Chapter 6 - DANIEL REEVES“Who is he?”
Brandon remained silent.
“Tell me.”
“He was a friend.”
“A friend?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you pay him eighteen thousand dollars?”
“I didn't.”
“The bank records say you did.”
Brandon looked at the report again.
Then his expression changed.
“I didn't know about that payment.”
My suspicion returned.
“Then who did?”
He didn't answer.
I contacted the forensic accountant.
He traced the payment.
“Your husband's account sent the money,” he said.
“But?”
“But the receiving account doesn't belong to Daniel Reeves.”
My stomach tightened.
“Whose account?”
“A trust.”
“Whose trust?”
He hesitated.
“Margaret Carter.”
My mother-in-law.
Again.
Everything seemed to lead back to her.
I asked him to investigate every transfer connected to Margaret.
Twenty minutes later, he called.
“Emily, you need to hear this.”
I put him on speaker.
“Your husband wasn't funding an affair.”
“Then what was he funding?”
“A legal trust.”
“For what?”
“The name on the trust is Reeves Family Medical.”
I froze.
Reeves.
Daniel Reeves.
“Who is Daniel?”
The accountant pulled up a corporate record.
“He's a physician.”
“What kind?”
“Genetic specialist.”
I looked at Brandon.
“You knew a genetic specialist.”
Brandon rubbed his face.
“My mother introduced us.”
“Why?”
“She said he could fix the problem.”
“What problem?”
“The fertility records.”
I felt dizzy.
“Your mother paid a genetic specialist to manipulate medical records?”
“I'm not sure.”
“But you paid eighteen thousand dollars.”
“I didn't know what she was doing.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
He didn't respond.
Then the accountant spoke again.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“There was a second payment.”
“How much?”
“Thirty-five thousand.”
“To Daniel?”
“No.”
“To the fertility clinic.”
I stared at Brandon.
“What happened at the clinic?”
He swallowed.
“Nothing.”
“Brandon.”
He looked exhausted.
“The day the twins were born, one of the babies had an abnormal blood test.”
“What kind?”
“A genetic marker.”
I felt my hands go cold.
“What marker?”
He looked at me.
“An inherited condition.”
“From you?”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“Then from who?”
He didn't answer.
I remembered the document.
The medical authorization.
The account.
The secret.
Then a terrible thought entered my mind.
“What if your mother didn't want Lily?”
Brandon frowned.
“What?”
“What if she wanted to know which baby wasn't biologically related to you?”
His face went blank.
“She needed the DNA.”
I continued.
“She wanted proof.”
He stood slowly.
“Proof of what?”
“That one of our daughters belongs to someone else.”
Silence.
Then Brandon whispered,
“My mother knew before we did.”
Suddenly, someone knocked on the hotel door.
We both froze.
Another knock.
Then a woman's voice.
“Emily?”
Margaret.
I looked at Brandon.
He shook his head.
“Don't open it.”
The handle moved.
Margaret spoke again.
“You need to listen to me.”
May you like
Then she said something that made Brandon lose all color in his face.
“Because Daniel Reeves is dead.”
