Chapter 35 - Rebecca
The accusation hung in the air.
Nobody spoke.
Even Victor stopped smiling.
I stared at Arthur.
“What did you just say?”
“Rebecca is not your mother.”
He looked toward the staircase.
“She was sent to find your mother.”
“Find her?”
“Yes.”
“Then where is Evelyn?”
Arthur swallowed.
“That depends on what Jonathan did with her.”
I stepped closer.
“You said she was alive.”
“I said she was never officially confirmed dead.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
I felt anger rising.
“You've all been playing with words.”
Arthur didn't argue.
The investigator stepped between us.
“We're taking Rebecca into custody.”
Arthur shook his head.
“You won't.”
“Why?”
“Because she has the one thing Jonathan wants.”
“What?”
Arthur looked at me.
“You.”
The upstairs door opened.
Rebecca stood at the top of the staircase.
She wore a dark blue dress.
Her expression was strangely calm.
She looked directly at me.
“Natalie.”
I climbed the first step.
The investigator grabbed my arm.
“Don't.”
Rebecca smiled.
“She has to know.”
“Know what?”
Rebecca descended one step.
“Who her father is.”
I stared.
“Jonathan.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
She touched the railing.
“Jonathan was your biological father.”
Then she looked at Arthur.
“But he was not the man who raised your mother.”
Arthur's face tightened.
Rebecca continued.
“Evelyn was not born a Brooks.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“She was brought into the family as a child.”
“Why?”
“To become part of the trust.”
Evan looked at the archive.
“So none of this is about blood.”
Rebecca laughed softly.
“That was the lie.”
She descended another step.
“The original trust was created to control inheritance through selected descendants.”
“Selected by whom?”
“Elias.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Rebecca pointed at him.
“His father.”
I stared at Arthur.
“You knew this.”
“Yes.”
“Did Evelyn?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she marry Jonathan?”
“She didn't.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Your mother was never Jonathan's wife.”
“Then who was?”
“Nobody.”
I felt the floor tilt beneath me.
“You're saying I was born outside the family?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Jonathan call me his daughter?”
“Because he made you one.”
I couldn't breathe.
Arthur finally spoke.
“Jonathan had the legal documents altered before you were born.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Altered?”
“He changed your mother's records.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“He did more than that.”
She turned to me.
“He changed your father's name too.”
My voice trembled.
“Who was my father?”
Rebecca's expression softened.
“His name was Michael Lane.”
The name hit me harder than anything else.
Lane.
My supposed family name.
My entire life.
“Natalie Lane.”
I whispered it.
Rebecca nodded.
“Jonathan erased Michael Lane.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael found the trust.”
Evan stepped forward.
“What did he find?”
“Payments.”
Rebecca looked toward the archive.
“Payments to doctors. Judges. hospitals. attorneys. private investigators.”
The investigator frowned.
“For what?”
“To remove inconvenient heirs.”
Lucas took a step back.
Daniel looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means people like you were never accidents,” Rebecca said.
Lucas stared at her.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew they switched us?”
“Yes.”
“You knew Victor took me?”
Rebecca's voice broke.
“Yes.”
Lucas's face twisted.
“And you did nothing.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“I was trying to get to you.”
“You let me hate my mother.”
“I didn't tell you to hate her.”
“Victor did.”
“And I couldn't stop him.”
Lucas wiped his face.
“You all say that.”
Rebecca descended the final steps.
She stood three feet away from me.
“I was the one who put the first warning into the archive.”
I frowned.
“What warning?”
“The one that brought you here.”
“You led me here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Jonathan was close.”
I shook my head.
“Then why are you working for him?”
“I don't.”
“Victor said you were.”
“Victor believes everyone works for someone.”
She reached into her pocket.
The investigator immediately raised his weapon.
Rebecca slowly withdrew an old photograph.
She handed it to me.
I looked down.
There were three people.
A young Evelyn.
A young Michael.
And a baby.
Me.
On the back was a date.
The day after I was born.
Beneath it, one sentence.
MICHAEL NEVER KNEW SHE WAS WATCHING.
“Watching what?”
“Jonathan.”
I stared at Rebecca.
“How did my mother die?”
Rebecca's eyes filled with tears.
“She didn't.”
My knees almost gave out.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why do you have her photograph?”
“Because she gave it to me.”
“Where?”
Rebecca whispered:
“At the hospital.”
The room became completely silent.
“What hospital?”
“The night you were born.”
I remembered the name.
St. Catherine's.
The same hospital where Lucas and Daniel had been born.
The same hospital connected to Dr. Bell.
The investigator grabbed his radio.
“Get a unit to St. Catherine's. Pull every record involving Evelyn Brooks, Michael Lane, Rebecca Bell, and Dr. Bell.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“It's too late.”
“For what?”
“The hospital burned down three years ago.”
I stared.
“You're joking.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Electrical fire.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“It wasn't.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You know that.”
Arthur nodded.
“Jonathan destroyed the last physical records.”
“But the archive has copies.”
Arthur stared at me.
“Not all of them.”
A sound came from the upstairs hallway.
A phone ringing.
Rebecca went pale.
“That's impossible.”
I followed her gaze.
“What?”
“That phone.”
She whispered:
“Only one person has that number.”
The investigator motioned for officers to go upstairs.
We followed.
The phone sat on a small table.
Old.
Black.
Disconnected from everything.
Yet ringing.
I picked it up.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a woman's breathing.
I stopped.
“Mom?”
The breathing became a sob.
“Natalie.”
My heart exploded.
Evelyn.
“Where are you?”
“I don't have much time.”
“Tell me.”
“Do not open the original trust.”
Arthur stepped forward.
Rebecca grabbed his arm.
Evelyn continued.
“Jonathan wants you to open it because he cannot.”
“Why not?”
“Because the trust doesn't belong to him anymore.”
“To whom?”
The line crackled.
Then my mother's voice became urgent.
“To the person you trust most.”
I looked at Evan.
The call ended.
A second later, Evan's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His face went white.
“It's my father.”
Richard.
He answered.
A man's voice said:
“Evan, listen carefully.”
Evan's expression hardened.
“What?”
“If Natalie is with you, get away from her.”
“Why?”
A pause.
Then Richard said:
“Because she isn't the fourth heir.”
Evan looked at me.
“She is the key that opens the fifth.”
The call ended.
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't answer.
Because behind him, Samuel was holding a photograph.
His face had gone completely pale.
He turned it around.
The picture showed five children.
Natalie.
Evan.
Samuel.
Anna.
And a fifth child.
A little boy with the same scar over the left eyebrow.
Lucas.
On the back were three words.
May you like
NOT THE CONTINGENCY.
THE FIFTH.
