Chapter 11 - THE FATHER WHO NEVER WAS
Charles Bennett had left the vineyard in an ambulance.
He claimed severe chest pain.
The medical vehicle transporting him never reached the hospital.
It was found abandoned beside a rural road. The paramedic and driver had been tied up in the back.
Charles had disappeared.
The investigation now had three missing people.
Richard Vale.
Elena.
Charles Bennett.
Victoria remained under guard, but her composure began to fracture.
Vanessa confronted her in the hospital room.
Mara allowed the conversation while recording from an adjacent area.
“Is Charles my father?” Vanessa asked.
Victoria adjusted the blanket.
“You are exhausted.”
“Answer me.”
“Of course Charles is your father.”
“Richard said Elena’s father is the same man who fathered me.”
“Richard wants money.”
“Then why did Charles run?”
Victoria looked at Mara.
“This interrogation is inappropriate.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Did you lie about Daniel too?”
“I protected you from Daniel.”
“Did he father my children?”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
Victoria’s expression changed.
Vanessa saw it.
“Oh God.”
“Vanessa.”
“Who was it?”
“You were seventeen. You were confused.”
“I knew who I was with.”
“There were circumstances you did not understand.”
“Who was the father?”
Victoria pressed the call button beside the bed.
No nurse came.
The line had been disabled during the interview.
Vanessa leaned over her mother.
“Tell me.”
Victoria whispered, “Richard.”
The word seemed to empty the room of air.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“No.”
“He manipulated you.”
“No.”
“You admired him. He took advantage.”
“No.”
Mara entered.
“How old was Vanessa when this happened?”
Victoria looked away.
“Seventeen.”
Mara’s voice became hard.
“Richard Vale was forty-one.”
Vanessa sat down.
Her face had gone gray.
“I don’t remember.”
“That was intentional,” Victoria said quickly. “Hart gave you medication after we discovered what Richard had done.”
“You kept him as our attorney.”
“We needed to control him.”
“You let him stand beside me at my wedding.”
“I believed the threat had passed.”
“What threat?”
“That he would expose the family.”
Vanessa laughed in disbelief.
“You were afraid he would expose the family? Not that he abused me?”
“I handled the situation.”
“You erased it.”
“I preserved your future.”
“You stole my past.”
Victoria looked toward Mara.
“This conversation is over.”
Vanessa stood.
“No. It has finally begun.”
She left the room.
In the hallway, Claire waited beside Lily’s portable incubator. The neonatal team had transferred the baby to a more secure private unit.
Vanessa stopped in front of her.
Claire had heard enough through the open door to understand.
“I’m sorry,” Claire said.
Vanessa looked at Lily.
“Every time I see her, I remember something new.”
“What do you remember now?”
“A room with blue curtains. Richard telling me I was mature. My mother standing outside afterward.”
Claire said nothing.
“There are no good people in my family,” Vanessa whispered.
“You can choose to become one.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Do you think choice is enough?”
“No. But it is where responsibility begins.”
Evan approached from the far end of the corridor.
He had agreed to cooperate fully in exchange for temporary release under supervision.
“I heard about Richard,” he said.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You knew.”
“I knew he had hurt you. I did not know how.”
“You never asked.”
“I was sixteen.”
“You were thirty-one when he attended your wedding.”
Evan looked down.
Vanessa walked away.
Claire turned toward him.
“What do you want?”
“To tell you something before Mara finds it in the records.”
Claire waited.
Evan took a breath.
“Lily was not the first embryo implanted.”
Claire’s hand tightened around the incubator rail.
“What?”
“Two years ago, before our first anniversary, my mother arranged another procedure.”
“I was never pregnant two years ago.”
“Yes, you were.”
Claire stared at him.
“No.”
“It ended very early.”
“I would have known.”
“Hart said the embryo did not develop.”
“When did this happen?”
“You thought you were having minor surgery for endometriosis.”
Claire remembered the recovery.
The pain.
The bleeding.
Victoria telling her complications were normal.
“Whose embryo was it?”
“Vanessa’s.”
“Why did you agree?”
“My mother said Vanessa’s embryos would be destroyed because the storage company was closing. She said carrying one would be an act of love.”
“An act of love?”
“I thought if it worked, we would tell you.”
Claire slapped him.
He accepted the blow without moving.
“You allowed a doctor to use my body while I was unconscious.”
“I told myself it was temporary.”
“You told yourself many things.”
“I know.”
“Did the embryo fail?”
Evan’s eyes filled with fear.
“That’s what Hart told us.”
Claire saw the rest before he said it.
“But?”
“A child was born.”
Claire’s knees weakened.
“What child?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said the embryo did not develop.”
“That was the official story. Last month, I found a payment for neonatal transport nine months after the procedure.”
Claire gripped the rail.
“Where was the child taken?”
“The payment went to a facility in Maine.”
Mara appeared behind Evan.
“We searched that facility this morning.”
Claire turned.
“What did you find?”
Mara’s expression was grave.
“An empty nursery. Burned records. And a wall covered with photographs of children.”
“How many?”
“Seventeen.”
“Were they Bennett children?”
“We don’t know.”
Mara handed Claire one photograph.
It showed a toddler with pale curls standing beside a lake.
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On the back, someone had written:
CLAIRE’S FIRST DELIVERY.
