Chapter 7 - RACHEL RETURNS
Emily refused to believe me until she saw the photograph.
Then she sat down so abruptly the hospital chair scraped across the floor.
“That’s her.”
Four years of grief passed across her face at once.
“She’s alive.”
Caleb was sleeping after surgery.
Emily pressed the tablet against her chest.
“My God.”
Then anger appeared.
“Why didn’t she come home?”
“We don’t know.”
“She knew Caleb needed her.”
“We don’t know what happened.”
“She let me raise him thinking she was dead.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
She stood.
“Don’t defend her.”
“I’m not.”
“She was alive.”
Her voice broke.
“She was alive while I sat beside Caleb after every surgery.”
I understood.
Finding someone alive does not erase abandonment.
Sometimes it creates an entirely new wound.
The traffic camera was in Savannah, Georgia.
Victoria’s SUV had traveled south.
Marcus identified the vehicle as a rental purchased under a false name linked to one of Margaret’s assistants.
Federal agents tracked it.
At 8:40 a.m., they found it abandoned near Jacksonville.
A bus station camera showed three figures boarding a coach south.
Victoria.
Rachel.
Sophie.
Destination: Miami.
“Why would Rachel help Victoria?” Emily asked.
I had the same question.
Unless she wasn’t helping.
Unless she was protecting Sophie.
At noon, my phone rang from an unknown Florida number.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then:
“Daniel Cole?”
A woman.
“Yes.”
“This is Rachel Bennett.”
Emily grabbed my arm.
I activated speaker.
Emily whispered, “Rachel?”
Silence.
“Emily?”
The sound Emily made was half sob, half gasp.
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“Emily—”
“Four years.”
“I know.”
“Four years!”
“I couldn’t come back.”
“You could have called.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they were watching you.”
“Who?”
“Margaret.”
I looked at Marcus.
Rachel continued.
“She threatened Caleb. Every time I tried to contact you, someone appeared near his school or your apartment.”
Emily covered her face.
“Why are you with Victoria?”
“I’m not with her.”
“Camera says otherwise.”
“Victoria found me three months ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?”
“Arthur.”
“Why?”
“Because Sophie’s existence was about to be discovered.”
“By whom?”
“Daniel.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Your company acquisition.”
I frowned.
Cole Capital had acquired a regional insurance analytics company three months earlier.
Rachel explained.
“The company processed hospital insurance records. Old Saint Catherine records were going to become part of a compliance audit.”
Someone had realized Sophie’s false record could surface.
“Margaret panicked,” Rachel said. “Arthur contacted me first.”
“Why?”
“To move Sophie.”
“From the Harrisons?”
“Yes.”
“Did they know?”
“No.”
I clenched my jaw.
“You were planning to kidnap her again.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“By taking her from the only parents she knows?”
Rachel went quiet.
“You’re right.”
That surprised me.
“I made mistakes.”
“Where is Sophie now?”
“With Victoria.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily said, “You were beside her.”
“She abandoned me at the bus station.”
“Why were you traveling with her?”
“Because she found me outside the Harrisons’ house.”
The story came quickly now.
Victoria had grabbed Sophie from dance class.
Rachel had been following Victoria.
She intercepted her before the airfield.
But Margaret arrived.
Rachel entered the vehicle voluntarily because Sophie was terrified.
On the plane, Rachel convinced Victoria that Margaret intended to sacrifice Victoria legally if they were caught.
That caused a fight.
Victoria forced the plane down in Charleston.
Margaret refused to leave.
Victoria took Sophie.
Rachel went with her.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Victoria started talking about disappearing permanently.”
“With Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t even know Sophie.”
“She doesn’t care.”
Rachel’s voice trembled.
“She thinks having Sophie proves she isn’t a bad mother.”
My stomach turned.
“Where would she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You spent hours with her.”
“She mentioned one place.”
“What?”
“Key Largo.”
Marcus immediately started typing.
“Anything specific?”
“She said there was a house where nobody would find her.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
A pause.
Then Rachel whispered:
“Daniel, there’s something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“Arthur is not Sophie’s father.”
I stopped.
Emily stared at the phone.
“What?”
“He thinks he is.”
“DNA?”
“Victoria altered the report.”
“Why?”
“To control him.”
I remembered the document.
Fetus C excluded me.
But it never named Arthur.
“Then who is the father?”
Rachel exhaled.
“That’s why Margaret wanted everything buried.”
“Who?”
“Victoria was seeing two men.”
My stomach tightened.
“Arthur and who?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Your brother.”
I went completely still.
Nathan Cole.
My younger brother.
The man who had stood beside me as best man at my wedding.
The man who died in a boating accident three weeks before the twins were born.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“She was having an affair with Nathan.”
My knees weakened.
“That’s impossible.”
“Daniel.”
“He hated Victoria.”
“That was the story they told you.”
I remembered their arguments.
Their sarcasm.
Nathan warning me she was manipulative.
Victoria complaining Nathan disrespected her.
Had it all been camouflage?
Rachel continued.
“Victoria didn’t know which man fathered Sophie.”
“So she tested the baby.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Rachel went quiet again.
“The full report is hidden at the old Saint Catherine records facility.”
“Who’s the father?”
“I never saw the final page.”
I nearly threw the phone.
“Rachel.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Then why did Margaret care so much?”
“Because if Nathan was Sophie’s father, Sophie had inheritance rights.”
My mind raced.
Nathan had died unmarried.
No children.
His trust named his descendants as beneficiaries.
If Sophie was his daughter…
She could control assets worth hundreds of millions.
This wasn’t only about scandal.
It was about inheritance.
Margaret’s letters suddenly made sense.
Victoria’s desperation.
Arthur’s involvement.
Sophie had been erased because she was dangerous to too many people for different reasons.
Then Marcus’s computer chimed.
A property search result.
He turned the screen toward me.
Key Largo.
Waterfront residence.
Purchased through an LLC.
Beneficial owner:
Nathan Cole.
May you like
My dead brother owned a hidden house in Florida.
And according to toll cameras, Victoria was heading straight toward it.
