Chapter 11 - The lie inside another lie
Margaret stared at the screen.
“I never bought that.”
Rachel looked confused.
“Your name is on it.”
“Then someone used my name.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone in this family forges everyone.”
But the cashier’s check could be traced.
And it was.
The funds came from an account associated with a Vance family trust.
Authorized signer:
Arthur Vance.
Marco’s father.
The grandfather who had barely spoken during Leo’s first years.
The man who had always seemed strangely detached from him.
We called Arthur.
He refused to come.
So Marco drove to him.
I stayed home.
Two hours later, Marco returned alone.
His face looked destroyed.
“What happened?”
He sat across from me.
“My father knew.”
“About Adrian’s sample?”
“Yes.”
I could barely speak.
“How?”
Arthur had discovered the clinic transfer error shortly after our embryo procedure.
According to Marco, he feared scandal.
He feared lawsuits.
He feared Margaret learning Adrian’s stored material might have been used.
Most of all, he feared what it would do to Marco.
So he paid intermediaries to keep people quiet.
“Did he intentionally cause the mix-up?”
Marco shook his head.
“He swears he didn’t.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
Then Marco looked at Valerie.
“My father knew her.”
Valerie stiffened.
Arthur had used Valerie, then a junior administrative employee, to communicate with several people connected to the clinic.
That was how she learned about us.
About Leo.
About the Vance family’s fear.
She kept that knowledge.
Years later, she deliberately applied for a position at my company.
My firing her hadn’t started her revenge.
It merely accelerated a plan already developing.
I looked at her.
“You targeted me.”
Valerie said nothing.
“You took the job because of Leo.”
Still nothing.
Marco stood.
“Answer her!”
Valerie exploded.
“YES!”
The room froze.
“I knew.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled with rage.
“Because Arthur promised my mother he would help us.”
I stared.
“Your mother?”
Valerie laughed through tears.
“You people still don’t understand.”
Then she turned toward Marco.
“Ask your father who my mother was.”
Marco’s face changed.
“Who?”
Valerie wiped her eyes.
“Her name was Diana Cole.”
May you like
Margaret gasped.
And I knew immediately that we had just uncovered another secret.
