Chapter 7 - The Child Who Was Not the Only One
The police classified the mill shooting as self-defense.
Adrian’s lawyers ensured Elena and Mateo were questioned for less than an hour. By dawn, they were back inside Blackthorn Manor under armed protection.
Vanessa’s body had still not been identified.
The remains recovered from the burned car were too damaged for immediate recognition. Dental records were requested. Adrian said little about the possibility that his wife was dead.
Elena could not tell whether he felt grief, guilt, or nothing at all.
Mateo was placed in a guest room near the nursery.
“You live like this now?” he asked Elena as a private nurse checked his injuries.
“I clean like this.”
He looked toward Adrian, who stood near the window speaking to security.
“That is him?”
Elena nodded.
“The man who left you?”
“Yes.”
“The man whose son might be yours?”
“Yes.”
“The man with a personal army?”
“Apparently.”
Mateo sighed.
“You never choose simple problems.”
Adrian ended the call.
“We found the doctor in the photograph.”
Elena turned.
“Alive?”
“Yes. Dr. Samuel Vale. He left St. Catherine’s six years ago and moved abroad. He returned to the country last month.”
“Where is he?”
“Missing.”
Mateo pointed toward the photograph.
“What does ‘first replacement’ mean?”
Adrian placed it on the table.
“My family trust requires a direct biological heir. If no heir exists, control of Blackthorn Holdings transfers to a council until the next generation.”
“So Vanessa needed a child,” Elena said.
“She and I had been engaged since adolescence. My father expected us to produce an heir.”
“But you weren’t married when Julian was born.”
“No.”
Mateo frowned.
“Then why take Elena’s baby? Why not wait and have your own?”
Adrian’s face closed.
“Vanessa could not have children.”
Elena stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Not then. I discovered medical records after we married.”
“She stole my son because she was infertile.”
“It may be more complicated.”
“How much more complicated can stealing a newborn become?”
Adrian looked at the message written on the photograph.
“The first replacement succeeded. Prepare the second.”
Mateo leaned forward.
“Maybe Julian was not the first baby.”
Silence followed.
Adrian opened the recovered burner phone.
Most messages had been deleted, but one encrypted file remained. His technicians could not access it remotely, so he connected the device to a secure laptop.
A list appeared.
Six dates.
Six women’s names.
Six infant identification numbers.
Elena’s name was fourth.
“What is this?” she whispered.
Adrian scrolled.
The first three entries were marked FAILED.
Elena’s entry was marked TRANSFERRED.
The fifth was marked STORED.
The sixth had no status.
Mateo looked ill.
“Stored where?”
Adrian opened a linked document.
A map appeared.
It showed several properties once owned by the Blackthorn family. One location was circled in red: a private children’s clinic in the mountains called Haven House.
Mrs. Harrow, standing near the door, dropped the tea tray.
Cups shattered across the floor.
Everyone turned.
She gripped the doorframe.
“You know that place,” Elena said.
Mrs. Harrow shook her head too quickly.
Adrian crossed the room.
“Harrow.”
The housekeeper’s eyes filled with fear.
“Your mother went there.”
Adrian stopped.
“My mother died when I was eight.”
“No,” Mrs. Harrow said. “That is what your father told you.”
The room seemed to lose all sound.
Adrian stared at her.
“You attended the funeral.”
“There was no body.”
“Why would he lie?”
Mrs. Harrow looked at Julian.
“Because your mother discovered what the family was doing with the children.”
Elena felt Mateo’s hand close around hers.
“What children?” Adrian asked.
“Haven House was not a clinic. It was a registry. Wealthy families paid for infants who could not be traced. Pregnant women were identified through hospitals, shelters, prisons, and immigration centers. Some were told their babies died.”
Elena could barely remain standing.
“How long?”
“Decades.”
“Did my father control it?”
“He inherited it from his father.”
Adrian’s face hardened into something frightening.
“And Vanessa?”
“She learned about it while training at St. Catherine’s. She used the system to take Julian.”
“Why would my father allow that?”
“Because Julian was your son.”
Adrian glanced at Elena.
Mrs. Harrow continued.
“Your father believed blood mattered more than law. He could not accept an heir raised outside the family. Vanessa offered a solution. She would claim the child, marry you, and preserve the Blackthorn name.”
Elena’s nails cut into her palm.
“You helped them.”
Mrs. Harrow began to cry.
“I prepared the nursery.”
“You held my baby?”
“Yes.”
The word broke something inside Elena.
She crossed the room and slapped Mrs. Harrow.
The housekeeper did not defend herself.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“I know.”
Julian moved closer to Elena, frightened by her anger.
She immediately softened and took his hand.
Adrian’s phone sounded.
He read the incoming message.
“What is it?” Mateo asked.
“The remains in the car have been identified.”
“Vanessa?”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“No.”
He turned the screen around.
The dead woman was Dr. Lydia Shaw, the hospital administrator who had signed Elena’s baby’s death certificate.
Attached to the identification report was a photograph from the medical examiner.
Around the dead woman’s neck hung a silver pendant.
Inside it was a recent photograph of a young girl.
The girl had Adrian’s gray eyes.
May you like
On the back of the photograph, written in Vanessa’s hand, were four words.
The second heir is ready.
