Chapter 8
The police reached Daniel’s office before we did.
I stayed with Sophie.
Daniel went with Detective Alvarez.
Three hours later, he returned to Megan’s apartment carrying a sealed expression I had learned to fear.
I stood.
“What happened?”
He looked at Sophie.
“Can we talk privately?”
Megan took her into the bedroom.
Thomas remained.
Daniel sat down.
“The safe was real.”
“What was inside?”
“Documents.”
“What kind?”
“My original birth certificate.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“What’s wrong with the one you have?”
Daniel looked at him.
“My official copy lists you as my father.”
“Yes.”
“The one in the safe doesn’t.”
Thomas froze.
I felt my stomach sink.
“Who does it list?”
Daniel looked at his father.
“Charles Mason.”
Nobody moved.
Thomas slowly sat back.
“No.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect?”
Thomas looked devastated.
“I suspected an affair.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
Daniel stood.
“Then why would his name be on my birth certificate?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Linda and Charles were sleeping together.”
“I believed they might be.”
“And Eric’s father could be my father.”
Thomas looked broken.
“Yes.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So maybe you aren’t my father after all.”
Thomas stood.
“I raised you for fourteen years.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“No.”
“It never does.”
I stepped between them.
“DNA test.”
Both men looked at me.
“We don’t guess.”
Daniel nodded.
Thomas nodded too.
But pain remained.
Daniel continued.
“Eric’s certificate is stranger.”
“What?”
“It lists Thomas as his father.”
Thomas stared.
“What?”
I almost laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“Explain that again.”
Daniel took out photographs police allowed him to keep as references.
Two birth certificates.
Daniel Walker.
Mother: Linda Walker.
Father: Charles Mason.
Eric Mason.
Mother: Evelyn Mason.
Father: Thomas Walker.
Thomas looked physically ill.
“I never slept with Evelyn.”
Daniel stared.
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Then the document is fake.”
“Probably.”
“Which means mine could be fake too.”
“Yes.”
I stared at the two papers.
“Why switch fathers?”
Nobody knew.
Then Thomas noticed the dates.
“These certificates were issued recently.”
Daniel looked.
“They’re certified copies dated last year.”
“That doesn’t mean the information changed last year.”
“No.”
“But why would Linda collect them?”
Daniel’s phone rang.
Detective Alvarez.
He answered.
She had another development.
Eric had surrendered.
He denied knowing about the Costa Rica ticket.
He admitted participating in false vendor payments.
But he claimed Linda controlled the scheme.
“How much did he take?” Daniel asked.
“His attorney says he’ll provide details in exchange for cooperation.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“So he stole from me and now wants a deal.”
“Essentially.”
“What did he say about our fathers?”
There was silence.
Then Alvarez said, “That’s why I called.”
Daniel put the call on speaker.
“What does he know?”
“He says Linda told him the same story she told you.”
“What story?”
“That his father died when he was young.”
Thomas stood.
“Charles?”
“Yes.”
Daniel frowned.
“Eric thinks Charles is dead?”
“Apparently.”
“Is he?”
“We checked.”
My stomach tightened.
Alvarez continued.
“Charles Mason is alive.”
Of course.
Another dead father who wasn’t dead.
“Where?”
“Arizona.”
Thomas muttered, “Still.”
Alvarez continued.
“And according to Eric, Linda contacted him last year.”
Daniel stared.
“My mother contacted Eric’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Eric doesn’t know.”
I looked at Thomas.
He was staring at nothing.
“There’s something bigger,” he said.
Daniel nodded.
“For once, we agree.”
That night, Linda was formally charged in connection with the attempted school abduction plot and financial offenses under investigation.
The woman from the school admitted Linda paid her.
That part was clear.
Other pieces remained tangled.
The following morning, I attended a hearing for a protective order.
Linda appeared by video from custody.
The second she saw me, she smiled.
Not warmly.
Possessively.
As though this was still a private family argument she expected to win.
My attorney spoke first.
Then I did.
I described what happened in the kitchen.
The hair pulling.
The locked bedroom.
The fake passport.
The attempted removal from school.
Linda’s attorney argued that Linda never personally approached Sophie at the school.
The judge was unimpressed.
A broad protective order was granted.
