Chapter 10 - My Daughter
I had raised Cassidy for thirty-two years.
I taught her to drive.
Held her after her first heartbreak.
Walked her down the aisle even though I hated the man waiting at the other end.
Biology wasn't going to erase that.
Still, truth mattered.
Elaine had been pregnant when we met.
She knew.
I didn't.
Cassidy wasn't born premature.
That was another lie used to hide the timeline.
She had been full-term.
The medical records had been altered by a doctor connected to Warren Timmons.
I sat alone for an hour before reading further.
Then Cassidy came into the hospital family room in a wheelchair.
“You don't have to stay.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“If this is too much—”
“Don't ever say that again.”
She cried.
“So I'm still—”
“My daughter?”
I moved my chair beside her.
“You were my daughter yesterday.”
I took her hand.
“You'll be my daughter when I'm dead.”
That settled the only part that mattered immediately.
Then we read Warren's confession together.
Cassidy's biological father was named Nathan Cross.
Daniel's older brother.
Another Cross.
Nathan worked at North Range.
He and Rebecca were secretly involved.
Nathan discovered the royalty fraud before Rebecca did.
He gathered evidence.
Then he died in what was reported as a workplace accident.
Rebecca suspected sabotage.
No proof had ever established it.
She discovered she was pregnant days later.
North Range executives feared Nathan had given her documents.
Warren initially helped pressure her.
Then his conscience changed.
Caleb pushed him.
Father and son helped Rebecca disappear.
Why choose me?
My family had been harmed by North Range.
Rebecca initially intended to approach me for information.
Then she needed a legal identity.
Elaine Mercer already existed.
Who was she?
A woman who died as an infant in another county.
Warren resurrected the identity illegally.
Rebecca became Elaine.
She approached me.
Then fell in love.
At least her letter said she did.
I chose to believe actions spanning thirty-four years more than the lie that began them.
Daniel learned Cassidy was Nathan's daughter.
He broke down.
“You're my niece.”
Cassidy looked exhausted.
“Apparently.”
Then Daniel realized something.
Nathan had owned shares in North Range.
When he died, those shares should have passed to his child.
But no child was recorded.
The company redistributed them.
If Cassidy proved paternity, she might have a legal claim.
Potentially substantial.
Suddenly Mercer Basin wasn't the only money Trent had discovered.
He may have found Nathan's old share certificates.
Investigators searched Trent's office.
They found copies.
And correspondence with a corporate-recovery attorney.
Trent had been preparing a claim in Cassidy's name without telling her.
Estimated potential settlement:
$11 million.
That was the money he yelled about.
Not one inheritance.
Two.
Elaine's mineral holdings.
Nathan's shares.
Trent believed his wife was sitting on nearly $30 million.
Cassidy didn't know any of it.
Then Daniel noticed something in Nathan's original share certificate.
Witness signature:
Malcolm Huxley.
Trent's father.
Malcolm had known Nathan.
Known Rebecca.
Known Cassidy's biological origin.
And he had never told Trent the entire truth.
Then Megan called.
She had found something among her adoptive father's papers.
A photograph.
Nathan Cross holding newborn Megan.
Daniel stared.
“Megan was born before Nathan met Rebecca.”
Megan shook her head.
“Look at the back.”
Written in Rebecca's handwriting:
Nathan with our girl.
Silence.
Megan wasn't merely Rebecca's daughter.
Nathan was her father too.
Cassidy and Megan were full biological sisters.
And Nathan's estate had two heirs.
May you like
Not one.
Trent's secret $11 million claim had deliberately excluded Megan.
