Chapter 5 - The Nurse Who Refused to Die Quietly
Three weeks before the wedding, Eleanor received a letter from a woman named Ruth a letter from a woman named Ruth Bell.
Ruth claimed she had worked at St. Catherine’s Medical Center thirty-four years earlier.
She also claimed Eleanor’s baby had not died.
Eleanor read the letter alone in her office.
I was ordered to prepare a false death record. Your father’s representative said the child would be placed somewhere safe. I believed the baby was in danger from the man who fathered him. Later, I discovered the adoption had been arranged without your consent.
I took a photograph before the child was removed. I placed one copy with the baby and kept another.
I have been afraid for most of my life.
I am dying now, and I cannot take this secret with me.
Eleanor called Sebastian immediately.
He arrived within twenty minutes.
After reading the letter, he dismissed it as fraud.
“We receive claims like this every year.”
“She knew the hospital.”
“That information is not private.”
“She knew I named the baby Thomas.”
Sebastian paused.
“You told me the child was stillborn.”
“That is what my father told me.”
“Your medical records confirmed it.”
“I never saw them.”
Sebastian placed the letter inside his briefcase.
“I will investigate.”
Eleanor reached for it.
“I want the original.”
“I need it for evidence.”
“Make a copy.”
For the first time, Sebastian openly resisted her.
“This could disrupt the wedding.”
“What does my child have to do with my wedding?”
“Everything, if someone is trying to manipulate you.”
Eleanor took the letter back.
“You work for me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Of course.”
She hired a private investigator without telling him.
The investigator found Ruth Bell in a nursing facility in Vermont. Ruth was weak but mentally clear.
Eleanor traveled there alone.
When Ruth saw her, she began crying.
“I am sorry.”
“Where is my son?”
“I do not know his current name.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Ruth explained that Eleanor’s father, Charles Hart, had discovered her pregnancy and considered it a threat to the family’s reputation. The baby’s father had been a young journalist investigating Hart Holdings.
Charles ordered his security chief to remove the child after birth.
The journalist disappeared two days later.
Ruth believed he had been killed.
“Who arranged the adoption?” Eleanor asked.
“A lawyer named Malcolm Vale.”
Sebastian’s father.
Ruth gave Eleanor a hospital bracelet, copies of the falsified records, and the contact information of Margaret Cole.
Eleanor recognized the surname from the investigator’s report.
Margaret was dead, but her adopted son was alive.
Travis Cole.
Eleanor’s mind rejected the conclusion.
There had to be another Travis Cole. Another adoption. Another explanation.
She ordered the investigator to verify every detail.
On the morning of the wedding, his preliminary report arrived.
The dates matched.
The hospital matched.
The photograph in Travis’s adoption inquiry matched Ruth’s description.
The final report was delivered to Sebastian’s office because he controlled legal correspondence for the Hart estate.
Sebastian opened it before Eleanor saw it.
He removed one page containing a recommendation to stop the wedding immediately.
Then he brought the remaining documents to Eleanor three hours before the ceremony.
“This is incomplete,” he told her. “The investigator is making reckless assumptions.”
Eleanor stared at Travis’s name.
“I need to speak to him.”
“He is surrounded by reporters. If you cancel now, the story will destroy both of you.”
“What if this is true?”
“It cannot be.”
“How do you know?”
Sebastian moved closer.
“Because the alternative is unthinkable.”
May you like
He took her phone under the excuse of protecting her from the press.
Then he told the wedding coordinator to begin early.
