Chapter 5 - Bloodlines
I did not open the door.
Ethan stayed on the other side, breathing hard.
Maya stood beside me, arms folded.
“Ask him the child’s name,” she whispered.
I did.
“Lillian,” Ethan said.
Nora sat down abruptly.
The answer changed the shape of everything.
“What exactly did the woman tell you?” I asked.
“That Evelyn took Rose’s baby after Rose disappeared.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense.”
“She said Evelyn arranged an adoption. Changed records. Hid the child.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe you raced across town with a forged power of attorney because a stranger told you a story?”
The silence lasted too long.
“Ethan.”
“She’s not a stranger.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course she wasn’t.
Maya mouthed, Who?
I asked.
Ethan answered so quietly I nearly missed it.
“Her name is Lily Mercer.”
Nora looked sick.
“How long have you known her?”
“Five years.”
My eyes snapped open.
Five years.
Before our marriage.
“Who is she to you?”
“Claire—”
“Who?”
“My mother’s financial adviser.”
Maya actually laughed.
“Financial adviser?”
I repeated it.
“Yes.”
“The woman who told you last night to ‘finish the transfer’ is a financial adviser?”
Another pause.
“She handles complicated things.”
“So do hit men.”
“Stop.”
“No. You stop. You lied about knowing my mother. You lied about the house. You tried to use a forged power of attorney to access her records. And now you want me to trust you?”
“I didn’t forge it.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then leave.”
“Claire, Lily says the house is connected to something bigger.”
“Everything is always bigger when you get caught.”
He slammed his hand against the door.
“I came here to warn you!”
“Then warn me.”
His voice dropped.
“Don’t trust Nora.”
Nora flinched.
I turned slowly.
Maya’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?” I asked.
Ethan said, “Because Lily claims Nora was the last person to see Rose before she vanished.”
Nora stood.
“That is not true.”
Ethan heard her.
“You’re in there?”
“Yes, you coward.”
“She’s lying, Claire.”
Nora moved toward the door.
“I saw Rose the week before she disappeared, not the day she disappeared.”
Ethan replied, “Lily has a police statement with your name on it.”
“Then it’s forged.”
“Everything’s forged when you don’t like it, huh?”
Maya leaned toward the door.
“Ethan, this is Maya Chen. Your lawyer should tell you to stop talking.”
A different male voice answered.
“He already has.”
Julian Cross.
Smooth. Calm. Expensive.
“Ms. Chen,” he said, “perhaps we should all speak civilly.”
Maya smiled. “Your client assaulted mine last night.”
“I represent Mrs. Patricia Caldwell.”
That surprised all of us.
I looked at Maya.
She lifted one eyebrow.
“Then where is Ethan’s lawyer?” I asked.
Ethan said nothing.
Julian answered.
“Mr. Caldwell is currently unrepresented.”
That told me Patricia had retained one of the best litigators in the city for herself and left her son exposed.
Interesting.
Maya opened the door three inches, security latch still engaged.
I could see Ethan’s eye through the gap.
Julian stood behind him in a charcoal suit.
“Mr. Cross,” Maya said. “Produce your client’s authority for the box.”
“I believe Mr. Caldwell produced it.”
“Forgery isn’t authority.”
“That allegation remains unproven.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
Julian smiled.
“Still you.”
“Still me.”
I closed the door.
Nora stared at the floor.
“Claire, I need to tell you something.”
“That would be a refreshing change.”
She winced.
“I did see Rose shortly before she disappeared.”
“How shortly?”
“Two days.”
I felt anger rise.
“You told me a week.”
“I panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised Evelyn I would never discuss that night.”
“What night?”
Nora sat again.
“Rose came to Evelyn’s office with the baby.”
“Lillian?”
“Yes.”
“She was terrified. She said someone was following her.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t say. She begged Evelyn to take the child for one night.”
“And my mother did?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Rose?”
“She left.”
“And never came back?”
“Not exactly.”
My heartbeat quickened.
Nora looked at the archive door as if expecting someone to break through it.
“Three weeks later, Evelyn received a postcard.”
“From Rose?”
“It used a private phrase only they knew.”
“So she was alive.”
“At least then.”
“And the baby?”
“Evelyn arranged temporary foster care under another name. Then Rose sent another message telling Evelyn to make it permanent.”
“Why?”
“Because Rose believed the people looking for her would use the child.”
“What people?”
Nora shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Where was Richard?”
“He had married Patricia by then.”
“And did he know Rose had given birth?”
“I don’t think so.”
I looked at the birth certificate again.
A daughter.
Lillian Rose Wren.
The red-coated woman.
Lily Mercer.
Potentially my cousin. Potentially Ethan’s half-sister.
Potentially the person behind the theft of my identity.
I opened the last envelope.
Inside was a DNA laboratory report.
The names were redacted.
Two samples.
Probability of half-sibling relationship: 99.87%.
Maya leaned over my shoulder.
“Half-siblings.”
“Who?”
Nora stared at the report.
“I don’t know.”
There was a handwritten note clipped to it.
Ask Richard why he lied.
I felt the hair rise on my arms.
Richard had died three years ago.
Or so I had been told.
He suffered a stroke, declined for months, and died at home.
I had helped care for him.
I had held his hand the night his breathing stopped.
I had signed paperwork as a witness.
Hadn’t I?
A memory came back.
Patricia insisting the funeral be closed casket.
Ethan saying his father wanted privacy.
My mother-in-law refusing to let me attend the cremation appointment because “family only.”
Family.
I suddenly felt nauseated.
“Maya.”
“What?”
“Pull Richard Caldwell’s death certificate.”
“I can get a copy.”
“Now.”
She opened her laptop.
The archive Wi-Fi was secured, but she connected through her firm’s system.
Two minutes later, the public death index appeared.
She typed.
Then frowned.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
She tried a variation.
Then another.
“Maybe the database is delayed.”
“For three years?”
Her fingers moved faster.
Nora stood behind us.
Finally Maya found an obituary.
Richard Caldwell, respected founder of Caldwell Medical Supply, passed peacefully at home.
But an obituary was not a death certificate.
“Search county records,” I said.
She did.
No certificate.
No probate file.
No cremation permit.
Nothing.
My blood ran cold.
The man I had watched die had apparently left no legal trace of death.
The pounding outside stopped.
A moment later Mr. Vale entered through the staff door.
“Mrs. Caldwell, you have another visitor.”
“Who?”
He looked unsettled.
“A gentleman who says he is your father-in-law.”
The room went dead silent.
“That’s impossible.”
Vale swallowed.
“He anticipated you would say that.”
He handed me a note.
The handwriting was shaky but familiar.
Claire, Patricia lied. I am alive. Do not let Ethan leave with Lily.
I stared at the words.
Then at the locked door behind which my husband had been standing minutes ago.
Maya checked the hallway monitor.
Her face tightened.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“Ethan’s gone.”
May you like
“And Lily?”
“She’s with him.”
