Chapter 4 - The Man in the PhotographDaniel took me out through a side corridor before Margaret could say another word.
Lily held my hand tightly.
Neither of us spoke.
The music had stopped.
The party was over.
At least for everyone who had just learned that millions of dollars were hiding behind one seven-year-old girl's DNA.
We entered a private office.
Daniel closed the door.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
He looked at Lily.
“Not in front of her.”
I knelt.
“Sweetheart, can you wait in the hall with Mrs. Wilson?”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
“Lily…”
“I don't want to be alone.”
The words broke something in me.
I pulled her close.
“Okay.”
Daniel sighed.
“Then I'll tell you both what I know.”
He placed an old photograph on the desk.
I stared at it.
It showed my father.
Margaret.
And another man.
I didn't recognize him.
He was young, handsome, and standing far too close to Margaret.
“Who is he?”
Daniel said:
“Jonathan Vale.”
The name meant nothing.
But Lily stared at the photograph.
Then she whispered:
“That's him.”
I turned.
“What?”
Lily pointed.
“I've seen him.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“At Grandma's house.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“When?”
“Sometimes.”
Lily frowned.
“He's in a picture upstairs.”
I looked at Daniel.
He closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
“What?”
“Margaret kept one photograph.”
“Why?”
“Because she couldn't destroy every copy.”
Daniel turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
The first heir.
I felt dizzy.
“The first heir to what?”
Daniel answered quietly.
“The family.”
Before he could explain, we heard footsteps outside.
The door opened.
Margaret stood there.
She was no longer wearing her smile.
“Give me the photograph.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“No.”
She entered.
“This doesn't concern the child.”
I moved Lily behind me.
“It concerns her more than anyone.”
Margaret looked at Daniel.
“You promised.”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“I promised your brother.”
Margaret flinched.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Not you.”
A long silence followed.
Then Margaret said:
“Jonathan was supposed to inherit.”
“Until he disappeared.”
She looked at me.
“He didn't disappear.”
My heart pounded.
“What do you mean?”
Margaret's eyes filled with something I had never seen in them before.
Fear.
“He was murdered.”
Silence.
Daniel closed the door.
“Margaret.”
“He was murdered,” she repeated.
“By whom?”
She looked at me.
“Your father.”
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
“He killed Jonathan.”
“Why?”
“Because Jonathan was Lily's biological grandfather.”
I stared at her.
Then I looked at Lily.
My daughter looked confused.
Daniel spoke slowly.
“There's more.”
He opened the folder.
“Jonathan was your mother's first husband.”
My heart shattered.
My mother.
The woman I had been told died before I was old enough to remember her.
A woman Margaret always described as unstable.
A woman nobody wanted to discuss.
“That's impossible.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“It's documented.”
I shook my head.
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because your mother changed her name after leaving Jonathan.”
I stared at the photograph again.
The man beside Margaret wasn't just a stranger.
He was the man my mother had once loved.
The man connected to my family.
The man whose disappearance had changed the inheritance structure forever.
Then Daniel found another document.
His expression changed.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
He looked at Lily.
“The DNA test isn't simply proving Lily's connection.”
He turned the paper toward me.
“It identifies the descendants of Jonathan Vale.”
I read the result.
Then read it again.
My hands went numb.
Because the name listed in the chain of genetic markers wasn't mine.
It wasn't Lily's.
It was someone else's.
Someone alive.
Someone living in the same city.
Someone who had been invited to Margaret's party that night.
I looked at the guest list.
One name stood out.
May you like
And I knew instantly who it was.
My husband.
