Chapter 4
David couldn’t speak for nearly a minute.
“My father wasn’t my father.”
Natalie looked equally shattered.
“And Michael is Dad’s biological son.”
I stared at the two DNA reports.
The implications were almost impossible to process.
Robert had raised Michael.
Henry had raised David.
Each man had apparently known.
Why?
Detective Collins continued searching.
He found an old legal memorandum explaining part of it.
The Mitchell-Walker partnership contained an unusual inheritance clause.
If either founder died, company voting rights would eventually pass to the first biological grandchild descending through his eldest biological son.
David read the clause twice.
Then looked at me.
“Robert was my biological father.”
“Yes.”
“You and I have the same biological father?”
The room went silent.
My stomach turned.
“No.”
Collins reached for another document.
“Not necessarily.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He showed me my own birth certificate.
Robert Mitchell was listed as my father.
But attached behind it was an unsigned paternity report.
Robert excluded.
I felt the air leave my lungs.
“My entire childhood…”
Collins spoke carefully.
“These documents indicate Robert may not have been your biological father.”
David sat down hard.
Relief hit first.
Then guilt for feeling relieved.
Then anger.
Everyone had lied.
Natalie kept reading.
“If Robert was David’s biological father, then Lily is Robert’s biological granddaughter through David.”
Exactly.
That meant Lily satisfied the trust condition.
The money had not been created specifically for her.
It was tied to Robert’s family line.
Evelyn believed that because she had raised David, the trust somehow belonged to her side.
But legally, it belonged to Lily.
I looked at the investigator.
“And Michael?”
“As Henry’s biological son, Michael may have inherited different assets.”
“Which ones?”
Collins found them.
The missing half of the Walker development properties.
Current value:
Nearly nine million dollars.
My chest tightened.
“Michael has been trying to steal Lily’s three million while he may already be entitled to nine?”
“Maybe he doesn’t know.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He knew enough to help poison my daughter.”
Collins’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression quickly changed.
“What happened?”
He looked at me.
“Michael wants to cooperate.”
I felt nothing.
“What does he want?”
“A deal.”
“Of course.”
Michael had spent his life believing charm could repair anything.
When we were children, he broke windows and convinced me to take blame.
As adults, he borrowed money and forgot repayment.
Now he had helped put Lily in the ER.
There would be no charming his way through this.
“What is he offering?”
“Information about Evelyn.”
David frowned.
“What information?”
Collins hesitated.
“Michael says Evelyn didn’t intend for Lily to survive the reaction.”
My blood turned cold.
David stood.
“What?”
“He claims the original plan was to create a medical emergency severe enough to establish negligence.”
“That’s already monstrous.”
Collins nodded.
“But according to Michael, Evelyn changed the dessert dose without telling him.”
My hands began shaking.
“She tried to kill my daughter?”
“We don’t know.”
“I know what an allergy can do.”
Lily could have died.
The room spun.
Then Collins added, “Michael says Evelyn wanted Lily gone because the trust has a secondary beneficiary.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
He looked at David.
“If Lily dies before adulthood, the trust passes to Robert Mitchell’s next qualifying biological descendant.”
David went pale.
“Who is that?”
Collins turned the document.
A name had been handwritten beside the clause.
EMILY WALKER.
I frowned.
“I don’t know any Emily Walker.”
Natalie whispered, “I do.”
We turned toward her.
She looked terrified.
“Emily Walker is Mom’s daughter.”
David stared at his sister.
“You’re Mom’s daughter.”
Natalie shook her head.
“No.”
“Her other daughter.”
The room became silent.
“She gave birth to Emily before she married Dad.”
David whispered, “Where is she?”
Natalie swallowed.
May you like
“Mom told me she died.”
After everything we had discovered, none of us believed that anymore.
