Chapter 14 - THE MOTHER IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Khloe did not believe Daniel.
Not because he had lied before.
Not because his memory was damaged.
She did not believe him because the alternative was too large.
Evelyn Vale had died in a private room at St. Catherine’s.
Khloe had held her hand.
Khloe had watched the monitor flatten.
She had kissed her mother’s forehead.
She had attended the cremation.
There had been no uncertainty.
No missing body.
No sealed coffin.
“I was there,” Khloe said.
Daniel remained quiet.
“I watched her die.”
“You watched someone die.”
“I know my mother.”
“I thought I knew my brother.”
Daniel looked toward Marcus.
“Families are good at creating certainty around lies.”
Adrian’s face had become rigid.
“Where did Evelyn visit you?”
“At Cedar Hollow.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“That was the year she died.”
Daniel nodded.
“How long after the funeral?”
“Two months.”
Khloe shook her head.
“No.”
“She had shorter hair.”
“She was thinner.”
“She used a cane.”
“That proves nothing.”
“She told me about the blue bird.”
Khloe stopped.
No one else reacted.
The blue bird had been painted inside Khloe’s childhood closet.
Evelyn painted it after Khloe became afraid of thunderstorms.
She told Khloe that the bird watched over the room when adults failed.
Only Evelyn and Khloe knew.
“What did she say?” Khloe whispered.
“She said the blue bird finally learned to fly.”
Khloe’s eyes filled with tears.
Adrian sat down.
“That was Evelyn.”
Marcus looked between them.
“What happened in the hospital room?”
Adrian stood again.
“I treated her cancer.”
“Did she die?”
“Yes.”
“You sound uncertain.”
“I signed the death certificate.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Adrian pressed both hands against the bed rail.
“The woman in that room had Evelyn’s medical history.”
“She had her scars.”
“She had her fingerprints.”
“She spoke to Khloe.”
“She was Evelyn.”
“Unless the records were altered,” Daniel said.
Adrian looked toward the laboratory report.
Someone created reproductive tissue under Evelyn’s name after the recorded death.
That required either falsified dates or a living donor.
Ortiz ordered the cremation records examined.
The funeral home had been owned by a Northstar subsidiary.
The director disappeared three years earlier.
Security footage from the day of cremation had been deleted.
The ashes could not provide identification.
Khloe felt another contraction.
Adrian checked the monitor.
The baby remained stable.
Her body did not care whether her mother lived.
Labor continued.
Marcus sat beside her.
He did not touch her without permission.
“Do you want me to find out?” he asked.
Khloe looked at him.
“Yes.”
“I will.”
“No secrets.”
“No secrets.”
“Even if the answer is terrible.”
“Especially then.”
Daniel described Evelyn’s visits.
The first occurred shortly after the funeral.
She told him Helena believed she was dead.
She asked whether he remembered the nursery recording.
He did not.
The second visit occurred one year later.
She brought photographs of Theo’s embryo development.
Daniel did not understand them at the time.
The third visit occurred eighteen months ago.
Evelyn said Helena had discovered the preserved tissue.
She planned to move Daniel.
That was the last time he saw her.
“Did she say where she lived?” Khloe asked.
“No.”
“Did anyone accompany her?”
“A woman.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the secure screen.
“Rachel Dunn.”
The surrogate had known Evelyn.
Ortiz arranged a bedside interview after Rachel’s surgery.
Rachel remained weak but conscious.
Khloe appeared through video.
“Did you know my mother?”
Rachel began crying.
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“I do not know.”
“When did you last see her?”
“Seven months ago.”
Khloe gripped the edge of her blanket.
“What happened?”
“She came to the maternity house after Theo was born.”
“Did she hold him?”
“Yes.”
“Why did she leave him with Isabella?”
“She did not.”
Rachel’s voice trembled.
“Isabella took him.”
“How?”
“Helena’s men entered the house.”
“Evelyn helped me escape through a rear door.”
“She stayed behind.”
“Was she captured?”
“I do not know.”
“Why did you never contact me?”
“Evelyn made me promise.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
Everyone protected her with silence.
Everyone delivered danger through the same excuse.
“She said Helena watched every person near you,” Rachel continued.
“She believed contact would expose you before the baby could activate the trust.”
“She knew I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She had someone inside your obstetric clinic.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Lucas Brand.”
Adrian turned sharply.
Lucas remained unconscious but alive.
His kidnapping had made him appear innocent.
Now his role became uncertain.
“Did Lucas help Helena?” Khloe asked.
“No.”
“Evelyn trusted him.”
“She said he helped create a false tissue record.”
“Why?”
“To hide the real donor.”
Khloe looked toward Theo.
“Who was the real donor?”
Rachel’s eyes filled with fear.
“I never knew.”
The genetic test identified Evelyn.
If the tissue came from another woman, she had to be a close maternal relative.
Khloe had no sisters.
Evelyn had one sibling.
Adrian.
A man could not provide ovarian tissue.
Unless the sibling record was false.
Adrian looked at the screen.
“My sister was not Evelyn’s only sibling.”
Khloe turned.
“What?”
Adrian sat down slowly.
“Our parents had another daughter.”
“Who?”
“She disappeared before you were born.”
“What was her name?”
“Vivian.”
Khloe had never heard the name.
“Why was she erased?”
“Because she joined the Thorne family.”
Marcus frowned.
“In what way?”
“She had an affair with Lucian.”
Marcus’s grandfather.
The founder of Thorne Meridian.
