Chapter 9 - The Man Who Knew the Twins)
The Portland tickets were canceled immediately.
Marcus ordered security to trace every camera around Gate 47.
The footage showed Thomas Reed.
Sixty-three years old.
Gray hair.
Green jacket.
He appeared beside a coffee kiosk at 1:12 p.m.
He never approached Evelyn.
He did, however, speak to Noah when the boy wandered six feet from the seating area to retrieve a dropped crayon.
The interaction lasted eleven seconds.
Then Reed disappeared into the crowd.
Airport records showed no flight in his name.
Marcus watched the footage repeatedly.
"This man knew who my sons were."
Evelyn sat beside him.
"And knew Eleanor would show up."
Daniel paused the footage.
"Maybe he warned Eleanor."
Marcus shook his head.
"Then why protect the boys?"
"Maybe he isn't protecting them."
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
"What else would he be doing?"
"Moving them."
The possibility silenced the room.
Marcus called the number Northstar Risk had once used.
Disconnected.
He contacted former employees.
Three refused to speak.
A fourth finally agreed to meet.
Her name was Lydia Barnes.
She had been Reed's operations manager.
They met in a quiet restaurant two blocks from Hale Tower.
Lydia arrived fifteen minutes late and sat with her back to the wall.
"Thomas Reed is alive," Marcus said.
"I know."
"Where is he?"
"If Thomas wanted you to know, you would."
"He approached my five-year-old son."
Lydia's expression shifted.
"Then things are worse than I thought."
Marcus leaned forward.
"Tell me."
Lydia looked at Daniel.
"Attorney?"
"Yes."
"Good."
She folded her hands.
"Richard Hale hired Northstar eighteen months before he died."
"For what?"
"To investigate his own family."
Marcus felt no surprise anymore.
Only exhaustion.
"Specifically Eleanor?"
"At first."
"And later?"
"Everyone."
"Why?"
Lydia glanced toward the restaurant entrance.
"Richard believed someone had been manipulating Hale company ownership records for decades."
Daniel asked, "Through GHT-19?"
"Among other things."
"Adrian Cole?"
Lydia's eyes sharpened.
"You found him."
"We spoke."
"That was a mistake."
Marcus almost laughed.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because it's true."
"Who is he?"
Lydia looked at Marcus.
"Adrian is Richard Hale's biological son."
The sentence struck with less force than Marcus expected.
Perhaps because he had already known.
"Older than me?"
"Three years."
"My mother knew?"
"Yes."
Marcus looked down.
The photograph.
Richard's hand on the baby.
HE MUST NEVER BELONG TO ELEANOR.
"Who was his mother?"
"Laura Cole. A financial analyst employed by Jonathan Hale in the early eighties."
"An affair?"
Lydia hesitated.
"That's what Eleanor wants everyone to believe."
"What actually happened?"
"I don't know."
Marcus studied her.
"You're lying."
"I'm protecting myself."
"From Eleanor?"
Lydia gave a sad smile.
"Not everything leads back to Eleanor."
There it was again.
The second side.
Daniel asked, "What did Richard discover?"
"Enough to become frightened."
"Of whom?"
"Thomas never told me."
Lydia leaned closer.
"But I know what changed. Richard learned that Adrian wasn't the only child hidden by the family."
Marcus's skin prickled.
"Who else?"
"I don't know."
"Another sibling?"
"Maybe."
Lydia removed an old business card.
A handwritten address was on the back.
"Thomas told me that if Richard's grandchildren ever appeared, I should send Marcus here."
Marcus looked at the address.
An abandoned Hale Hospitality property in New Jersey.
The Riverside Motor Lodge.
It had closed twenty years ago.
"Why there?"
"Thomas said Richard left the third ledger in the one place Eleanor would never willingly enter again."
Marcus frowned.
"What happened there?"
Lydia stood.
"Ask Eleanor where she was on October 14, 1988."
Marcus checked his phone.
Before he could ask another question, Lydia walked away.
At the hotel that evening, the twins ate spaghetti while Marcus attempted to behave normally.
Eli told him about kindergarten.
Noah showed him three drawings.
In every picture, Evelyn stood in the middle holding their hands.
Marcus was not there.
Of course he wasn't.
On the fourth page, however, Noah had drawn a tall man in a gray suit.
"Who's that?"
Noah shrugged.
"You."
Marcus stared at the crooked figure.
"When did you draw this?"
"Today."
"Why am I so tall?"
"Because you are."
Eli leaned across the table.
"And Mom says rich people are tall because they look down at everybody."
Evelyn nearly choked on her water.
Marcus looked at her.
"Really?"
"That was before yesterday."
"Good to know."
For one brief moment, all four laughed.
Then the suite phone rang.
Marcus answered.
Eleanor.
He almost disconnected.
"Wait," she said.
Something in her voice stopped him.
"Where are the boys?"
"Safe."
"Marcus, do not take them to New Jersey."
His body went rigid.
He had told nobody except Daniel and Evelyn about Lydia's address.
"How do you know?"
"Because Lydia Barnes called me."
Marcus glanced at Daniel.
"Why?"
"She thinks I can stop you."
"Can you?"
"No."
Eleanor's voice cracked.
"But I can tell you what happened at the Riverside."
Marcus sat down.
"I'm listening."
There was a long pause.
"Your father tried to leave me."
Marcus frowned.
"That's the secret?"
"No."
Her breathing changed.
"He tried to leave with Adrian."
Marcus said nothing.
Eleanor continued.
"I found them at the Riverside."
"What happened?"
"Richard told me Adrian was his son. He said he wanted to bring him into our family."
Marcus pictured his mother at thirty.
"What did you do?"
"I told him no."
"Why?"
Eleanor whispered, "Because Adrian wasn't a child by then."
Marcus calculated.
Adrian would have been four.
"Yes, he was."
"No."
Her words were shaking.
"Marcus, Richard lied about Adrian's birth date."
Marcus stood.
"What are you talking about?"
"The boy in that photograph wasn't Adrian Cole."
Everything inside Marcus went still.
May you like
"Then who was he?"
Eleanor said, "That's what your father spent the rest of his life trying to hide."
