Chapter 12 - My Mother Pressed the Button
I could not speak.
Sarah did not try to soften it.
“I triggered the explosion.”
“You killed him.”
“I thought he was already off the yacht.”
“You pressed the button.”
“Yes.”
I stepped away from her.
“Why?”
“Because Reed’s men boarded the harbor patrol boat. They were heading toward Mara.”
I stopped.
Sarah explained that Thomas’s plan depended on everyone believing I died in the blast. Mara had been waiting outside the main shipping lane to retrieve me.
But after my father threw me overboard, one of Reed’s men saw movement in the water.
A patrol boat turned toward me.
“The explosion was supposed to pull them back,” Sarah said. “Thomas radioed me. He said, ‘Do it now.’”
“You heard his voice?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew he was still aboard?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“I asked him.”
“What did he say?”
Sarah’s face collapsed.
“He said, ‘Emily first.’”
I turned away.
Twenty-three years earlier, my father had looked at me and said forgive me.
Now I finally understood who he was apologizing to.
Not the child he threw away.
The child he chose over himself.
I cried then.
Not quietly.
Not gracefully.
Sarah stood behind me but did not touch me.
When I could breathe again, I asked, “Who is Reed working for?”
“We never proved it.”
“Evelyn says my grandfather.”
“William Carter was cruel, but he died.”
“You’re sure?”
“I saw the body.”
“So did Evelyn.”
Sarah wiped her face.
“Bodies can be made to look convincing. Reed taught us that.”
My phone buzzed.
Julian sent an address.
An abandoned cliff house north of Santa Barbara.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THOMAS’S ORIGINAL FILES.
Sarah grabbed my wrist.
“No.”
“He says he has Dad’s files.”
“He also lied to Thomas for years.”
“And you killed Dad.”
She flinched.
I hated myself for saying it.
But it was true.
I drove to the cliff house alone.
Julian waited inside with a steel case.
No guards.
No gun that I could see.
He opened the case.
Original ledgers.
Medical records.
Photographs.
And one sealed DNA report.
“I spent twenty-three years trying to prove Reed manipulated this family,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas called me from the yacht before he died.”
“What did he say?”
Julian looked at me.
“He said, ‘Protect my daughter from our father.’”
I stared at him.
“Our father was dead.”
Julian handed me the DNA report.
“No.”
My hands trembled as I opened it.
PATERNITY EXCLUSION: WILLIAM CARTER IS NOT THE BIOLOGICAL FATHER OF THOMAS CARTER.
I looked up.
Julian whispered:
“Thomas discovered our father wasn’t his father.”
“And that matters because?”
Julian’s face went hard.
“Because the man who actually fathered Thomas is Malcolm Reed.”
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