Chapter 10 - The Other Lorraine
Her name was Lenora Dane.
Lorraine's identical twin.
She was supposed to have died at seventeen.
A drowning.
No body recovered.
I almost laughed when I heard that.
Of course there wasn't.
In my family, a death certificate had become less convincing than a parking receipt.
Lorraine sat down.
“Lenora?”
The voice answered:
“You always did get everything.”
Their father had favored Lorraine.
Education.
Money.
Connections.
Then Arthur.
Lenora disappeared after discovering she was pregnant.
The father?
Daniel Whitlock.
Arthur's identical twin.
The families had produced two pairs of twins.
Arthur and Daniel.
Lorraine and Lenora.
Grant and—
No.
I wasn't a twin.
At least nobody had told me I was.
Walter looked sick.
“My mother.”
Lenora was Walter's mother.
Lorraine's sister.
Daniel's lover.
Walter therefore carried both hidden family branches.
That made Lucas genetically connected to the Whitlocks and Danes through him, and to Bellamy through Tessa.
Arthur had ordered the experimental embryo destroyed after realizing Vance had created it.
Lenora intercepted the order.
She wanted her bloodline restored.
Lucas wasn't created merely as a legal experiment.
He was her grandson.
Tessa's voice shook with rage.
“You put him inside me without consent.”
Lenora answered calmly.
“Vance did.”
“You allowed it.”
“Yes.”
I took the phone.
“Where is Lucas?”
“Safe.”
“If he isn't—”
“You'll do what? Kill everyone?”
Her laugh was almost identical to Lorraine's.
“That's why Arthur feared you raising him.”
Lorraine stood.
“Lenora, this has nothing to do with Grant.”
“It has everything to do with Grant.”
Then Lenora revealed why she resurfaced now.
Tessa had turned thirty-one.
Under the trust, her authority changed at thirty-one.
She could permanently dissolve the genetic succession clauses.
Noah and Lucas would then become ordinary beneficiaries.
No bloodline games.
No competing control.
No leverage.
Lenora couldn't allow that.
She needed Tessa to sign before midnight the next day.
“What?”
A transfer.
Tessa's trustee authority to Lucas.
A six-year-old child.
In practice, whoever controlled his guardianship would control the trust.
Lenora.
“No.”
Tessa didn't hesitate.
Lenora sighed.
“Then you won't see Lucas.”
The call ended.
Walter slammed his fist into the wall.
Lorraine looked at him.
Her nephew.
The child she apparently hadn't known survived.
“Walter.”
“Don't.”
“You knew I was your aunt?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“My entire life.”
That hurt her.
Good.
We traced Vance's vehicle.
South toward Colorado Springs.
Then Noah tugged my hand.
I looked down.
He was holding Lucas's second toy.
A plastic airplane.
“Lucas put this in my bag.”
“Why?”
“He said the doctor told him to hide the bear.”
I crouched.
“What doctor?”
“The airport doctor.”
Tessa and I looked at each other.
Vance had approached the twins before I ever saw them at Sky Harbor.
Noah continued:
“Lucas said the bear was bad.”
“How did he know?”
Noah shrugged.
“Grandpa told him.”
My chest tightened.
“What grandpa?”
“Our phone grandpa.”
Tessa went completely still.
“There is no phone grandpa.”
Noah looked confused.
“Yes there is.”
He described video calls Lucas had secretly received for months.
An older man.
Gray hair.
Always asking about their mother.
Always telling Lucas not to tell anyone.
Tessa showed Noah photographs.
Arthur.
No.
Vance.
No.
Walter.
No.
Then Evelyn pulled up an old Whitlock family photograph.
Noah pointed immediately.
“Him.”
My stomach dropped.
Daniel Whitlock.
Arthur's identical twin.
Walter's father.
Supposedly dead for decades.
May you like
Noah smiled innocently.
“That's Grandpa.”
