Chapter 7 - Margaret’s Child
Daniel had never known Margaret had a child.
His name was Andrew.
Born 1990.
Died at five months.
Sudden cardiac arrest.
VHC-7.
That was why Margaret went to work for Voss’s research division.
Not before Andrew.
After.
She wanted answers.
Charles had already lost his teenage son to a similar condition.
Their grief aligned.
Alder House began as a legitimate attempt to identify familial cardiac risk.
Then boundaries eroded.
Samples retained too long.
Paternity testing added.
Families tracked without clear consent.
Charles justified it as prevention.
Margaret justified record manipulation as protection.
Everyone believed the end excused the means.
Then Laura joined the program.
She and Margaret became close.
That explained why Laura trusted her.
Then came another revelation.
Andrew’s father was not Margaret’s first husband.
It was Charles Voss.
Daniel stared.
“So you and my biological father had a child?”
“Yes.”
Years before Charles’s affair with Laura.
Andrew died.
Their relationship ended.
Then Charles later became involved with Laura.
Margaret felt betrayed by both.
Yet she protected Laura’s son.
Daniel.
Why?
“Because you were a baby.”
Simple.
For once.
“You weren't responsible for what they did.”
That was the first thing Margaret said that made me see her differently.
Not forgive.
Understand.
Then Charles met Daniel.
Private conference room.
Attorneys present.
No Noah.
No me initially, until Daniel asked me to join.
Charles looked nothing like Daniel except around the eyes.
He did not call himself Dad.
Good.
“I violated your mother’s privacy,” he said.
Daniel blinked.
No excuses?
Charles continued.
“I believed genetic information could save lives. I used that belief to justify things I had no right to do.”
“Did you know I was your son?”
“By the time you were twelve, yes.”
“Why didn't you contact me?”
“Laura told me not to.”
“Since when did you respect boundaries?”
Charles accepted the hit.
Then:
“After Alder House, I learned slowly.”
The trusts were his attempt at restitution.
Poorly designed.
Secretive.
Paternalistic.
Again.
Daniel asked about Baby 1.
Charles’s expression changed.
“Andrew.”
“Yes.”
“I loved him.”
“Margaret says you used his death to justify Alder House.”
Charles looked at Margaret’s empty chair.
“She isn't wrong.”
Then Daniel asked:
“Why did she tell us not to come?”
Charles paused.
“Because there is something she still hasn't told you.”
Of course.
“What?”
Charles opened an old case file.
Andrew’s autopsy.
VHC-7 identified retrospectively.
Then a second infant file.
Baby 2.
Female.
Born three months after Andrew.
Same mother.
Margaret.
Daniel stared.
“She had another baby?”
“Yes.”
“Did she die too?”
“No.”
The girl survived.
Was adopted privately.
Margaret never told Charles where.
Why?
After Andrew’s death, she blamed Charles and the research world around him.
She wanted her daughter far away.
Daniel asked:
“Why does this matter to me?”
Charles looked at me.
May you like
Then at Daniel.
“Because I believe you know her.”
