Chapter 6 - THE PERSON BEHIND THE PLAN
The photograph changed everything.
I looked at Laura Bennett's face.
She was smiling.
I wasn't.
I looked frightened.
“Where was this taken?”
Bell answered.
“Outside the old women's clinic.”
“I never went there.”
Margaret shook her head.
“You did.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
She pointed to the photograph.
“You were there for a prenatal screening.”
My stomach dropped.
“I wasn't pregnant.”
“No.”
Bell leaned closer.
“That may be the point.”
He opened the medical file.
The forged pregnancy record had been created twelve years earlier.
The same year the photograph was taken.
I suddenly remembered something.
A hospital volunteer.
A clipboard.
A woman asking whether I wanted information about free health screenings.
I had signed something.
But I had never gone back.
Someone had used my signature.
Emily stared at me.
“They started building a file on you before Daniel met you.”
I nodded.
Bell looked at Margaret.
“Who had access?”
Margaret hesitated.
“My husband.”
“Anyone else?”
She looked at the photograph.
“Laura.”
“Why would Laura help him?”
“She didn't.”
“Then why was she there?”
Margaret took a breath.
“Because she was investigating him.”
That made sense.
Laura had been keeping records.
She had been gathering evidence.
She had found me.
She had realized I had been selected.
And she had tried to understand why.
Bell turned another page.
There was a handwritten note from Laura.
She does not know. Do not tell her yet. If Daniel learns I found her, he will move faster.
My heart sank.
“Laura knew Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't she warn me?”
“She tried.”
“When?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Three days before your wedding.”
I froze.
Emily whispered,
“Rachel…”
I remembered.
Three days before my wedding, an unknown woman had approached me outside a grocery store.
She had said,
“Don't marry him.”
I had assumed she was unstable.
Daniel had arrived minutes later.
He had taken my arm.
He had told me she was dangerous.
I had believed him.
Now I understood.
“That was Laura.”
Margaret nodded.
“She tried to save you.”
I covered my face.
For years, I had remembered that woman as a stranger.
She had been the first person to see what I could not.
Bell asked,
“What happened to Laura afterward?”
Margaret's voice broke.
“She disappeared.”
“Did Samuel kill her?”
“No.”
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Margaret looked at me.
“The same person who arranged your selection.”
I stared.
“Who?”
She didn't answer.
Instead, she opened the leather handbag again.
She removed a rosary.
It was old.
Brown beads.
A small silver cross.
“I found this in Laura's apartment.”
I touched it.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because she left a message.”
“What message?”
Margaret turned the cross over.
There was a tiny engraving.
Three letters.
E.H.
Bell frowned.
“Who is E.H.?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Emily looked at the letters.
“Maybe a name.”
I stared at the rosary.
Then remembered something Daniel had once said.
“My mother used to know a woman named Evelyn.”
Margaret's face changed.
“Evelyn Hart.”
Bell sat upright.
“Who is she?”
“Samuel's sister.”
“Where is she?”
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Bell looked at the records.
“Did she have any children?”
“One daughter.”
“Name?”
“Rebecca.”
The same woman who had refused to marry Daniel.
I stared.
Rebecca Hart.
The woman in the photograph.
The woman who had refused the contract.
Bell suddenly stood.
“Where is she now?”
Margaret shook her head.
“She disappeared.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
A pattern was forming.
Women who learned too much disappeared.
Women who refused Daniel disappeared.
Women who challenged Samuel disappeared.
And now I had been nearly killed.
But one question remained.
Why me?
Bell opened the oldest document.
At the bottom was a family tree.
My name was not there.
Daniel's name was.
Samuel's.
Evelyn's.
Rebecca's.
Laura's.
Then, at the very bottom, a name had been written in red.
Rachel Morgan.
My maiden name.
I stared.
“I don't understand.”
Margaret whispered,
“Your father knew Samuel.”
I shook my head.
“My father died when I was ten.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
“Because they worked together.”
I felt as though the floor had disappeared.
“What?”
Margaret looked at Bell.
“Your father helped Samuel establish the trust.”
I stared at the document.
My father's signature appeared beneath Samuel's.
The date was eleven years before my birth.
This was no longer about Daniel.
It was bigger.
Much bigger.
My entire childhood had been connected to the Cole family before I ever knew they existed.
Bell asked,
“Why was Rachel selected?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Because Samuel believed your father owed him a debt.”
“What kind?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
“Enough to destroy both families.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Did my father know?”
“Yes.”
“And he gave me to Daniel?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
She looked toward the window.
“Your father tried to protect you.”
I stared at her.
“Then why didn't he tell me?”
“Because he died before he could.”
Bell's phone rang.
He answered.
Then his face changed.
“What happened?”
He listened.
“Are you sure?”
Another pause.
“Send the file.”
He hung up.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“We found Rebecca Hart.”
“Where?”
“She contacted the police.”
“Why?”
Bell's expression was grim.
“She says she has evidence that Samuel wasn't the person who chose you.”
I waited.
“Then who?”
Bell looked at the rosary.
“Evelyn Hart.”
I frowned.
“She died five years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then how?”
Bell placed the phone on the table.
A photograph appeared.
Evelyn Hart.
Alive.
Taken three months ago.
I stared.
“That woman isn't dead.”
Bell shook his head.
“No.”
He zoomed in.
She was standing outside a private clinic.
Beside her was another woman.
Laura Bennett.
May you like
I stopped breathing.
Laura was alive too.
