Chapter 4 - THE NAME ON THE WRONG BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Daniel ran into the corridor.
A door slammed below.
He raced down the stairs, Thomas close behind him. They burst into the courtyard in time to see a dark sedan tearing through the gate.
Samuel’s carrier was visible in the back seat.
Thomas grabbed Daniel’s shoulder before he could run after it.
“My car.”
They crossed the grass and climbed into Thomas’s pickup. Rachel and Margaret followed.
Daniel stared at Thomas. “Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t. But my truck is faster.”
They sped onto the highway.
Rachel called emergency services and reported a k/i/dnapping. This time, no one objected to involving the police. Evelyn had destroyed whatever illusion remained that the family could solve the crisis privately.
Thomas kept his eyes on the road.
“She planned this from the beginning,” he said.
“Your wife planned to steal a premature baby?” Daniel demanded.
“She wanted the trust.”
“You married her.”
“I believed she loved me.”
Margaret gave a bitter laugh from the back seat. “Now you know how blindness feels.”
Thomas looked at her through the mirror.
“Do not speak to me about love.”
The sedan disappeared around a curve.
Thomas accelerated.
Rachel studied the photograph Evelyn had left behind. “These babies aren’t identical.”
Daniel glanced back.
“They were newborns.”
“One has a mark near his left shoulder.”
Margaret went silent.
Rachel saw it. “Which baby had the mark?”
No answer.
“Margaret?”
“The child we kept.”
Daniel touched his left shoulder through his shirt.
There was no birthmark.
Thomas’s hand tightened on the steering wheel.
He pulled down his collar.
Near his left shoulder was a faded brown mark shaped like a crescent.
Margaret began crying.
Daniel felt every sound in the truck recede.
“Thomas was the baby you kept.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Thomas nearly lost control of the truck.
Daniel braced against the dashboard.
“Then who am I?”
Margaret sobbed. “You were supposed to be Thomas.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Your grandfather arranged the adoption before the birth. The healthier twin would remain. The weaker twin would be given away.”
Rachel stared at her in horror.
“You chose between newborn babies based on which one looked stronger?”
“I did not choose. Richard’s father did.”
Margaret continued, “The baby with the birthmark was stronger. The nurses placed his identification band with us. But that night, Richard switched the bands.”
Thomas’s face went pale.
“Why?”
“Because the smaller twin had stopped breathing twice. Richard knew his father would abandon him to strangers. He could not bear it.”
Daniel’s voice became a whisper.
“So Dad sent the healthier child away to save me.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked as though the road had vanished beneath him.
“All my life, I believed they chose Daniel because he was wanted more.”
Margaret reached toward him. “Richard chose Daniel because he feared Daniel would d/i/e without us.”
Thomas pulled away.
“And you let me hate him.”
“I could not admit what we had done.”
Daniel stared out at the road.
His father had not chosen one son over another.
He had tried, in a desperate and flawed act, to protect the weaker child.
Yet the lie had poisoned both brothers.
Ahead, police lights appeared near an intersection.
The sedan had struck a barrier. Its driver’s door stood open.
Samuel’s carrier was gone.
Daniel leaped from the truck.
An officer held up a hand. “Stay back.”
“My son was in that vehicle.”
The rear seat was empty except for a blue hospital blanket.
Rachel pressed it to her face.
“It’s his.”
A detective approached carrying Evelyn’s phone. “The driver escaped before we arrived. We found directions to a private airfield.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“She has a plane.”
Daniel turned. “You knew?”
“She used it for business trips.”
The officer ordered units toward the airfield.
Margaret looked at the phone. “Check her recent messages.”
The detective frowned. “Why?”
“Because Evelyn never works alone.”
A search revealed messages to a contact saved as R. MORGAN.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“My father is d/e/@/d.”
Margaret’s face drained of color.
Thomas took the phone.
The messages were short.
The baby has been released.
Bring him to the airfield.
The brothers must never learn the final amendment exists.
Daniel looked at Margaret.
“What final amendment?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Thomas opened the trust papers again. The last page referenced an attached codicil, but the codicil was missing.
“Richard Morgan,” Thomas whispered. “R. Morgan.”
Daniel’s mind raced.
“Could Dad be alive?”
Margaret’s knees nearly gave way.
“I saw his c/o/rpse.”
“Did you identify him?”
“The hospital did.”
“Were you in the room?”
She looked away.
Daniel understood.
His father’s funeral had been closed-casket after what Margaret described as complications from treatment. She had arranged everything.
Thomas searched Evelyn’s messages for photographs.
One showed an older man stepping from a black car at the airfield.
Daniel recognized the posture before the face.
His father.
Older, thinner, but alive.
Margaret sank onto the roadside.
“No.”
Thomas stared at the image of the man who had once sent him away.
“He planned all of this.”
Rachel gripped Daniel’s hand.
The detective received a radio update.
“The aircraft is still on the ground. Units are closing in.”
They returned to Thomas’s truck and followed the patrol cars.
At the private airfield, a small jet waited beside a hangar.
Evelyn stood near the stairs holding Samuel.
An elderly man faced her.
Richard Morgan.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Richard turned slowly.
His gaze moved from Daniel to Thomas.
“My sons,” he said.
Thomas stepped forward.
“Which one?”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“Both.”
Daniel pointed toward Samuel. “Give me my child.”
Evelyn held the baby closer.
Richard’s voice sharpened. “Evelyn, this has gone too far.”
She laughed. “You hired me to bring the twins together.”
“I did not hire you to steal a newborn.”
“You promised me control of the trust.”
“I promised payment for finding Thomas.”
“You promised more.”
Thomas looked between them.
“You knew she married me?”
Richard lowered his eyes.
“I encouraged it.”
The truth landed with brutal clarity.
Evelyn’s marriage to Thomas had been an assignment.
Thomas staggered backward.
Rachel took one careful step toward Evelyn. “Samuel needs his mother.”
Evelyn looked down at the baby. For the first time, uncertainty crossed her face.
Then Richard moved.
He reached for Samuel.
Evelyn pulled away.
A sharp crack split the air.
Everyone froze.
Evelyn held a small g/u/n aimed at Richard’s chest.
Daniel moved in front of Rachel.
Thomas raised his hands.
“Evelyn, put it down.”
“You were never supposed to find the codicil.”
“What does it say?”
“That neither twin inherits.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Daniel stared at him. “Then who does?”
Richard looked toward Samuel.
“The first grandchild.”
Evelyn smiled.
“And if Samuel becomes mine through legal guardianship, the trust becomes mine.”
Margaret stepped from behind the officers.
“No court will give him to you.”
Evelyn’s gaze sharpened.
“You signed the release.”
“I will testify that it was fraud.”
“You will testify to your own crimes?”
Margaret flinched.
Evelyn continued, “Forced exercise. Concealment of a premature birth. Fraudulent guardianship. You would lose everything.”
Margaret looked at Rachel.
For the first time, she did not defend herself.
“I should.”
Then she walked toward Evelyn.
“Stop,” Daniel warned.
Margaret kept moving.
“I spent my life sacrificing people to protect money. First Thomas. Then Rachel. Then Samuel. No more.”
Evelyn aimed the g/u/n at her.
Margaret did not stop.
The officers shouted.
A shot exploded across the runway.
Rachel screamed.
May you like
Samuel began to cry.
And Margaret fell.
