Chapter 3 - THE SECRET IN ISABEL’S ROOM
The next morning, Hannah broke the first rule Theresa had given her.
She entered the west wing.
Not because she was curious.
Because Lucas would not stop crying whenever Adrian disappeared.
And Adrian had disappeared behind the locked doors of his late wife’s rooms.
Hannah found him sitting on the floor beside Isabel’s bed.
The feared Adrian Vale looked strangely ordinary there.
A blue robe lay across his knees.
“I told Theresa nobody enters here.”
“I’m terrible with rules.”
“I noticed.”
Lucas whimpered.
Adrian lifted his head.
“He’s hungry?”
“No. He’s looking for you.”
Adrian stared at her as though the idea were absurd.
“He’s six weeks old.”
“He knows your voice.”
Hannah lowered Lucas into his father’s arms.
The crying stopped.
Adrian’s face changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Hannah saw the realization hit him: his son did not only need food.
He needed him.
While Adrian held Lucas, Hannah noticed something beneath the dressing table.
A white envelope.
“Is that yours?”
Adrian followed her gaze.
“No.”
The envelope had A written across the front.
Adrian opened it.
Inside was a letter from Isabel.
If anything happened to her, it said, Adrian must not trust the people who insisted her pregnancy complications had been unavoidable.
She had overheard a conversation.
Someone close to Adrian had been paying Dr. Marcus Voss, an obstetric consultant brought into her medical team during the final month.
Isabel had feared she was being poisoned.
Adrian read the final line twice.
Protect our son from your brother.
Hannah watched all warmth disappear from his face.
“Your brother?”
“Julian.”
“I didn’t know you had one.”
“Most people don’t.”
Julian Vale had left New York twelve years earlier after attempting to take control of the family shipping interests.
Adrian had spared his life because their mother begged him.
Now Adrian wondered whether mercy had killed Isabel.
By noon, the estate was preparing for war.
But Hannah refused to let Adrian disappear into vengeance.
“Find evidence first.”
“My wife named him.”
“Your wife expressed fear. That isn’t the same as proof.”
“You think Julian deserves the benefit of the doubt?”
“I think Lucas deserves a father who doesn’t walk into a trap because he’s angry.”
That stopped him.
Adrian looked at her for a long time.
“You’re the only person in this house who talks to me like that.”
“That explains why everyone looks constipated.”
He almost laughed.
Almost.
Adrian sent Marco to locate Dr. Voss.
Hannah returned to Lucas.
That evening, however, another secret arrived.
Her former boyfriend, Evan Cole, appeared at the gate.
Hannah had not seen him since the morning after Grace’s funeral, when she discovered he had emptied their savings account.
Adrian wanted him removed.
Hannah insisted on speaking to him.
They met outside the gate with two guards nearby.
Evan looked exhausted.
“Hannah, you need to leave.”
“You stole eleven thousand dollars from me.”
“I know.”
“My bakery is gone because of you.”
“I know.”
“My daughter died, and you disappeared.”
His face crumpled.
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I took the money because someone paid me.”
Hannah went still.
“What?”
Evan looked toward the estate.
“A man contacted me before Grace was born. He wanted information about you.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
“What information?”
“Your hospital. Your due date. Your blood type.”
Hannah stopped breathing.
Adrian stepped from behind the gate.
Evan turned white.
“You.”
Adrian approached slowly.
“Finish.”
Evan swallowed.
“They wanted women who had recently delivered. Women with compatible medical histories. I thought it was insurance fraud or something. I didn’t know there was a baby involved.”
Hannah felt sick.
“You sold information about me while I was pregnant?”
“I was in debt.”
“So you sold me?”
“Hannah—”
Adrian grabbed Evan by the collar.
Hannah had never seen violence arrive so quietly.
“Who paid you?”
“I don’t know his real name.”
Adrian tightened his grip.
“Try harder.”
“Julian!”
Everything stopped.
“He said his name was Julian.”
Adrian released him.
Evan collapsed against the gate.
Hannah’s thoughts raced.
Julian knew about her before Lucas was starving.
Before Isabel died.
Before Adrian entered the bakery.
Which meant their meeting might never have been an accident.
That night Marco returned with worse news.
Dr. Marcus Voss had been found.
Dead.
His body had been recovered from a burned vehicle in Queens.
But investigators found one surviving item beneath the passenger seat.
A hospital identification bracelet.
It belonged to Grace Brooks.
Hannah’s daughter.
Hannah stared at the tiny plastic band in Adrian’s hand.
“No.”
“Hannah—”
“No.”
She backed away.
Grace had died three weeks earlier.
Why would the doctor suspected of Isabel’s death possess her daughter’s bracelet?
Adrian reached for her.
She recoiled.
For the first time since entering his house, Hannah looked afraid of him.
“What did your family do to my baby?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I swear to you.”
“Your brother knew my medical records. A dead doctor had Grace’s bracelet. Lucas somehow refused every feeding until you walked into my bakery.”
Her voice cracked.
“What if none of this was chance?”
Adrian had no answer.
Hannah ran upstairs.
Lucas began crying before she reached the nursery.
She lifted him automatically.
His small body relaxed against hers.
And that made everything hurt worse.
She loved him.
Not as a replacement.
Not because she had forgotten Grace.
But because Lucas had quietly become Lucas.
Downstairs, Adrian stood over the evidence until Marco entered.
“There’s more.”
Adrian looked up.
Marco placed a security photograph on the desk.
It had been taken outside the hospital on the night Grace died.
Hannah was visible leaving through the emergency entrance, carried in a wheelchair.
Behind her stood Evan.
And twenty feet away, watching them from a parked car, was Julian Vale.
Adrian’s blood ran cold.
Julian had not discovered Hannah after Isabel died.
He had been watching her before.
May you like
Which left one terrifying question.
Why had Julian Vale been interested in Hannah Brooks’s baby before Lucas ever needed her?