No contact.
No third-party contact.
No school access.
No coming near our home or workplace.
When the judge finished, Linda asked to speak.
Her attorney tried to stop her.
She insisted.
The judge allowed one brief statement.
Linda looked directly into the camera.
“Rachel has manipulated my son.”
My hands tightened.
The judge interrupted.
“This is not the place.”
“She destroyed my family.”
“Mrs. Walker.”
“Sophie needs me.”
“No.”
The judge’s voice sharpened.
“You are prohibited from contacting the child.”
Linda’s face changed.
There it was.
Not grief.
Not remorse.
Rage.
“She belongs to me.”
The courtroom went silent.
The judge stared at the screen.
“Your attorney may want to advise you to stop talking.”
Linda did.
But the damage was done.
Outside, reporters waited.
The attempted school abduction had become public.
Daniel’s company fraud case had begun attracting attention.
I hated every camera.
I kept Sophie away from all of it.
But Daniel walked toward the microphones.
I grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to say something.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone is going to assume you were involved.”
He was right.
His company.
My name.
Our marriage.
Rumors would spread.
Daniel stepped forward.
“My wife had no knowledge of financial misconduct at my company.”
Cameras turned.
“She is not under investigation. She is the person who first recognized that something was wrong in our home.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“My mother’s alleged actions do not represent my wife, my daughter, or my family.”
A reporter shouted, “Are you divorcing?”
Daniel paused.
Then answered carefully.
“Our marriage is private.”
Good answer.
Another asked, “Did you hire a private investigator to follow your wife?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
He could have lied.
Instead he said, “Yes.”
Everyone reacted.
“I made a serious mistake.”
I stared at him.
“I allowed suspicion and outside influence to override trust. That decision hurt my wife and daughter. I take responsibility for it.”
Then he walked away.
I didn’t praise him.
Accountability wasn’t heroism.
It was the beginning of repair.
Still, I noticed.
Later, Sophie and I moved into Jenna’s cabin temporarily.
Daniel did not come.
He asked once.
I said no.
He accepted it.
That mattered too.
Every evening, he called Sophie.
Never longer than she wanted.
Never asking her to report on me.
Never using her as a messenger.
He had started therapy.
So had I.
Not because Linda’s invented story about instability was true.
Because what happened was too much to carry alone.
A week later, DNA tests were completed.
Thomas volunteered immediately.
Charles Mason provided a sample after police contacted him in Arizona.
Eric did too.
Results came two days later.
Daniel asked me to be there.
We sat in his attorney’s office.
Thomas beside him.
Eric participated by video from another room with counsel.
The attorney opened the report.
“Daniel.”
He paused.
“Thomas Walker is your biological father.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Thomas began crying.
For the first time in days, something good had happened.
Then the attorney continued.
“Eric Mason is not Thomas’s biological son.”
Thomas exhaled.
Daniel frowned.
“What about Charles?”
“Charles Mason is Eric’s biological father.”
“So the birth certificates in the safe were false.”
“Yes.”
“Why make them?”
“We don’t know.”
Daniel leaned back.
Then the attorney looked at another page.
“There is something else.”
My stomach tightened.
Of course there was.
“What?”
“The lab found a close familial relationship between Daniel and Eric.”
Everyone froze.
Daniel frowned.
“You just said we have different fathers.”
“Yes.”
“And different mothers.”
“Yes.”
“Then how are we related?”
The attorney looked uncomfortable.
“Based on the markers, you are most likely half-cousins or uncle-nephew.”
Thomas stared.
“That makes no sense.”
Then my phone rang.
Detective Alvarez.
I answered.
Her voice was urgent.
“We located Charles Mason’s old records.”
“What kind?”
“Marriage records.”
I frowned.
“So?”
“Before he married Evelyn Mason, Charles was married to someone else.”
“Who?”
There was a pause.
Then Alvarez answered.
“Linda’s older sister.”
Daniel stared at me.
I repeated it.
His expression went blank.
He whispered, “Mom never had a sister.”
Thomas slowly shook his head.
“Yes, she did.”
Daniel turned.
“You knew?”
“Her name was Catherine.”
“What happened to her?”
May you like
Thomas’s face changed.
“She disappeared.”
