Chapter 14 - TWO FATHERS
Police reached the penthouse before Margaret.
The elevator stopped three floors below, forcing her to run up the emergency stairs.
Her lungs burned.
Her silver heels slipped twice on the concrete steps. She kicked them off and kept climbing barefoot.
When she reached the penthouse corridor, the door stood open.
A security guard lay unconscious near the elevator.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
Glass covered the floor.
“Margaret!”
A detective tried to stop her.
She pushed past him.
“Noah!”
She found the boys in the guest room.
Eli was under the bed.
Noah stood in front of him holding a metal lamp like a weapon.
Two men lay restrained on opposite sides of the room.
Both had Daniel’s face.
One was Michael.
The other had the stiff right leg from the Georgetown footage.
Daniel.
Margaret stopped in the doorway.
Seventeen years of grief narrowed into one impossible moment.
Daniel looked at her.
His eyes filled.
“Margaret.”
She crossed the room and slapped him.
His head turned.
No one spoke.
Margaret’s voice shook.
“That was for the funeral.”
Daniel looked back at her.
“I deserved worse.”
She slapped him again.
“That was for telling them I was dead.”
Noah lowered the lamp slightly.
Eli crawled out from beneath the bed.
Daniel looked at the boys.
“I came back for you.”
Noah’s face tightened.
“You left us with Rebecca.”
“I thought Michael had you.”
Michael struggled against the restraints.
“I did until Daniel attacked me.”
“You were taking them to the pier.”
“To protect them.”
“You were following Rebecca’s order.”
“She has the surviving twin.”
Daniel turned toward Margaret.
“Rebecca has had him for years.”
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know which twin.”
“You are their father.”
“I never saw his face after the abduction.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You saw your sons being taken?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I helped arrange the handoff.”
Noah went still.
Margaret felt the room tilt.
Daniel continued before she could speak.
“Voss told me the twins would be hidden for forty-eight hours. He said it was the only way to force your father to withdraw from the custody case.”
“My father was dying.”
“He threatened to take the boys from both of us.”
“So you kidnapped your own children.”
“I thought I was moving them somewhere safe.”
“One disappeared for seventeen years.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I know.”
“And the other?”
“I was told he died.”
“By Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
Margaret stepped backward.
Every old memory rearranged itself.
Daniel’s despair.
His accusations.
His staged death.
His secret work inside her company.
None of it had begun as an attempt to rescue the twins.
It had begun with his decision to use them.
Noah looked at the man he called Dad as if seeing him for the first time.
“You took them?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I made a terrible choice.”
“You always say choices are what people do on purpose.”
Daniel had no answer.
A detective entered.
“We found the intruder who disabled security.”
Margaret looked at Michael.
“Was it him?”
The detective shook his head.
“A woman escaped through the service elevator.”
Rebecca.
Margaret noticed something on Daniel’s chest.
A silver chain.
She stepped closer and pulled it from beneath his shirt.
Another half-heart pendant.
Noah touched his own.
Margaret took out hers.
Three pieces.
Not two.
Daniel looked at the pendant in her hand.
“Voss made four.”
“Why?”
“One for each child in Record 417.”
Noah stared at him.
“You said there were only two embryos.”
“There were.”
“Then who are the other two children?”
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
Police radios crackled in the corridor.
Margaret’s phone rang.
Rebecca’s name appeared on the screen.
She answered.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca’s voice was calm.
“At the pier.”
“Which twin?”
“That depends on which name you gave him.”
Margaret gripped the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The key. The three pendants. And Noah.”
Noah looked up.
Margaret turned away from him.
“You are not getting him.”
“Then I’ll tell the surviving twin who ordered his brother’s death.”
“I never ordered anyone’s death.”
“You signed the authorization.”
Margaret’s breath stopped.
Rebecca continued.
“Ask Evelyn what she placed in front of you seventeen years ago.”
The call ended.
Margaret looked at Daniel.
“What authorization?”
Before he could answer, Evelyn appeared in the hall between two detectives.
Her hands were cuffed.
Her face was pale.
“I can explain,” she said.
Margaret held up the three pendants.
“Start with the fourth child.”
May you like
Evelyn looked at Noah.
Then she whispered, “The fourth child is yours, but Daniel is not the father.”
