destroyed by a fantasy.”
Celeste stood and faced him.
“You locked a child in a room behind a portrait.”
“I did not.”
“Your voice ordered Margaret to drug me.”
“I was following Eleanor’s instructions.”
The admission escaped before Sebastian could stop it.
Everyone became still.
Julian leaned forward.
“So Eleanor Whitmore ordered the younger girl’s disappearance?”
Sebastian looked toward the dark windows.
“I said nothing of the kind.”
A telephone rang on the desk.
Julian answered.
He listened for several seconds, then turned toward Ivy.
“The lab ran the preliminary comparison from drinking glasses collected earlier.”
Celeste grabbed Ivy’s hand.
Julian’s voice was careful.
“The results indicate a ninety-nine-point-eight percent probability that Celeste and Ivy share at least one biological parent.”
Ivy looked at the woman beside her.
Celeste’s fingers tightened around hers.
“We’re sisters,” Ivy whispered.
Before Celeste could answer, every light in the mansion went out.
May you like
A scream came from the corridor.
Then the library doors slammed shut from the outside.