“She became pregnant,” Adrian said.
“Eleanor Vale discovered it.”
“Vivian was sent away.”
“What happened to the child?” Khloe asked.
“No one knew.”
Daniel looked toward the genetic report.
“If Vivian was Theo’s genetic mother, the test might identify Evelyn as a close match.”
Adrian nodded.
“Especially if the database lacked Vivian’s sample.”
Khloe tried to understand.
Theo might not be Evelyn’s child.
He might belong to Khloe’s lost aunt.
A woman connected to the Thorne family by a secret affair.
“Is Vivian alive?” Marcus asked.
“I believed she died decades ago.”
“Who told you?”
“My father.”
“Did you see a body?”
Adrian looked at Khloe.
“No.”
Another family death without proof.
Another woman removed from history.
Ortiz searched old records.
Vivian Vale had disappeared at age twenty-one.
A death certificate appeared three years later under the name Vivian Price.
Price.
Emilia’s surname.
Emilia stared through the video connection.
“My mother’s name was Vivian.”
The room went silent.
Emilia Price was Khloe’s cousin.
Her mother had been the missing Vale sister.
That explained why Helena chose Emilia for the Thorne estate’s charity staff years earlier.
It explained why Daniel trusted her.
It explained why Helena kept her alive after the crash.
Emilia carried the bloodline required by the trust.
Khloe looked at the genetic report.
“Theo’s mother is Emilia.”
Emilia shook her head.
“No.”
“Did Northstar ever collect your eggs?”
“No.”
“Did Helena hold you in a clinic?”
Emilia’s face changed.
During those eleven months, doctors had performed repeated procedures.
They claimed to be treating injuries from the crash.
She had awakened with abdominal pain.
She had never known why.
“They took them,” Emilia whispered.
Daniel looked toward her.
The realization was brutal.
Theo had been created from Daniel and Emilia.
Two people Helena imprisoned.
A child manufactured from stolen bodies to control a company.
Khloe felt another contraction.
This one did not release quickly.
Adrian watched the monitor.
“Three minutes apart.”
“Is the baby safe?”
“For now.”
Khloe almost laughed at the words.
Daniel moved closer to Emilia’s screen.
“Theo is yours.”
Emilia covered her mouth.
She had helped Rachel escape with a child she never knew belonged to her.
Khloe looked toward Theo’s bassinet.
“Bring him to the screen.”
Daniel lifted the baby carefully.
Emilia stared at him.
Theo looked toward the moving image.
His hand opened.
Emilia began sobbing.
“I did not know.”
“You could not know,” Daniel said.
Helena had stolen parenthood from both of them.
She had then trained Isabella to claim the child.
The conspiracy was no longer only financial.
It was generational ownership.
An officer entered with news from the search of Gideon’s devices.
One encrypted message had been recovered.
It was sent to Helena twenty minutes earlier.
SHAW FAILED.
MOVE EVELYN BEFORE KHLOE DELIVERS.
Khloe stared at the screen.
Her mother was alive.
Helena knew where she was.
A location file accompanied the message.
It identified a private residence on Thorne Island.
The island lay twelve miles off the Maine coast.
It belonged to a trust controlled by Helena.
A storm was approaching the region.
The final ferry had already stopped running.
Marcus looked at the map.
“I can reach it by helicopter.”
Khloe shook her head.
“You cannot leave now.”
“Your mother may be there.”
“You promised not to disappear.”
“I will maintain contact.”
“That is still leaving.”
Marcus looked toward Daniel.
Daniel’s injured leg prevented travel.
Adrian could not leave Khloe.
Ortiz needed to remain with Gideon and the federal investigation.
Marcus was the only person who knew the island.
Khloe hated the choice.
She hated that some choices were real.
“Go,” she said.
Marcus did not move.
“Find her.”
He approached the bed.
Khloe allowed him to take her hand.
“I will come back before our son is born.”
“You cannot promise that.”
“No.”
Marcus held her gaze.
“But I can promise you will know every step I take.”
He left with a federal rescue team.
The helicopter lifted from the hospital roof at eleven twenty.
The storm reached the coast before midnight.
Khloe watched the flight tracker on a tablet.
Marcus called every ten minutes.
He described the weather.
The route.
The agents beside him.
Nothing remained hidden.
At twelve fourteen, the helicopter reached Thorne Island.
The residence appeared dark.
Agents entered through the lower level.
They found medical equipment.
Recent food.
A wheelchair.
A bedroom with restraints attached to the bed.
No Evelyn.
Marcus followed a corridor toward the cliff side.
A light appeared inside the old boathouse.
He entered with two agents.
A woman stood near the water.
Her hair was silver.
Her body was thin.
She turned slowly.
Marcus recognized Evelyn from photographs.
“Khloe?” she asked.
“No.”
Marcus lowered his weapon.
“I am Marcus.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“You should not have come.”
“Khloe sent me.”
“Then Helena knows where she is.”
“She already knew.”
Evelyn looked toward the storm.
“We have to leave.”
A gunshot struck the boathouse window.
Agents pulled Marcus and Evelyn behind a wall.
More shots came from the rocks above.
The island’s emergency lights shut down.
Marcus called Khloe.
The connection opened.
She heard gunfire.
“Marcus?”
“I found her.”
Khloe began crying.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Another contraction seized her.
The fetal monitor alarm sounded.
Adrian entered.
“Khloe, your water broke.”
May you like
Marcus heard every word through the phone.
The storm cut the connection.
