Chapter 8 - Thomas Ashford
Thomas Ashford was Richard’s younger brother by six years.
Brilliant.
Unstable, according to family stories.
Except there had been no family stories.
Because Richard erased him.
Thomas worked inside Ashford Holdings.
He and Rebecca began an affair.
Rebecca became pregnant.
Thomas wanted to leave the company and marry her after her divorce.
Richard refused.
Not because of romance.
Because Thomas controlled twenty-eight percent of voting shares through a trust their father created.
If Thomas left the family business, he planned to sell.
Richard feared losing control.
Then Rebecca fell.
Thomas accused Richard.
Publicly?
No.
Privately.
Then Thomas disappeared.
Officially killed in a sailing accident off Maine in 1990.
Body never recovered.
Adrian laughed bitterly.
This family loved deaths without bodies.
Was Thomas alive?
Victoria had apparently found evidence.
The blue envelope contained an account still making payments.
Recipient:
T.A.
Annual transfers continued until last year.
Eleanor claimed she believed they went to a trust.
Not Thomas personally.
Adrian traced it.
Private rehabilitation community in Canada.
Patient:
Thomas Arthur.
Age seventy-one.
Could be him.
Then another surprise.
Thomas had visited the United States seven years earlier.
Same month Lily was born.
Border records.
He traveled to Vermont.
Near Madeline Cross.
Why?
To see his descendant?
Maybe.
Then Adrian found a letter inside Richard’s box.
From Thomas.
You stole Rebecca from me.
You stole my daughter.
You buried my name.
Do not touch Madeline’s baby.
Lily.
Thomas knew.
And Richard was already dead.
So who was he warning?
Eleanor.
She had received the letter.
“What did you do?”
“I contacted Marion Chase.”
“To protect Lily?”
“Yes.”
“By forcing an adoption?”
“No.”
Eleanor insisted Madeline had already approached the agency.
She was struggling financially.
The threat from the unknown lawyer?
Eleanor denied sending anyone.
Then who did?
Could be Thomas.
Could be someone else.
Then Victoria resurfaced in person.
She entered Ashford Manor at 3 a.m.
Exhausted.
No coat.
Face pale.
Adrian embraced her.
“Where were you?”
“With Charlotte.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she wouldn’t speak if your mother knew.”
Eleanor stiffened.
Victoria pulled a flash drive from her pocket.
Charlotte had preserved Rebecca’s letters.
Many.
In the final one, Rebecca described her fall.
She wrote:
Richard did not push me.
Eleanor did not push me.
Thomas was not there.
I stepped backward because Richard told me what he had done to the baby.
What had he done?
Rebecca survived long enough to write after the accident.
The baby was born premature.
Richard arranged the transfer.
Rebecca believed he sent the child to another family.
But she later discovered—
the infant had first been used as leverage.
Against Thomas.
Richard told Thomas:
Give up your voting shares, or you will never know where your daughter is.
Thomas signed.
Transferred control to Richard.
Then Richard hid the child.
Ashford Holdings became his.
Adrian stared at his father’s portrait.
The family fortune had been consolidated through blackmail involving a newborn.
Then Victoria said:
“That’s not why Eleanor locked Lily away.”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
Victoria looked at Lily’s cage down the corridor.
“She's not afraid of Lily because of Thomas.”
May you like
“Then why?”
“Because Lily saw something in this house three weeks ago.”
