Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN WATCHING
Julian asked Elena to sit down.
She refused.
“I know how this looks,” she said. “But I didn't come here to steal your money or take Noah away.”
“Then why didn't you tell me you were Lily's mother?”
“Because I didn't know if I could trust you.”
The honesty stung more than a lie.
Julian looked at the hospital record again.
“Why is your daughter using a different surname?”
“Bennett is her legal surname. Marlowe is mine. I kept my personal life separate from my work.”
“And the adoption papers?”
“Catherine helped arrange a temporary guardianship when Lily was an infant. I was barely twenty-one. I was working two jobs, and Lily had a heart condition. I couldn't afford the treatment she needed.”
Julian listened without interrupting.
“Catherine found a family willing to help. It was supposed to be temporary, but Margaret's attorneys became involved. The arrangement changed. I was told Lily would have better medical care if I stayed away.”
“You let another family raise your child?”
“I thought I was saving her life.”
Elena's voice cracked.
“Then Catherine found me again. She said the arrangement had been manipulated. She wanted to bring Lily home, but she needed evidence that the foundation had been paying for the girl's treatment through accounts no one had disclosed.”
Julian looked at Victoria.
“Did you know?”
Victoria nodded.
“I found the payments while reviewing the foundation's accounts. At first I thought they were ordinary charitable expenses. Then I discovered that the medical invoices had been altered.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Margaret said the records were confidential.”
“You believed her?”
Victoria looked down.
“I wanted to.”
The answer was not an excuse. It was a confession.
Julian turned back to Elena.
“Where is Lily now?”
“At St. Anne's. She was admitted last night.”
“What happened?”
“Her heart condition worsened. The doctors are monitoring her.”
Julian immediately reached for his phone.
“I'll arrange the best specialist in the country.”
“No.”
He stopped.
Elena looked directly at him.
“Don't turn her into another problem you can solve by spending money. She needs her mother. She needs stability. She needs people who won't make promises they can't keep.”
Julian lowered the phone.
For the first time in years, he recognized himself in someone else's criticism.
He had tried to buy his way out of helplessness.
It had never worked.
“Then tell me what she needs,” he said.
Elena's expression softened slightly.
“An honest answer about who she is.”
They went to St. Anne's that afternoon.
Julian arranged a private security detail but refused to allow his staff to crowd the hospital room. Elena entered first. He waited outside with Noah, giving the children time to meet without an audience.
Noah had carried his stuffed fox all the way from the mansion.
When Elena emerged, her eyes were wet.
“She wants to meet him.”
Julian took Noah's hand.
Inside, a little girl with dark curls sat propped against white pillows. She looked about six. A thin line from a medical monitor ran beneath her hospital gown.
When she saw Noah, she stared.
“Are you the boy from the pictures?”
Noah nodded.
Lily looked at the fox.
“Catherine said you liked that.”
Noah held it out.
Lily touched its worn ear.
Then she smiled.
“I had one like that.”
For the next several minutes, the children sat together without speaking. Lily showed Noah a small paper star she had folded from a hospital brochure. Noah placed it beside the fox.
Julian watched from the doorway.
He had expected a dramatic reunion, a rush of tears, an explanation that would make the past suddenly comprehensible.
Instead, he witnessed two children quietly deciding whether they felt safe with each other.
It was more moving than anything he could have arranged.
Then Lily looked at him.
“Are you Noah's daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grandma tell you I was dead?”
Julian felt his throat tighten.
“Yes.”
Lily considered that.
“Mommy said grown-ups sometimes lie because they're scared.”
He knelt beside the bed.
“She was right.”
Lily's expression grew serious.
“Then are you going to lie, too?”
“No,” he said. “I'm going to try very hard not to.”
She accepted the answer with a small nod.
That evening, Julian returned to the mansion with Noah and Elena. Victoria had agreed to cooperate with the investigation, and Margaret had been asked to remain away until the attorneys could determine what had happened.
Julian thought the worst was behind them.
He was wrong.
At 11:40 p.m., the security system sounded.
Someone had entered the property through the service gate.
The guards found no intruder, but the hidden office had been disturbed. Several documents were missing, including Catherine's original letter and the recording device.
Julian hurried downstairs.
The cabinet stood open.
A second envelope lay on the desk.
It contained a photograph of Catherine standing outside St. Anne's with a man Julian recognized immediately.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
On the back, Catherine had written:
He knows what happened the night I died.
Julian stared at the words.
He had believed the hospital's explanation of Catherine's death for two years. The medical records had described an unexpected complication. The attending physician had signed the report.
But the photograph had been taken only days before her death.
And Dr. Reed had never appeared in the official records.
Julian called his attorney.
“Find Samuel Reed. Tonight.”
His attorney hesitated.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“Dr. Reed died three months ago.”
Julian closed his eyes.
Then the attorney continued.
“His death certificate says he died in a private plane crash. But the foundation paid his estate almost four million dollars the week before he died.”
Julian looked toward the staircase.
Noah stood there in his pajamas.
He had heard everything.
“Daddy,” he whispered.
Julian turned.
Noah held out a small piece of paper.
It was a drawing of a plane.
Beneath it, in careful, uneven letters, was a name.
UNCLE DANIEL.
Julian's blood ran cold.
Daniel Cross, his younger brother, had been declared missing after the same plane crash.
May you like
But Julian had just seen a photograph of Daniel two weeks earlier.
At the foundation's annual gala.
