Chapter 7 - Rebecca’s First Daughter
Elaine never told me.
Daniel didn't know until after she vanished.
In 1992, two years before becoming Elaine, Rebecca gave birth to a girl.
The father was not listed.
The baby was placed for adoption.
Daniel learned about her only after finding a hospital invoice among Rebecca's belongings.
Why would Elaine hide a daughter from everyone?
Her letter explained part of it.
Rebecca was twenty-two.
The pregnancy was unplanned.
She believed the father was dangerous.
She arranged a closed adoption through an attorney connected to North Range.
Years later she discovered the attorney also worked for Warren Timmons.
She feared the adoption had been manipulated.
When she began investigating North Range, she secretly searched for her child.
Caleb helped.
By 1994 they discovered the baby had not gone to the family Rebecca selected.
Records had been changed.
The girl disappeared into another adoption.
That was what Elaine meant by “the original child.”
Not some hidden baby in our marriage.
A daughter born before me.
Elaine spent years searching.
In 2014, Caleb apparently found her.
Who?
The answer was missing from the field office.
Someone had removed a file from the wall.
Only four pinholes remained.
Then Brock arrived under state supervision.
He stared at Elaine and Caleb's photograph.
“My brother loved her.”
Daniel looked ready to hit him.
Brock clarified:
“Not romantically.”
Caleb felt responsible for what North Range had done to Rebecca.
Helping her became his life's unfinished obligation.
Then Brock confessed why he had been protecting Trent over the years.
Not friendship.
Blackmail.
Malcolm Huxley had possessed letters proving Sheriff Warren Timmons helped fake Caleb's death.
If exposed, Brock believed his father's reputation would collapse and Caleb would be prosecuted for old crimes.
After Malcolm died, Trent inherited the letters.
Whenever Brock responded to complaints involving Trent, Trent reminded him.
Brock had minimized incidents.
Used discretion improperly.
Sometimes failed to document things fully.
He insisted he never concealed serious physical violence.
Whether that was true would be independently reviewed.
Cassidy listened from her hospital bed.
Then said:
“You came to our house last year.”
Brock went quiet.
She remembered Trent breaking a kitchen cabinet during an argument.
A neighbor called.
Brock responded.
He classified it as property damage with no victim complaint.
Cassidy had been afraid to contradict Trent.
“Would you have written it differently if he wasn't blackmailing you?”
Brock couldn't answer.
That answer was enough.
He removed his badge voluntarily pending investigation.
Then he handed me a key.
“Caleb mailed this to me five years ago.”
Another key.
Another hidden box.
I almost laughed from exhaustion.
This one opened a storage locker.
Inside were Caleb's personal records.
And the missing photograph.
Elaine's first daughter.
Twenty-two years old in the picture from 2014.
Blonde hair.
Green eyes.
Standing outside a veterinary clinic.
Her name:
Megan Cole.
Cassidy stared.
“I know her.”
“How?”
“She was Trent's girlfriend.”
Before Cassidy.
Years earlier.
Trent had dated Megan Cole for almost two years.
Then they separated.
A year later he met Cassidy.
Could that be coincidence?
Maybe.
But then Cassidy whispered:
“Megan disappeared.”
Not literally.
She left Montana suddenly after accusing Trent's father Malcolm of stalking her.
Nobody knew where she went.
Daniel searched his records.
Megan Cole's adoptive father had worked for North Range.
Then another connection appeared.
Megan's adoption had been arranged by—
May you like
Malcolm Huxley.
Trent's father had known exactly who she was.
