Chapter 14 - The Last Lie in the FamilyFor one unbearable second, I believed Michael was dead.
Then he rolled onto his side and pressed a hand against his shoulder. Blood darkened his shirt, but he was conscious.
Aaron stared at him, breathing hard.
“You should have stayed away.”
Michael gritted his teeth.
“You should have asked why our father wanted us separated.”
Aaron's face changed.
“Don't call him that.”
“Edward was your father, too.”
“No. James was the only man who ever cared whether I lived or died.”
“James used you.”
“He gave me a purpose.”
“He gave you a target.”
The argument bought me a moment.
I lunged toward Lily.
Aaron swung the pistol in my direction. I stopped immediately, keeping myself between him and my daughter.
“Don't make this worse,” I said.
He laughed.
“Worse? Your family erased me. They gave Michael a real name, a real childhood, and a chance to become someone. I got lies.”
“You could have chosen a different life.”
“When? After James told me Michael would inherit everything? After Richard promised to share the company and then tried to cut me out?”
His voice rose.
“Every person in this family takes what they want and calls it destiny.”
The irony was almost unbearable.
Aaron had destroyed lives because he believed he had been denied one.
I looked at the gun.
Then at Lily.
Then at the recording device hidden beneath my jacket.
Victoria's device was still running.
“Claire knew about you,” I said.
Aaron went still.
“She knew about the twins. She knew James was using you. She was going to expose the truth without hurting either of you.”
“Liar.”
“She contacted Michael because she wanted to help him find you.”
Aaron's grip tightened.
“Then why didn't she come to me?”
“Because James had convinced you she was your enemy.”
For the first time, uncertainty flickered across his face.
I pressed the advantage.
“Claire was trying to give you both a choice. She had the original birth records, the financial ledger, and evidence of the adoption fraud. She wanted to stop this before it destroyed any more lives.”
“She should have stayed out of it.”
“She was trying to save you.”
Aaron's eyes grew wet, but the pistol remained steady.
“Don't pretend you know what she wanted.”
“I know she died trying to protect her child.”
I glanced at Lily.
“And I know my daughter has spent two years missing her mother. She still kisses Claire's photograph every night. She still believes that if she's good enough, she might somehow bring her back.”
Lily clutched the blanket.
“Daddy…”
I looked at Aaron again.
“You can make sure Lily never forgets tonight as the night another person tried to hurt her. Or you can put the gun down and give her one memory that doesn't end in terror.”
Aaron's hand trembled.
Then a voice rang through the chapel entrance.
“Don't listen to him!”
James stood in the doorway, two armed men beside him.
His face was bruised, and one sleeve of his coat was torn. Somehow, he had escaped police custody.
“You know what happens if you surrender,” James told Aaron. “They'll lock you away. They'll turn you into the monster they already believe you are.”
Aaron looked at him.
“You said the money was mine.”
“It will be.”
“You said Michael would be dead.”
“I can still make that happen.”
Michael slowly rose onto one knee.
“Listen to him. That's all he's ever done. Promise you a future, then threaten to destroy you if you stop obeying.”
James pointed his weapon at Michael.
“Shut up.”
Aaron turned toward him.
“You told me Edward left us nothing.”
James hesitated.
“You were owed something.”
“How much?”
“What?”
“How much money did you steal from the trust?”
James's face hardened.
“Enough to give you a life.”
Aaron looked at Lily, then at the sealed envelope lying near his foot.
His pistol lowered by a fraction.
James saw it.
“Don't you dare.”
Aaron turned.
“You stole from your own family and blamed the child.”
James raised his weapon.
The next few seconds happened too quickly to understand.
Michael tackled Aaron's arm. I pulled Lily behind the altar. A shot struck the stone wall. One of James's men shouted, and the chapel erupted into confusion.
Then police flooded through the side entrance.
Victoria's recording had transmitted a live location to the detective. They had been tracking us from the moment I entered the chapel.
James was tackled near the doorway.
Aaron dropped his gun.
Michael collapsed against the altar, clutching his wounded shoulder.
And Lily ran into my arms.
I held her so tightly she protested, then buried her face against my neck.
“It's over, Daddy?”
I kissed her hair.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
For the first time since the nightmare began, I believed it.
But the detective approached with a final document in her hand.
“Mr. Whitmore, we've recovered a second envelope from James's belongings. It appears your father wrote it shortly before his death.”
I looked at the handwriting.
Edward Whitmore.
The detective handed it to me.
Inside was a single page.
To Daniel, my eldest legitimate son.
If you have reached this letter, then both of my hidden sons are known to you. There is one final truth I failed to tell you.
I read the next sentence.
Then I stopped breathing.
The person who helped Claire discover the conspiracy was not Victoria, Michael, or even Richard.
It was your mother.
At the bottom of the page was a name I had never expected to see connected to the crime.
My mother's.
Margaret Whitmore.
May you like
And beneath it, in my father's handwriting, were six devastating words.
SHE DID NOT DIE OF NATURAL CAUSES.
