Chapter 11 - Elena Comes Home
Arthur ran upstairs.
Clara followed with Leo in her arms while Reeve called security.
The nursery door was closed.
Arthur reached it first.
“Elena?”
No answer.
The security guards came from both ends of the hallway.
Arthur opened the door.
The room was empty.
The white curtains moved beside the window.
One pane stood open.
A teddy bear lay on the floor.
Reeve examined the sill.
“No damage.”
Arthur checked the hidden camera feeds.
The exterior cameras showed no one climbing the wall or crossing the roof.
“She knows the house,” Evelyn said from the doorway.
Arthur turned.
“You knew she could get inside.”
“I knew she had been here before.”
“When?”
“After Leo was born.”
Clara looked at her.
“Which time?”
Evelyn did not answer.
Reeve found a folded note beneath the teddy bear.
Arthur,
I did not place the rose in Leo’s crib.
I did not speak through the monitor.
I did not send the DNA report.
Someone wants you to believe I am dangerous.
They are right, but not for the reason they think.
Meet me alone in the old train station at midnight.
Bring the photograph.
Do not bring Evelyn.
Elena
Arthur folded the note.
“You’re not going alone,” Clara said.
“She may run if I don’t.”
“She may kill you if you do.”
Evelyn gave a small sound.
Arthur turned to her.
“What?”
“She won’t kill him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she has had opportunities.”
Clara held Leo closer.
“And what about my baby?”
Evelyn looked at the child.
“She believes he belongs to her.”
Arthur’s anger returned.
“No. You believe that.”
“I believe he belongs with you.”
“That hasn’t stopped you from trying to take him.”
“I was trying to prevent Elena from doing it first.”
Reeve arranged surveillance around the abandoned train station. Arthur agreed to wear a transmitter, though Elena had demanded he come alone.
At eleven fifty-five, he entered the station carrying the old photograph.
The building had been closed for eighteen years. Dust covered the benches. Broken departure boards hung above the platforms.
Moonlight entered through the high windows.
“Elena?”
A figure stepped from behind the ticket counter.
She was tall, with dark hair cut to her shoulders. She wore black trousers and a gray coat. Her face did not resemble Arthur’s, but her eyes did.
They were Charles Bennett’s eyes.
“You came,” she said.
Arthur stopped.
“So did you.”
Her mouth curved slightly.
“You sound like him.”
“Charles?”
“No. Yourself. When you were little.”
“You remember me?”
“I remember everything.”
Arthur looked around.
“Are we safe?”
“No.”
“Then why meet here?”
“Because there are no cameras connected to Bennett systems.”
“I brought the photograph.”
He held it out.
Elena approached.
When she saw the image, her expression tightened.
“That isn’t Margaret.”
“Evelyn told us Margaret was Charles’s sister.”
“Margaret was whoever Silas needed her to be.”
“What does that mean?”
Elena took the photograph.
“The woman beside Evelyn called herself Margaret Vale when she worked for Charles. Before that, she used Helen Ward. Before that, she was Margaret Bennett.”
“Clara’s grandmother.”
“Yes.”
“My mother?”
Elena looked at him.
“No.”
Arthur’s breathing slowed.
“The DNA report says Clara and I are half siblings.”
“The report was altered.”
“We’re testing independently.”
“You’ll learn the truth tomorrow.”
“Which is?”
Elena looked toward the dark platform.
“You and Clara share Bennett ancestry, but you are not siblings.”
Relief moved through Arthur so quickly that his knees weakened.
“How are we related?”
“Distantly enough that your marriage is legal. Closely enough that Leo satisfies the trust.”
Arthur stared at her.
“Who are my parents?”
“Charles was your father.”
“My mother?”
Elena’s expression changed.
“That answer is inside the sealed appendix.”
“Who has it?”
“Dr. Mercer.”
“Why?”
“He took it from Charles the night Charles died.”
“Mercer killed him?”
“No.”
“Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Elena handed back the photograph.
“You did.”
Arthur could not speak.
Outside, metal shifted in the wind.
“You were eight,” Elena continued. “Charles was hurting Margaret. You pushed him. He fell against the desk.”
“He died nine years ago.”
“No. That was the second Charles.”
Arthur stared at her.
“There were two men?”
“There was Charles Bennett, your father. And there was James Mercer, the man who assumed his identity after Charles disappeared.”
“Dr. Mercer?”
“His son.”
Arthur shook his head.
“This is impossible.”
“It was designed to feel impossible.”
“My father attended my graduation. He hired me. He died when I was twenty-six.”
“The man you knew as your father was not the man who fathered you.”
“Evelyn knew?”
“She discovered it later.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because James Mercer gave her what she wanted. You.”
Arthur’s hands began to shake.
“Where is Margaret?”
“Which one?”
He stared at her.
Elena stepped closer.
“There were three women who used that name. Silas built an identity that could be passed from one woman to another. Secretary. Nurse. Patient. Mother. Witness. Whenever the family needed a woman to disappear, Margaret Vale appeared in the records.”
Arthur thought of the woman at Rosebridge.
“Who was at the gate?”
“Clara’s biological grandmother.”
“Is she dangerous?”
“Yes.”
“Is she trying to help us?”
“Yes.”
“Those answers contradict each other.”
“In this family, they rarely do.”
A light flashed outside.
Elena looked toward the broken windows.
“You brought Reeve.”
“He’s protecting me.”
“No. He’s working for the trust.”
Arthur touched the transmitter beneath his shirt.
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him who paid him before you did.”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Arthur dropped.
Elena pulled him behind the ticket counter.
A second bullet struck the wall.
Reeve’s voice shouted through the transmitter.
“Arthur, stay down.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“Listen to how quickly he knew.”
She opened a trapdoor behind the counter.
“Come with me.”
Arthur hesitated.
Another shot struck the floor.
Elena climbed down.
Arthur followed.
The tunnel beneath the station led to an old service road.
A motorcycle waited at the exit.
Elena handed him a helmet.
“Where are we going?”
“To see the first nursery.”
Arthur looked back toward the station.
“My wife and son are at Hawthorne House.”
“That is why we have to hurry.”
“Why?”
May you like
Elena started the engine.
“Because Evelyn’s confrontation with Clara has already begun.”
