Chapter 13 - Eleanor's Last Lie)
Daniel confronted his mother before sunrise.
Eleanor sat beside the fireplace wrapped in a gray blanket.
Winnie was asleep upstairs.
Police remained outside.
Daniel placed the traffic camera photograph on the coffee table.
Eleanor looked at it.
Then closed her eyes.
"You met Vale."
"Yes."
"You told us you did not know him."
"I did not know his name when Sybil showed me the hotel photograph."
"That was after this meeting."
"Yes."
Daniel stared at her.
"So you lied."
Eleanor looked exhausted.
"Yes."
He laughed once, bitterly.
"Apparently everyone in my family has decided lying protects me."
"I was protecting Winnie."
"Stop saying that."
Eleanor flinched.
Daniel immediately regretted the volume but not the words.
"No more secrets."
She nodded.
Daniel sat opposite her.
"Tell me everything."
Eleanor looked toward the stairs.
"Rebecca came to me three weeks before she died."
Daniel waited.
"She told me she had discovered records connected to her birth."
"She was adopted?"
"Yes."
"You knew?"
"Only then."
"Why did she never tell me?"
"She planned to."
"Planned."
The word hurt.
Eleanor continued.
"Rebecca learned that her birth mother participated in a fertility study funded by the Hale Foundation."
"Project Haven."
Eleanor's eyes widened.
"Who told you that?"
"Sybil."
Eleanor looked toward the windows.
"Then Sybil knows more than I thought."
"Continue."
"Project Haven was presented as fertility research. But Rebecca believed the program was really tracking children across generations."
"Tracking them for what?"
"Certain inherited traits."
"What traits?"
"I do not know."
"Intelligence? Disease?"
"I do not know."
"Then why Winnie?"
Eleanor's hands trembled.
"Because Rebecca's biological records showed something unusual."
"What?"
"She never told me."
Daniel stood.
"Mom."
"She did not."
"Then what was in the red folder?"
"Her original birth certificate. Medical records. A list of names."
"You gave it to Vale."
"No."
Daniel pointed to the photograph.
"You were in his car."
"I met him."
"Why?"
"Because he contacted me."
"When?"
"Two days before Sybil locked me upstairs."
"What did he want?"
"The folder."
"And you gave it to him."
"I gave him a fake."
Daniel stared.
Eleanor almost smiled.
"I am old, Daniel. Not stupid."
"Where is the real folder?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
She looked toward the dining room.
Daniel followed her gaze.
The attic.
"No."
"Not in the attic."
"Then where?"
Eleanor touched the brass keyhole on the antique writing desk beside her chair.
Daniel suddenly understood.
He opened the desk.
Inside was a shallow drawer.
Nothing.
Eleanor pointed beneath it.
Daniel removed the drawer completely.
A red folder lay inside a false bottom.
He opened it.
Rebecca Hale.
Birth name Rebecca Ann Mercer.
Daniel stopped.
"Mercer."
Sybil's maiden name.
Eleanor nodded.
Daniel looked toward the station where Sybil was being held miles away.
"They were related?"
"Possibly."
The birth record listed Rebecca's biological mother.
Helen Mercer.
Daniel knew that name.
Sybil's grandmother.
He sat down.
"Rebecca and Sybil."
"Half aunt and niece, according to the dates."
Daniel stared at the paper.
"Did Sybil know?"
"I do not think she knew at first."
The next record showed Project Haven identification numbers.
Rebecca was H 17.
Another name appeared beneath hers.
Sarah Mercer.
H 18.
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
"Who is Sarah?"
"I do not know."
He turned the page.
A photograph fell out.
Two infant girls.
The back read H17 and H18.
Rebecca and Sarah.
Daniel's throat tightened.
"Twins?"
Eleanor nodded slowly.
"That is what Rebecca believed."
"Where is Sarah?"
"No record."
Daniel searched the folder.
Then found a handwritten note from Rebecca.
If Sarah survived, Vale knows.
Daniel sat in silence.
Rebecca had spent her final weeks trying to find a twin sister she had never known existed.
That alone explained much of her secret investigation.
But not Winnie.
He turned another page.
A family tree.
Rebecca's name connected to Winnie.
Beside Winnie was a handwritten code.
H2 candidate.
"What is H2?"
Eleanor shook her head.
The next document answered partially.
Project Haven Second Generation Review.
Do not contact family without authorization.
Daniel felt rage rise.
People had been documenting his daughter.
Before she could read.
Before she could speak.
Maybe before she was born.
Eleanor touched his hand.
"That is why I met Vale."
"You should have gone to police."
"Rebecca tried."
"Brooks?"
"No. Someone else."
"What happened?"
"The officer disappeared."
Daniel looked toward the door.
The danger suddenly felt much larger than Sybil.
"Vale told me the old program was finished."
"You believed him?"
"No."
"Then why meet him?"
"Because I wanted him to believe I did."
Eleanor's eyes sharpened.
"I told him I had the folder. I gave him copies with altered names."
"Why?"
"To see what he would do."
"What did he do?"
"He called someone before he left."
"Who?"
"I could not hear the name."
Eleanor paused.
"But I heard one sentence."
Daniel waited.
"He said, Eleanor still has the original, and the child is asking questions."
Daniel's blood went cold.
Winnie.
"What else?"
"He said someone would handle it."
Daniel stood.
"Then Sybil locked you upstairs."
"Yes."
"She may have saved you."
Eleanor looked away.
"Perhaps."
"That does not excuse it."
"No."
They both understood the difference.
Daniel opened the folder again.
A final envelope was taped to the back.
Addressed to Eleanor.
She frowned.
"I have never seen that."
Daniel removed it.
The seal was intact.
Rebecca's handwriting.
Eleanor opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Mom,
If Daniel ever learns about Haven, tell him the one person he should look for is Sarah.
If Sarah is alive, she may know why they are interested in Winnie.
Do not trust Adrian Vale.
Do not trust Martin.
And if someone named Elizabeth Ward contacts you, run.
Eleanor stopped reading.
Daniel noticed.
"What?"
She looked at him.
"Elizabeth Ward."
"Who is she?"
May you like
Eleanor's face had become pale.
"She called the house yesterday."
