Chapter 12 - The First Child of Evelyn ValeScarlett sat down.
“No.”
Samuel remained surrounded by security.
“My mother had two children?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Samuel looked at Adrian.
Scarlett followed his gaze.
Adrian shook his head immediately.
“No.”
Richard whispered:
“Adrian's birth certificate names Vivian.”
Samuel laughed.
“You still trust paper?”
Adrian couldn't breathe properly.
Evelyn Vale.
Scarlett's mother.
Richard's lover.
Could she also be Adrian's biological mother?
That would make Adrian and Scarlett half-siblings through Evelyn.
Richard might not be Adrian's father at all.
“Why would Vivian raise Evelyn's child?” Adrian asked.
Samuel looked toward Richard.
“Because Vivian couldn't carry another pregnancy after her first miscarriage.”
Richard stared.
“She gave birth to Adrian.”
Samuel shook his head.
“You were away for most of the pregnancy.”
Richard's face changed.
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
Richard whispered:
“I traveled constantly.”
Samuel continued.
“Vivian wore padding late in the pregnancy.”
Scarlett covered her mouth.
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
“You remember doubts.”
“No.”
“You remember she wouldn't let you attend appointments.”
Richard looked physically sick.
Adrian turned to him.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
The word barely came.
“But she said the pregnancy was high risk.”
Samuel smiled coldly.
“Convenient.”
Adrian's mind raced through childhood photographs.
Vivian holding him as a baby.
Hospital photographs?
There were almost none.
He had always assumed that was normal for 1980s family records.
“What proof do you have?”
Samuel reached into his coat.
Security immediately moved.
“Slowly.”
He removed an envelope.
Inside was an old photograph.
Evelyn.
Young.
Holding a newborn.
On the back:
A.S. — September 18.
Adrian's birthday.
Scarlett stared.
“My mother.”
Adrian took the photograph.
The baby could've been anyone.
“What does A.S. mean?”
Samuel said:
“Adrian Sterling.”
“Or anything else.”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at him.
“So this proves nothing.”
Samuel nodded.
“Correct.”
That surprised him.
“Then why bring it?”
“Because Vivian has the proof.”
“Where?”
“The red file.”
The same file Edmund tried to burn.
Adrian stared.
“What was in it?”
“Medical records.”
Scarlett closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
Samuel continued.
“Birth records. Fertility records. Adoption agreements.”
Adrian thought of Noah's torn page.
Everything Vivian wanted gone.
“Police have the remains.”
Richard said.
Samuel looked at him.
“Not enough.”
Adrian's phone rang.
Marcus.
He was inside Noah's room.
Adrian answered.
“What?”
“The bread test.”
Adrian's pulse jumped.
“Poison?”
“No.”
“DNA?”
“Yes.”
Everyone stared.
Marcus continued.
“There was blood on one edge.”
Adrian frowned.
“Blood?”
“Tiny amount. Possibly from whoever tore the loaf.”
“And?”
“The lab ran a rapid profile because police requested it.”
Adrian waited.
“It matched someone already in the hospital system.”
“Who?”
Marcus looked through the glass.
Adrian followed his gaze.
Toward Richard.
“No.”
Marcus said:
“The blood belongs to Richard Sterling.”
Everyone froze.
Richard stared.
“I never touched that bread.”
Noah had said the man with the lion ring gave it to him.
A man he initially confused with Edmund.
Older.
White hair.
Could a seven-year-old mistake Richard for another older man?
Adrian looked at his father.
Richard went pale.
“I did not give him anything.”
Samuel laughed softly.
Richard turned.
“You did this.”
“No.”
“Planted blood.”
Samuel shrugged.
“Possible.”
Adrian felt rage rising.
“Enough.”
Everyone stopped.
He looked at Richard.
At Samuel.
At Scarlett.
“From this moment on, nobody in this family tells me another story without evidence.”
Silence.
“No assumptions.”
“No old grudges.”
“No ‘your mother said.’”
“No ‘my father told me.’”
“Evidence.”
Scarlett nodded first.
Richard followed.
Samuel smiled faintly.
“Finally.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You don't get to approve.”
Police took Samuel away for questioning.
Richard remained.
Scarlett requested an independent DNA panel.
So did Adrian.
Not just half-sibling analysis.
Full parentage.
Adrian.
Richard.
Scarlett.
Samuel if legally obtainable.
Archived genetic samples from Evelyn, if any existed.
And Noah.
Not for inheritance.
For medical risk.
By dawn, investigators recovered enough of the burned red file to identify several record numbers.
One belonged to St. Matthew's Hospital.
One to Halcyon Women's Health.
One to a private maternity clinic that closed thirty-nine years earlier.
Adrian's birth year.
At 9:20 a.m., a detective called.
“We found the archived maternity file.”
Adrian stood in Noah's room.
“And?”
“It doesn't list Vivian Sterling as the patient.”
His pulse stopped.
“Who?”
“Evelyn Pike.”
Scarlett turned toward him.
The detective continued.
“Male infant delivered September eighteenth.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Name?”
“Infant not named in the file.”
“Father?”
“Not listed.”
Richard sat down heavily.
Adrian felt strangely calm.
Perhaps shock had a limit.
“What happened to the child?”
“Discharged to a private guardian.”
“Who?”
Pause.
“Vivian Sterling.”
Scarlett began crying.
Adrian stared at Richard.
“So she isn't my mother.”
Richard looked devastated.
“We don't know everything yet.”
“We know enough.”
Richard stood.
“But I could still be your father.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“That matters to you now?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you're my son.”
“You disappeared for twenty-nine years.”
Richard flinched.
Adrian continued.
“If a DNA test says you're not my biological father, does that suddenly make the abandonment easier?”
“No.”
“Then stop acting like blood is going to repair something.”
Richard's eyes filled.
Noah stirred in bed.
Adrian immediately softened.
His son opened his eyes.
“Dad?”
“I'm here.”
Noah looked at Scarlett.
Then Richard.
“Why is everybody crying?”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“Because grown-ups make things complicated.”
Noah nodded.
“Grandma does that.”
Scarlett laughed unexpectedly through tears.
Even Richard smiled.
Then Noah frowned.
“The man who gave me bread wasn't Grandpa.”
Everyone went still.
Adrian leaned closer.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Grandpa has a cane.”
Richard stared.
Noah continued.
“The other man didn't.”
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“Did Noah ever see Richard before tonight?”
“No.”
So his distinction mattered.
“What else do you remember?”
Noah thought.
“He smelled funny.”
“Like what?”
“Smoke.”
Adrian felt a chill.
The fireplace.
The burned red papers.
“Anything else?”
Noah nodded.
“He said Grandma used to call him Eddie.”
Scarlett stared.
“Eddie?”
Richard whispered:
“Edmund.”
Adrian shook his head.
Noah had already said it wasn't Edmund.
Then Richard's face changed.
“No.”
“What?”
“Edmund had a son.”
Adrian remembered.
Thomas Shaw.
The man who died in the warehouse fire.
Richard continued:
“Thomas had a younger brother.”
Catherine had never mentioned one.
“What was his name?”
Richard looked toward the hospital window.
“Edward.”
Adrian's pulse accelerated.
“Where is he?”
Richard answered:
“Officially?”
He swallowed.
“Dead.”
Of course.
“Unofficially?”
Richard stared.
“No one has seen Edward Shaw in twenty-five years.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Another dead man.
Another family secret.
May you like
Then Noah whispered:
“He said he was coming back for what Grandma stole.”
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