Chapter 18 - The Woman Holding the Gun
The drive back to Whitmore mansion took twenty-eight minutes and felt like three hours. Marcus called security repeatedly. Daniel reported that the internal camera feed had gone dark seconds after Elena entered the study. No shots had been detected by the mansion’s acoustic security system, but nobody could confirm whether Rebecca was alive. Sarah called local police before Marcus could argue. Adrian sat in the back seat, pale and furious. “She wouldn’t hurt Rebecca.” Marcus looked at him through the mirror. “You know Elena well enough to guarantee that?” Adrian had no answer.
Police surrounded the mansion. Sarah entered with officers. Marcus and Adrian were ordered to remain outside. They ignored that after ninety seconds. The west study door stood open. Elena sat on the sofa. Rebecca stood beside the fireplace. No gun visible.
Marcus stopped.
“Where is it?”
Elena looked at him.
“What?”
“The gun.”
Rebecca raised one hand.
“It wasn’t loaded.”
Marcus stared.
“That’s supposed to help?”
Elena said, “It was mine.”
Sarah found the handgun on the desk, magazine removed.
Marcus looked between the women.
“Someone would like to explain why my ex-wife pointed a gun at my secret half-sister while standing inside my house?”
Rebecca spoke.
“She didn’t point it at me.”
“The camera showed—”
“Elena was showing it to me.”
Marcus laughed once.
“I officially hate security footage.”
Elena looked tired.
“You weren’t supposed to arrive yet.”
“An excellent sentence to say after an armed-camera image.”
Sarah inspected the weapon.
“Registered?”
“Yes,” Elena said. “To Richard.”
Marcus’s father.
Another inheritance.
“Why do you have his gun?”
“Because it was hidden in a safe-deposit box with documents he left me.”
Marcus stared.
“Elena, I am one secret away from becoming unreasonable.”
“You were unreasonable before secrets.”
“Not the time.”
Rebecca almost smiled.
The resemblance to his father disappeared when she did.
Marcus noticed.
Elena had texted that Rebecca was not his sister.
“DNA,” he said.
Rebecca’s smile vanished.
“So she told you.”
Adrian moved closer.
“What does that mean?”
Rebecca looked at him with pain.
“Adrian…”
His face fell.
“You knew?”
“I found out yesterday.”
Marcus felt the room shift.
“Elena.”
She took out a folder.
Richard had kept sealed medical records. Catherine Vale’s daughter Rebecca had indeed lived with the Whitmores. Richard was listed as father. But a private paternity test conducted in 1993 excluded him.
“So why claim her?” Marcus asked.
“Because Catherine’s father would only allow Richard to manage Rebecca’s shares if he was legal parent,” Elena said.
“He falsified paternity.”
“He acknowledged paternity legally before the test.”
Rebecca spoke quietly.
“He knew I wasn’t his daughter and still used me.”
Marcus felt unexpected anger on her behalf.
“Who was your biological father?”
Rebecca looked at Adrian.
“His father.”
Adrian stepped backward.
“No.”
Elena handed him a copy.
Thomas Hale.
Adrian’s father.
The man accused of stealing from Whitmore Enterprises.
The man Elena’s evidence helped destroy.
Rebecca was Thomas Hale’s daughter.
Adrian stared at her.
“You’re my sister?”
Silence.
The horror moved through the room.
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“Half-sister.”
Adrian looked like he might be sick.
“How long have you known?”
“Less than twenty-four hours.”
“You should have called me.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“You let me drive here thinking—”
“I’m sorry.”
He walked out.
Rebecca started after him, then stopped.
Marcus understood with awful clarity. Adrian had spent three years loving a woman who had just discovered they shared a father.
Sarah touched Rebecca’s arm.
“Give him time.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know.”
Nobody accused her.
The room did not need it.
Marcus sat.
“So why does Rebecca still hold shares?”
Elena answered.
“Because Catherine’s trust gave them to Rebecca regardless of paternity.”
“Then why file a challenge under Vale Heritage?”
“I didn’t.”
“You control it.”
“No.”
Company records apparently had not been updated.
Richard transferred control of Vale Heritage Trust months before his arrest.
“To whom?” Marcus asked.
Elena looked at the gun.
“Catherine Vale.”
Marcus stared.
“She’s dead.”
“That’s what everyone thought.”
Of course.
He almost laughed.
Fake deaths had become a family tradition.
Rebecca whispered, “My mother is alive.”
Elena nodded.
Sarah asked the obvious.
“Where?”
“No idea.”
Elena explained that Catherine’s reported aneurysm death had been staged. Richard arranged a new identity after Thomas Hale threatened to expose the affair and company corruption. Catherine disappeared in exchange for money and trust protections for Rebecca.
“Then why abandon her daughter?” Marcus asked.
“Because Richard threatened to prosecute Catherine for embezzlement.”
Rebecca looked devastated.
“Was she guilty?”
Elena hesitated.
“Partly.”
Nobody was clean.
Again.
Sarah checked the trust challenge.
“If Catherine controls Vale Heritage, she filed this.”
Marcus said, “Why now?”
Rebecca turned toward him.
“Because she knows I came back.”
A phone rang.
Rebecca’s.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice came through.
Older.
Trembling.
“Rebecca?”
Rebecca froze.
“Mom?”
The room became silent.
Catherine Vale spoke again.
“Do not trust Elena.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Catherine continued.
“She helped Richard take you from me.”
Rebecca stared at Elena.
“What?”
Elena whispered, “That is not the whole story.”
Catherine laughed bitterly through the phone.
“It never is with you.”
Marcus felt a chill.
Rebecca asked, “Where are you?”
“I’m close.”
“How close?”
A car pulled into the driveway.
Security announced a visitor.
Catherine Vale.
Marcus looked through the window.
An elegant silver-haired woman stepped from a black sedan.
May you like
She stared toward the mansion she had not entered in more than thirty years.
And inside, Elena began crying before Catherine ever reached the door.
