Chapter 13 - THE FIANCÉE'S MOTHER|
Vivian denied everything.
She sat in the estate's formal sitting room wearing a white dress and a diamond bracelet, her face arranged in the cool expression she used whenever a journalist asked an inconvenient question.
"I have never seen that document," she said.
Nomi stood opposite her.
"Your name is on it."
"Anyone can forge a signature."
"Then tell us where you were on the night of the clinic fire."
Vivian looked at Eleanor.
"Mother, are you going to let her interrogate me?"
Eleanor's voice hardened.
"She has more right to ask questions than you have to refuse them."
Vivian's cheeks flushed.
"You've known her for less than a day."
"I've spent twenty-six years searching for her."
Vivian rose.
"Then perhaps you should have searched harder."
The words struck the room like a slap.
Eleanor went pale.
Nomi moved forward.
"Don't speak to her that way."
Vivian laughed.
"Now you're defending her? How touching. You've been here for one evening, and you already expect everyone to treat you like royalty."
"I expect people to treat each other like human beings."
"And I expect you to stop pretending the scar makes you special."
Julian stepped between them.
"Enough."
Vivian turned toward him.
"You're taking her side again."
"I'm taking the side of the person who isn't trying to frighten everyone into silence."
Her composure cracked.
"You don't understand what she is."
"Then explain it."
Vivian stared at him for a long moment.
Finally, she sat down.
"When I was eighteen, my mother told me a secret. She said our family had once helped the Ashcoms protect a child from a dangerous man. She said the child had died during the clinic fire and that the truth had to remain buried."
Eleanor shook her head.
"That is not what happened."
Vivian ignored her.
"Three years ago, a man named Adrian Pike approached me. He said the missing child might be alive. He showed me a medical drawing of a scar. He told me that if the girl returned, she would have a claim against both families."
"Why didn't you tell Julian?" Nomi asked.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of losing the life I had built."
Nomi looked at her torn uniform, still folded in the evidence bag on a nearby table.
"You humiliated me in front of four hundred people because you were afraid of losing a life you had built."
Vivian looked away.
"I didn't know who you were."
"You didn't need to know. You knew I was a person."
For a moment, Vivian appeared close to tears.
Then her expression hardened again.
"Adrian told me that the only way to keep the trust intact was to prove you weren't the missing child. He said your scar could be explained by a childhood accident. He said the family would forget about you if I made it impossible for you to remain here."
Julian stared at her.
"So you staged a public humiliation."
"I wanted you to see her as a liar."
"And when that failed?"
Vivian said nothing.
Eleanor placed the document on the table.
"Who paid Adrian?"
Vivian hesitated.
"A man called Victor Sloane."
The name meant something to Julian. Victor was a private financier who had worked with his father on several property deals before disappearing from public life.
"What does he want?" Julian asked.
"The trust," Vivian replied. "And whatever evidence Margaret kept."
Nomi touched the scar beneath her blouse.
"Why did he attack me three years ago?"
Vivian looked at her, and for the first time, her fear appeared genuine.
"Because Adrian believed you had found the original medical file. He thought you might be able to identify the person who took you from the clinic."
"Who was that person?"
Vivian slowly shook her head.
"I don't know."
Eleanor leaned forward.
"You are lying."
Vivian stared at her mother.
Then she whispered, "I don't know who took the baby. But I know where the baby went."
She reached into her handbag and removed a small card.
An address was printed on one side.
A private school in Connecticut.
May you like
On the other side, in handwriting that matched the letter from the archive, were six words:
The missing boy is still alive.
