Chapter 15 - THE FOURTH PENDANT
No one spoke for several seconds.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“That’s a lie.”
Evelyn looked at him with contempt.
“You have lived inside lies so long that truth sounds unnatural.”
Margaret stepped toward her.
“Who is the father?”
Evelyn looked down the corridor at the officers.
“I will not discuss sealed medical records without counsel.”
“You entered my home. You concealed my children. You worked with Rebecca.”
“I worked against Rebecca.”
“You received her messages.”
“Because I infiltrated her network.”
“You removed me from my own company.”
“To prevent the board from destroying evidence before police arrived.”
Margaret almost laughed.
“You expect me to believe the coup was protection?”
“I expected you to hate me.”
“You succeeded.”
Evelyn’s gaze moved toward Noah.
“But the audit files are real. Owen approved the payments because he was trying to trace Voss. Thomas drove the twins away because Daniel hired him. Michael entered your home because Daniel told him the boys had been compromised.”
Everyone had a justification.
Every betrayal had been renamed protection.
Margaret was tired of language being used to polish cruelty.
“Who is the fourth child?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“A girl.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No.”
“You never knew because Voss removed the embryo before your treatment records were finalized.”
Margaret felt the walls draw closer.
“You said Daniel was not the father.”
“He wasn’t.”
“Then whose embryo was it?”
Evelyn looked directly at Margaret.
“Your father arranged it.”
Margaret’s father, Charles Hayes, had died twelve years earlier.
He had been ruthless in business and controlling in private, but even Margaret struggled to connect him to stolen embryos and hidden children.
“What did he arrange?”
“A donor substitution.”
Daniel pulled against the restraints.
“Charles hated me, but he couldn’t alter genetics.”
“He paid Voss to ensure the Hayes bloodline continued without you carrying Mercer’s child.”
Margaret’s stomach turned.
“My twins were Daniel’s.”
“Yes.”
“Noah and Eli may be ours.”
“Yes.”
“And there is a girl whose biological father was selected by my father.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Evelyn looked toward the windows.
“With Rebecca.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Rebecca never mentioned a girl.”
“She did not know until three months ago.”
“How old?” Margaret asked.
“Twenty-one.”
The age made no sense.
The embryo would have needed to be transferred before Margaret’s twins were born.
Evelyn explained.
“Voss created the fourth embryo during your original treatment cycle. It was implanted in a surrogate without your knowledge.”
Margaret’s voice dropped.
“Who was the surrogate?”
Evelyn did not answer.
The detective beside her said, “Ms. Shaw.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“Your sister.”
Margaret had no sister.
Then a memory surfaced.
Her father’s longtime assistant, Catherine.
A young woman who lived in their home during Margaret’s college years.
Charles had called her his goddaughter.
Catherine vanished shortly before Margaret’s wedding.
Margaret stared at Evelyn.
“Catherine was my father’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“My half sister.”
“Yes.”
“And she carried my embryo?”
“Yes.”
The horror was so layered that Margaret could not find the center of it.
“Where is Catherine?”
“Dead.”
“Who raised the girl?”
“Samuel Voss.”
Noah lowered the lamp completely.
Eli took his hand.
Margaret looked at the three pendants.
“How do the pendants connect to her?”
Evelyn nodded toward Daniel’s chain.
“Each contains a micro-engraved number. Together, they identify four files in Record 417.”
Margaret examined her pendant.
The inner edge was scratched with tiny marks she had always assumed came from age.
Not scratches.
Digits.
“What is the fourth number?”
“Rebecca has it.”
Daniel stared at Evelyn.
“On the surviving twin?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Evelyn’s face changed.
Fear appeared.
Real fear.
“The courier.”
Margaret thought of the young man photographed outside her office.
Early twenties.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Adrian’s ear.
“He is not my son?”
“He may be.”
“You just said the fourth child is a girl.”
“There are five children connected to the file.”
Michael swore.
“You said four pendants.”
“Four authorized births,” Evelyn said. “The fifth child was never supposed to survive.”
The detective’s radio sounded.
Units at Pier Sixty-Two had found an abandoned vehicle.
Blood in the back seat.
No bodies.
A phone had been left on the dashboard.
It was streaming a live video.
The detective turned the screen toward Margaret.
Rebecca stood inside a dark waterfront warehouse.
Beside her was the young courier.
His hands were tied, but he was conscious.
A second figure sat behind him with a hood over her head.
Female.
Rebecca held up the fourth half-heart pendant.
“Margaret,” she said into the camera, “bring Noah and the key, or you will lose both of them before you learn which one shares your blood.”
Noah stepped closer to the screen.
The hooded woman lifted her head.
A lock of long blonde hair slipped free.
Margaret’s heart stopped.
Even with most of the face hidden, the resemblance was unmistakable.
The same cheekbones.
The same mouth.
The same small scar above the right eyebrow Margaret had carried since childhood.
Rebecca pulled off the hood.
The young woman looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then she said the name no stranger should have known.
“Mom?”
