Chapter 10 - The Man Who Said Anna Was His DaughterThomas Reed refused to meet at the mansion.
They met at a diner near Yonkers.
He was sixty-one, thin, gray-haired, and visibly nervous.
Rachel, Michael, and Rebecca arrived together.
Thomas had already chosen a booth facing the entrance.
Michael sat across from him.
“You’re saying you’re Anna’s biological father.”
Thomas nodded.
Michael’s expression was skeptical.
“Prove it.”
“I can.”
Thomas placed a worn envelope on the table.
Inside were photographs.
Claire Bell laughing beside him.
Claire pregnant.
Thomas holding a newborn baby.
Rachel picked up the last image.
Anna.
The same dark eyes.
The resemblance between Anna and Thomas was subtle but obvious once she knew to look.
Michael stared.
“Why does Anna believe my father was hers?”
Thomas looked away.
“Because Claire wanted her to.”
Rachel frowned.
“Why?”
Thomas rubbed both hands together.
“Claire loved Richard Whitmore before she loved me.”
He explained.
Claire had begun an affair with Richard approximately a year after starting work at the mansion.
Richard was married.
Claire believed he would leave his wife.
He never did.
When Claire ended the relationship, she met Thomas, who worked for one of Richard’s landscaping contractors.
They began seeing each other secretly.
Claire became pregnant.
Thomas wanted to marry her.
But before they could leave Westchester, Michael’s mother’s diamond necklace disappeared.
Claire was blamed.
“She didn’t take it,” Thomas said.
“Who did?” Rachel asked.
Thomas looked at Michael.
“Your father.”
Michael stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“He sold it.”
“Why?”
“Gambling debts.”
Michael laughed in disbelief.
“My father was worth hundreds of millions.”
“He was also losing money privately.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Claire caught him removing the necklace. He begged her not to say anything. When insurance investigators started asking questions, Richard let suspicion fall on Claire.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“He framed her.”
“Yes.”
Rachel felt sick.
“And the hundred thousand?”
“Hush money.”
Thomas looked at his coffee.
“Claire took it because she was pregnant and terrified.”
“What about the letters?”
“Real.”
Michael frowned.
“The one mentioning ‘the baby’?”
Thomas nodded.
“Claire told Richard she was pregnant. He assumed the child might be his.”
Rachel understood.
“So Richard believed Anna could be his daughter.”
“For a while.”
“Did Claire correct him?”
Thomas hesitated.
“No.”
Michael pushed back from the table.
“So she lied to him.”
“She was angry.”
Thomas’s voice sharpened.
“He destroyed her reputation. She couldn’t get another household job. People whispered that she was a thief. She had a baby coming. She let him believe the child might be his.”
Rebecca spoke.
“And the codicil?”
Thomas looked confused.
“What codicil?”
Rachel showed him the copy.
He read it.
Then shook his head.
“I never saw this.”
“Could Richard have written it?”
“Maybe.”
Thomas pointed at the date.
“But by October, Richard knew.”
Michael froze.
“Knew what?”
“That Anna wasn’t his.”
Thomas removed another document.
A letter dated August 1999.
Claire—
Thomas has told me the truth. Whatever happened between us, do not use your child as punishment. I will honor our financial agreement, but this ends now.
Richard.
Rachel felt everything click into place.
If the letter was genuine, Richard knew before Anna was born that he wasn’t her father.
Then why would he write an October codicil leaving millions to “my child with Claire Bell”?
He wouldn’t.
Rebecca photographed the letter.
Michael looked at Thomas.
“Does Anna know you’re her father?”
Pain filled the older man’s eyes.
“Yes.”
Rachel stared.
“She knows?”
“I told her after Claire died.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
The same year Anna began working for wealthy families under different names.
Rachel felt cold.
Anna knew Richard wasn’t her father.
She knew the estate claim was false.
The entire story about wanting the truth had been another performance.
Michael’s anger hardened.
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I tried.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“She hates me.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t there when she grew up.”
“But you were in those photographs.”
“For the first year.”
“What happened?”
“Claire left me.”
Thomas swallowed.
“She became obsessed with the Whitmores. She told Anna that everything bad in their lives came from Richard. Every unpaid bill. Every eviction. Every job she lost.”
Rachel slowly understood the psychology Anna had inherited.
Claire had been genuinely wronged.
But instead of healing, she built her daughter around that wound.
Anna grew up believing the Whitmore family owed her a life.
Thomas looked directly at Michael.
“She doesn’t want eighteen million dollars.”
Michael frowned.
“Then what does she want?”
Thomas’s face darkened.
“She wants your family to destroy itself before she takes anything.”
Rachel thought of the ballroom.
Anna’s hidden smile.
Michael’s hand across Rachel’s face.
Thomas continued.
“She told me once that money wasn’t enough.”
Rachel’s pulse quickened.
“What exactly did she say?”
Thomas looked at her.
“She said, ‘My mother lost everything because of that house. One day everyone inside it will lose everything too.’”
And Rachel suddenly realized the gala had not been Anna’s climax.
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It had only been the first public crack.
Whatever Anna planned next would be worse.
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