Chapter 3 - Someone Else Was Upstairs
Police searched the mansion.
No intruder.
Every exterior door was accounted for.
Every guest had been logged.
Every employee interviewed.
Yet someone had apparently been standing beyond the camera at 7:49.
Ethan immediately suspected one of Richard’s guards.
There were four.
Marcus Bell.
Owen Price.
Caleb Ross.
Victor Kane.
All had worked for Richard for years.
All wore black suits.
All knew the house.
And all had access to security blind spots.
Richard ordered them separated for questioning.
Again, he did not resist scrutiny.
That bothered Ethan.
A guilty man usually protected his people.
Richard seemed almost eager to discover who had been upstairs.
Ethan checked access records.
Three guards were downstairs at 7:49.
Victor Kane had no confirmed location.
Victor became the obvious suspect.
Then Lily woke.
Ethan sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, did you see anybody upstairs with Grandma?”
Lily nodded.
“Who?”
“The man with the shiny shoes.”
All four guards wore polished black shoes.
“Was it one of Grandpa’s guards?”
Lily thought.
“No.”
“You're sure?”
“He wasn't big like them.”
Different man.
“What did he look like?”
“I didn't see his face.”
“Why?”
“He was behind the statue.”
The upstairs corridor contained a marble statue near the staircase landing.
A person could stand partly concealed there.
“Did you hear him?”
Lily nodded.
“What did he say?”
Her eyes became frightened.
“He told Grandma I wasn't supposed to be here.”
Ethan felt cold.
“Here in the house?”
Lily shook her head.
“Here at all.”
He did not press further.
Downstairs, Richard had opened a private family archive.
Ethan had not entered the room since childhood.
Richard removed a locked metal box.
Inside were documents.
Old photographs.
Letters.
And a sealed DNA report.
Ethan saw Lily’s name.
“What is that?”
Richard answered reluctantly.
“Something your mother asked me to destroy.”
Ethan opened it.
The report was seven years old.
PATERNITY ANALYSIS.
ETHAN WHITMORE — PROBABILITY OF PATERNITY: 99.99%.
Ethan looked up.
“You tested Lily?”
“Your mother did.”
“Why?”
“She believed Lily wasn't yours.”
Ethan felt anger burn through him.
Richard continued.
“When the result proved she was wrong, I thought it ended.”
It hadn't.
Eleanor had apparently remained obsessed with Lily.
But why?
Ethan searched deeper.
Another report.
MATERNITY ANALYSIS.
He stopped.
Lily’s mother, Amelia, had died four years earlier.
Eleanor had tested her too.
Result:
AMELIA CARTER — MATERNAL RELATIONSHIP EXCLUDED.
Ethan stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Ethan’s wife had given birth to Lily.
He had been there.
He had held Amelia’s hand.
He had watched Lily placed against her chest.
There was no possibility Lily belonged to another mother.
Unless the test was wrong.
Or the sample was.
Richard said Eleanor had obtained both reports privately.
She showed him only the paternity test.
Richard discovered the maternity result months later.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Amelia was dying.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You knew?”
“She had been diagnosed. She asked me not to destabilize Lily’s life over a private test your mother obtained without consent.”
Ethan's rage faltered.
Amelia.
That sounded like Amelia.
Protect Lily first.
Always.
“Did Amelia know about the maternity result?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Richard looked directly at him.
“She said, ‘Eleanor tested the wrong child.’”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
Richard handed him a letter Amelia had written.
One sentence was underlined.
There were two baby girls in that hospital room the night Lily was born.
May you like
Only one came home with us.
And Eleanor has spent seven years trying to prove which one.
