Chapter 6 - THE GRANDSON DIANE WANTED TO KEEPMichael stared at the phone.
"What did you just say?"
Samantha's voice was quiet.
"Diane met Noah."
Rachel watched her husband's expression move from confusion to anger.
"When?"
"Wednesday."
"How long?"
"Maybe twenty minutes."
"And you let her?"
"She showed up without warning."
Michael stood.
"You should've told me."
Samantha laughed sharply.
"You don't get to be outraged that I hid something for twenty-four hours when you hid an entire child from your wife for fourteen months."
Michael stopped.
Rachel said nothing.
Samantha was right.
"What did Diane say to him?" Rachel asked.
"At first? She was charming."
That was Diane's most dangerous version.
Rachel knew it well.
"She brought him a gift. A watch."
Michael frowned.
"What watch?"
"A Holloway family watch. She said it belonged to Michael's grandfather."
Rachel's skin prickled.
Diane had never given Emma anything sentimental from the Holloway family.
Birthdays meant expensive but impersonal gifts.
Designer coats Emma hated.
Silver bracelets she was too young to wear.
Nothing with history.
Nothing that said you belong to us.
Samantha continued.
"She told Noah he had Michael's eyes. Asked about baseball. Asked about school."
"And then?"
"She told him she was his grandmother."
Michael sank back into the chair.
"What did he say?"
"He thought she was joking."
Rachel could picture a nine-year-old boy suddenly being handed an entire hidden family in three days.
A father.
A grandmother.
A half-sister he hadn't met.
It was cruel in ways no adult at the center of the situation seemed to have fully considered.
"Then Diane asked to speak to me outside."
Rachel knew where this was going.
"That's when she offered the money."
"Yes."
Michael ran a hand through his hair.
"She wants him gone, but she gave him Granddad's watch?"
Samantha hesitated.
"That's what bothered me too."
Rachel understood first.
"Diane doesn't want Noah gone."
Michael looked at her.
"What?"
"She wants Samantha gone."
Silence.
Rachel continued.
"If she simply wanted Noah erased, she wouldn't introduce herself as his grandmother. She wouldn't give him a family heirloom."
Samantha whispered, "I had the same thought."
Michael stared at Rachel.
"Why would Mom want Noah without Sam?"
Rachel thought of Diane's obsession with control.
Then remembered something else.
Diane had always wanted a grandson.
She had never hidden it.
When Rachel was pregnant with Emma, Diane had referred to the baby as "he" until the ultrasound proved otherwise.
After Emma's birth, she had repeatedly asked when they would try for a boy.
Rachel had eventually told her to stop.
"Because he's your son," Rachel said.
Michael frowned.
"Emma is my daughter."
"That's not the same thing to your mother."
His face darkened.
Rachel hated saying it.
But they both knew Diane believed the Holloway name mattered.
Noah was Michael's firstborn son.
Diane would see him differently.
Samantha exhaled.
"There's more."
Rachel almost smiled from exhaustion.
Of course there was.
"Diane asked me whether Noah would ever want to live with Michael."
Michael went rigid.
"She asked what?"
"She said boys need their fathers."
Rachel stared.
"And then she offered you half a million dollars to disappear."
"Yes."
"Those things don't fit."
"No."
Rachel looked at Michael.
"What if the money wasn't for Samantha and Noah?"
Michael's expression changed.
"What do you mean?"
"What if she wanted Samantha to leave Noah?"
Samantha went silent.
Michael shook his head.
"That's insane."
Rachel looked at him.
"Your mother paid two hundred thousand dollars to manipulate a pregnancy nine years ago and hired someone to follow you fourteen months ago. Where exactly are you drawing the line at insane?"
Michael couldn't answer.
Samantha spoke.
"She did say one strange thing."
"What?"
"She told me I had already proven I could walk away from people I loved when enough pressure was applied."
Rachel felt sick.
Michael immediately said, "Sam, don't sign anything she gives you."
"I haven't."
"Don't meet her alone."
"I won't."
Rachel looked toward the stairs.
Emma was somewhere above them.
Noah was somewhere with Samantha.
Two children carrying consequences created by adults before either of them had been born.
Rachel looked at Michael.
"Does Emma know you were fishing with Noah?"
"No."
"Does Noah know about Emma?"
"Yes."
That hurt too.
"How much?"
"He knows he has a sister."
"Has he seen pictures?"
Michael looked away.
Rachel's voice hardened.
"Michael."
"Yes."
She swallowed.
"Which pictures?"
"I showed him a few."
"Family pictures?"
"Yes."
Rachel thought about her daughter's face displayed to a stranger while Rachel knew nothing of his existence.
Noah wasn't at fault.
But Michael had crossed yet another boundary without Rachel.
"What did Noah say?"
Michael's expression softened despite everything.
"He asked if Emma likes baseball."
Rachel almost smiled.
"She hates baseball."
"I told him."
"What else?"
"He asked if she'd hate him."
Rachel's anger faltered.
Michael looked down.
"I told him no."
"How could you promise that?"
"Because Emma is kind."
Rachel wanted to stay furious.
Instead she imagined two children frightened of each other because their parents had failed them.
Then Michael's phone buzzed.
A text from Samantha.
She had sent a photograph of the watch Diane gave Noah.
Michael opened it.
His face changed.
Rachel noticed.
"What?"
He zoomed in on the engraving.
The back of the antique watch bore three small initials.
R.H.H.
Michael stared at them.
"This wasn't my grandfather's watch."
"Whose was it?"
Michael looked at Rachel.
"My great-grandfather's."
"So?"
"He left it specifically to the first male heir in each generation."
Rachel understood.
Diane hadn't merely acknowledged Noah.
She had symbolically named him the Holloway heir.
Michael's phone buzzed again.
This time the message was from Diane.
Bring Rachel back tomorrow. Alone. We need to discuss what happens to Emma if you insist on bringing that boy into this family.
Rachel read the message twice.
Then she looked at Michael.
"Tomorrow?"
Michael's face hardened.
"No."
Rachel took the phone.
"Oh, I'm going."
"Rachel—"
"I want to hear exactly what your mother thinks happens to my daughter."
May you like
And for the first time that day, Michael didn't tell her to calm down.
He simply nodded.
Related Stories
