Chapter 11 - Samuel PikeScarlett couldn't move.
Samuel Pike stood thirty yards away with two security officers closing in from opposite ends of the corridor.
He didn't run.
He raised both hands.
“I'm not armed.”
Adrian stepped in front of Scarlett.
“Stay away from my son.”
Samuel smiled.
“I came for her.”
Scarlett stared.
“My mother never mentioned you.”
“She was told I was dead.”
Scarlett laughed bitterly.
“That seems popular in this family.”
Security reached Samuel.
He allowed them to search him.
Wallet.
Phone.
No weapon.
No hospital badge.
The family authorization form he'd used was fake.
Adrian's anger sharpened.
“How did you know Noah was here?”
Samuel looked toward him.
“News travels quickly when your family owns half the hospital.”
“You followed us.”
“Yes.”
Scarlett whispered:
“Why?”
Samuel's expression softened.
“Because you're my granddaughter.”
“Biologically.”
“Yes.”
“You never contacted me.”
“Your mother wouldn't allow it.”
“She died eight years ago.”
Samuel looked down.
“I know.”
“Then why now?”
He looked toward Noah's room.
“Because Vivian activated the succession clause.”
Adrian's pulse rose.
“You knew about the papers.”
“I supplied part of the language.”
Scarlett stared.
“You worked with Edmund.”
Samuel laughed.
“Edmund thinks he used me.”
Adrian felt another layer shifting.
“What did you want?”
“The same thing everyone wants.”
“Money?”
“Recognition.”
Samuel looked at Scarlett.
“My father denied me.”
“Richard Sterling Sr.?”
“Yes.”
“He used me when he needed dirty work.”
Richard's boat.
Adrian clenched his jaw.
“You tried to kill my father.”
Samuel didn't deny it.
“I disabled the fuel system.”
“You planted an explosive.”
“No.”
Adrian frowned.
Samuel continued.
“I was told to disable the boat so Richard couldn't leave the marina.”
“Then what exploded?”
“Someone else added the device.”
“Who?”
Samuel looked toward Scarlett.
“Vivian.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
“Ask her.”
“Why would she try to kill her husband?”
“To keep him from exposing the accounts.”
The same motive.
But Richard believed his father ordered it.
Edmund believed Samuel executed it.
Now Samuel blamed Vivian.
Everyone had enough truth to construct a different lie.
Scarlett stepped forward.
“My mother.”
Samuel looked at her.
“What about her?”
“Did you know Richard was her father?”
Samuel's expression changed.
Adrian noticed.
“You did.”
Samuel remained silent.
Scarlett backed away.
“You let your daughter have a relationship with a man who was related to her?”
“I didn't know until later.”
“When?”
“After she became pregnant.”
Scarlett stopped breathing.
Adrian recognized the same pattern.
Always after pregnancy.
After marriage.
After death.
Truth arriving once choices couldn't be undone.
Samuel continued.
“Evelyn refused to terminate.”
Scarlett went pale.
“You asked her to?”
“I begged her.”
Richard's voice came from behind.
“No.”
He had arrived at the hospital with police.
Samuel looked at him.
The two old men stared at each other.
Richard walked closer.
“You knew?”
“Eventually.”
“You knew Evelyn was related to me?”
Samuel's face hardened.
“Your father made sure I understood my place.”
Richard looked sick.
“What was she to me?”
Samuel answered:
“Your niece.”
Scarlett closed her eyes.
Richard leaned heavily on his cane.
Adrian could barely process the web.
Samuel was Richard Sr.'s illegitimate son.
Evelyn was Samuel's daughter.
Richard was Richard Sr.'s legitimate son.
Therefore Evelyn and Richard were half-niece and half-uncle.
Scarlett had been born from that union.
Then Vivian used Scarlett's eggs with Adrian.
Another layer of close relation.
Adrian looked toward Noah's room and felt physically ill.
Samuel saw it.
“You think blood is the scandal.”
Adrian stared.
“It matters medically.”
“Yes.”
“But Sterling blood has been doing this for generations.”
Richard snapped:
“Stop.”
Samuel laughed.
“Your grandfather married his second cousin.”
Scarlett whispered:
“Oh God.”
Samuel continued.
“Family trusts create family sickness.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“And you're trying to inherit the same trust.”
Samuel's smile disappeared.
“I want it destroyed.”
“Edmund said that too.”
“Edmund wants revenge.”
“And you?”
“I want restitution.”
“Same poison, better word.”
Samuel stared.
Adrian continued.
“You came to Noah's hospital room with forged authorization.”
“To speak to Scarlett.”
“Then call her.”
“She wouldn't have answered.”
Scarlett said:
“You don't know me.”
Samuel looked hurt.
“I know more than you think.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
Police approached to question him.
Before they took him, Samuel looked at Adrian.
“You should test the bread.”
“We are.”
“Not for poison.”
Adrian frowned.
“For DNA.”
Scarlett stared.
“What?”
Samuel nodded toward the bagged bread.
“The man who gave it to Noah wasn't me.”
“Then who?”
Samuel looked at Richard.
“Ask him who else received the lion ring.”
Richard shook his head.
“Only you and Edmund.”
“No.”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“Your father gave a third one away.”
“To who?”
“His favorite.”
Richard's face changed.
Vivian.
But Samuel shook his head.
“Not Vivian.”
Catherine.
Again no.
Samuel whispered:
“To Adrian's real father.”
The hallway went silent.
Adrian stared.
“What did you say?”
Richard's face drained of color.
Samuel looked at Adrian with something almost like pity.
“Did nobody ever tell you?”
Adrian felt his pulse roaring.
“Tell me what?”
Samuel looked at Richard.
“You really thought he was yours?”
Richard stumbled backward.
Scarlett whispered:
“Samuel…”
He ignored her.
“Vivian was pregnant before she married Richard.”
Adrian stared at the man he'd just rediscovered as his father.
Richard looked destroyed.
“No.”
Samuel continued.
“Richard Sterling Sr. knew.”
Adrian's mouth went dry.
“Who?”
Samuel smiled.
“Ask Vivian why she spent forty years protecting Edmund Shaw.”
Richard turned toward Adrian.
And suddenly the half-sibling DNA test between Adrian and Scarlett meant something different.
Half-siblings.
Not full enough to confirm Richard.
Only enough to prove they shared one parent.
Adrian looked at Scarlett.
Her known biological father was Richard.
If Adrian and Scarlett were half-siblings, they could share Richard—
or they could share someone else.
Scarlett whispered:
“My mother.”
Adrian stared.
“No.”
Scarlett's face changed.
“What if Evelyn wasn't only my mother?”
The possibility was absurd.
Impossible.
Unless—
No.
Richard looked at Samuel.
“What are you saying?”
Samuel's answer came quietly.
“I'm saying the DNA report in Vivian's envelope never identified which parent Adrian and Scarlett share.”
May you like
Then he looked at Scarlett.
“And Evelyn Vale had another child before you.”
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