Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE OLD PHOTOGRAPH
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Camden did not answer.
He looked at his attorney, then at Bianca, then back at Nora.
“Where did you hear that name?”
Nora felt her pulse quicken.
“So you did know.”
“That's not what I said.”
“Then answer the question.”
His attorney stepped between them.
“This meeting is concluded.”
Nora watched Camden leave.
Bianca followed him, but not before giving Nora a look that was almost pity.
It was the look of someone who believed she had already won.
Outside, Holly waited beside the elevator.
“What happened?”
“He knew.”
Holly nodded.
“Then we need to find out how much.”
That afternoon, Daniel Whitmore invited Nora to the family estate outside Boston.
The property sat behind iron gates and a long drive lined with old trees. The house was large without being ostentatious, built from pale stone with dark shutters and a wide porch.
Nora had never seen it before.
Yet something about it felt strangely familiar.
Daniel led her into a library.
On the mantel stood a photograph of Eleanor Whitmore.
Nora stopped.
The woman in the photograph was smiling.
Her hair was dark and loosely pinned. The silver bird pendant rested at her throat.
Nora reached for her own pendant.
“That's her.”
Daniel nodded.
“She was twenty-eight when that photograph was taken.”
“Did she love me?”
Daniel's expression softened.
“More than anything.”
He opened a drawer and removed a small wooden box.
Inside were letters, a hospital bracelet, and a faded photograph of a little girl sitting on a woman's lap.
Nora touched the photograph.
“I remember this blanket.”
“You do?”
“Not clearly. I remember yellow. And someone singing.”
Daniel looked away.
“Your mother used to sing when she was frightened.”
Nora sat down.
“Why was she frightened?”
Daniel took a breath.
“Your grandfather believed the family fortune should remain under his control. When Eleanor married your father, he considered it a betrayal. He threatened to disinherit her.”
“But she had already inherited the trust.”
“She had. The trust was structured to protect her interest from family interference. When she disappeared, the trustees froze certain distributions.”
Nora looked at him.
“Did my grandfather search for her?”
Daniel hesitated.
“He said he did.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No,” Daniel admitted. “It isn't.”
He removed another document.
“This is a letter from Eleanor, written two days before she disappeared.”
Nora unfolded it carefully.
The handwriting was delicate.
If anything happens to me, do not let them tell my daughter she was unwanted. She was the only good thing I ever did without permission.
Nora pressed the letter to her chest.
For years, she had wondered why no one had come.
Why her mother had disappeared.
Why she had been left alone.
Now she was learning that the answers had been hidden behind money and power.
Daniel sat opposite her.
“There's one more thing.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a younger Camden Rourke standing beside Nora's grandfather outside a charity dinner.
Nora stared.
“When was this taken?”
“About twelve years ago. Your husband was introduced to the family office by a business associate.”
Nora's stomach tightened.
“Before he proposed.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know who I was?”
Daniel looked at her.
“We believe he suspected.”
The room went silent.
Nora thought about the early years.
Camden asking questions about her childhood.
Camden wanting to see her mother's pendant.
Camden insisting that they keep her adoption records in a safe.
She had mistaken his curiosity for love.
Now she wondered whether he had been collecting information.
Daniel opened another folder.
“We found correspondence between your grandfather and a representative of Breakwater. It suggests Camden was promised financial support if he married into the Whitmore family.”
Nora felt the air leave her lungs.
“He married me for the trust?”
“We can't prove that yet.”
“But you suspect it.”
Daniel nodded.
Nora stood and walked toward the window.
She could see the garden where her mother had once played.
Then her phone rang.
It was Holly.
“Nora, you need to come back.”
“What happened?”
“Camden's attorney has filed a motion to restrict your access to the marital home.”
“That's not surprising.”
“There's more. He claims you stole confidential files and is asking the court to order their return.”
May you like
Nora looked down at the folder in her hand.
“Then I suppose it's time to show them who really owns those files.”
