Chapter 7 - The Recording Made Twenty-Eight Years Ago
Adrian led Isabella and Elena through a hidden door behind the chapel altar.
The passage descended into darkness.
“Where are we going?” Isabella asked.
“To the only room my mother cannot enter.”
“Why can’t she enter it?”
“Because my father sealed it before he died.”
The tunnel opened beneath an old gardener’s cottage near the northern wall. Adrian locked the door behind them and went to a rusted cabinet.
Inside was a battery-powered recorder.
Elena stared at it.
“My mother’s statement?”
“I believe so,” Adrian said.
“You knew where it was?”
“I knew my father hid something here. I did not know what.”
He inserted an old tape.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s voice began to speak.
“My name is Rosa Maren. I have served the Vale family for nine years. On the evening of October seventeenth, I saw Margaret Vale arguing with her sister-in-law, Catherine, on the upper balcony.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“That is my mother.”
The recording continued.
“Catherine said she had discovered the truth about Sebastian Vale’s death. She said Margaret and Dr. Mercer had changed his medication. Margaret told her no one would believe a pregnant woman who had already been described as unstable.”
Isabella looked toward Adrian.
“Mercer was involved even then.”
“He was a medical student working under his father,” Adrian said.
Rosa’s voice trembled through the speaker.
“Catherine tried to leave. Margaret grabbed her arm. They struggled. Catherine fell against the railing, but she did not go over it. Dr. Mercer came from the hallway. He struck Catherine from behind.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“Margaret and Mercer lifted her together. They pushed her over the railing.”
The tape hissed.
“I ran downstairs. Catherine was alive. She told me her daughter had been delivered secretly three days earlier because she feared the family would take the child. The baby was being kept at Saint Aurelia’s under another name.”
Isabella’s breathing became shallow.
“Catherine gave birth before she died.”
Adrian nodded.
The recording continued.
“Margaret ordered me to say Catherine had fallen while still pregnant. She told the family the baby died with her. Dr. Mercer signed the death documents.”
Rosa began crying.
“I wanted to go to the police, but my daughter Elena was six years old. Margaret threatened her. I copied the records and hid them. If anything happens to me, the person hearing this must find the ledger beneath Sebastian Vale’s memorial stone.”
The tape ended.
Elena stood motionless.
“My mother disappeared two weeks later.”
Adrian removed the tape.
“She may not have been killed.”
Elena turned on him.
“What does that mean?”
“My father received payments from a private care facility for years. The records were listed under a false company. I thought they were bribes.”
“You think Rosa was held somewhere?”
“I think my mother may have kept her alive to learn where the documents were hidden.”
Isabella moved toward the small window.
Beyond the cottage, guards searched the garden.
“We need the ledger.”
Adrian nodded.
“The memorial stone is in the family cemetery.”
“Then we go now.”
“You are eight months pregnant. My mother controls the gates and most of the security staff.”
“She also tried to poison my child.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“I will not risk you again.”
“You lost the right to make choices for me when you kept my identity secret.”
He flinched.
She did not soften.
“I am going to the cemetery. You can help me or try to stop me.”
Elena looked between them.
“There is a drainage gate beyond the cottage. It leads to the old road.”
They crossed the garden through a line of trees.
Adrian walked first, checking every turn. Isabella followed with Elena close behind.
They almost reached the drainage gate when a black vehicle stopped on the road beyond the wall.
The rear door opened.
Dr. Ross stepped out.
Isabella stopped.
The doctor looked exhausted and frightened, but unharmed.
“I was forced to disappear,” she said. “Margaret’s people intercepted the blood sample.”
“Did you see the results?” Isabella asked.
“Yes.”
“What was in my blood?”
Dr. Ross glanced at Adrian.
“The drug was not the only thing we found.”
“Tell me.”
“There is a genetic marker in your blood that cannot come from Catherine Vale’s known family line.”
Isabella stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the man listed in Margaret’s private records as your biological father cannot be your father.”
“Who is listed?”
Dr. Ross hesitated.
“Adrian’s father.”
No one spoke.
Then Elena whispered the question Isabella could not force herself to ask.
“If Adrian’s father was also Isabella’s father, would that make Adrian and Isabella related?”
May you like
Dr. Ross nodded.
“Yes.”
