Chapter 4 - the final words of a dying mother
Mrs. Greer locked the library door behind her.
Her hands shook as she placed the recorder on the table.
Adrian did not touch it.
For years, Lydia’s final hours had lived inside him as a blur of white walls, harsh lights, and doctors who would not meet his eyes.
He remembered holding her hand.
He remembered being told she was too weak to speak.
He remembered Celeste standing behind him, promising to care for the child if Lydia did not survive.
He had never been told that Lydia regained consciousness.
“You were there?” Adrian asked.
Mrs. Greer nodded. “Only for a few minutes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Her gaze dropped.
“Dr. Keene said grief had confused her. Celeste said repeating Lydia’s words would destroy you. Then she showed me photographs of my grandson leaving school.”
Nora’s expression hardened. “She threatened your family.”
“Not directly. She did not need to.”
Mrs. Greer pressed the button on the recorder.
Static filled the library.
Then a woman’s weak voice emerged.
Adrian closed his eyes.
It was Lydia.
“Margaret… listen to me.”
Mrs. Greer’s younger voice answered from the recording. “I’m here.”
“The baby they brought me is not mine.”
“Mrs. Vale, you have been through a difficult delivery.”
“His ear. Look behind his ear.”
Adrian’s eyes opened.
“The mark,” he whispered.
On the recording, Lydia struggled to breathe.
“My baby did not have that mark. I saw him when he was born. Celeste took my bracelet. She changed something.”
A man entered the room.
Dr. Keene.
His voice was unmistakable.
“Mrs. Greer, you should leave.”
“Doctor, she says the child is not hers.”
“The medication is causing confusion.”
Lydia spoke again, louder despite her weakness.
“Find the other mother.”
Then the recording ended.
No one moved.
Oliver shifted in his sleep but did not wake.
Adrian stood and walked to the window. Rain struck the glass in thin silver lines.
“I held him that night,” he said. “I promised Lydia I would protect him.”
“You did protect him,” Nora replied.
“I never asked whether he was mine.”
“You had no reason to.”
“I had Lydia’s warning.”
“You were never given Lydia’s warning.”
Adrian turned toward Mrs. Greer. “Why keep the recording?”
“Because it was the only proof I had that I wasn’t imagining what happened. I hid it. Celeste searched my room twice, but she never found it.”
“Why bring it out now?”
Mrs. Greer looked toward Oliver.
“Because tonight he called the right woman Mommy.”
The words settled heavily between them.
Adrian returned to the table and opened the medical file again.
“Dr. Keene is scheduled to attend a charity event in Paris tomorrow.”
Nora understood immediately. “He is leaving.”
Adrian called his security director.
“Find Dr. Lawrence Keene. Do not confront him. Give his location to Detective Chen.”
He ended the call and looked at Nora.
“At eight in the morning, we go to the bank.”
Mrs. Greer stepped closer. “You must not warn Edwin Price.”
Adrian stared at her. “Why would I warn my attorney?”
“Because he is the man who signed the access order.”
The library seemed to grow colder.
Edwin Price had been Adrian’s father’s attorney before becoming general counsel for Vale Global.
He had drafted Adrian’s marriage agreement with Celeste.
He controlled the family trusts.
He had also managed the probate process after Lydia’s death.
“Are you certain?” Adrian asked.
“I saw his name on the bank document when Celeste left it in the study. I did not understand what it meant then.”
Adrian’s phone vibrated.
His security director had sent an image from the mansion’s exterior camera.
A dark sedan was parked beyond the closed gates.
The license plate was hidden.
A figure stood beside it, watching the house.
When Adrian enlarged the image, the person turned away from the camera.
Nora leaned closer.
The figure wore a dark coat and a gray scarf.
Nothing about the clothing was unusual.
But the right hand gripping the car door was missing the tip of its smallest finger.
Nora stopped breathing.
Samuel had lost the same part of his finger in a factory accident when he was nineteen.
“That’s impossible,” she whispered.
Adrian looked at her. “You recognize him?”
Nora was already moving toward the library door.
Adrian caught her wrist gently.
“The gates are locked.”
“That could be my husband.”
“Your husband died six years ago.”
“They never identified his body.”
By the time security reached the road, the sedan was gone.
It left no tire marks that the rain had not already begun washing away.
The only thing found beside the gate was a scorched metal token.
Nora recognized it as half of a broken coin.
On the day she married Samuel, they had split an old silver dollar and worn the pieces on chains beneath their clothes.
Her half remained in a box at the apartment she no longer used.
Samuel’s half had never been recovered from the fire.
Adrian placed the scorched token in an evidence bag.
On its reverse side, someone had carved three numbers.
4.
5.
May you like
6.
The number of the safe-deposit box.
