No one asked Daniel why he had gone pale.
We did not need to.
For several seconds he stared at the photograph on Claire’s phone, then at the warning beneath it.
DO NOT TELL DANIEL WHERE SHE IS.
His mouth opened, but no sound came.
Claire leaned one forearm on the dining table. “You know her.”
“No.”
“You recognized her.”
“I recognized Rebecca.”
“That woman isn’t Rebecca.”
“They look alike.”
“She is standing beside a lake one week ago.”
Daniel rubbed his mouth.
Marlene was still crying from what he had admitted about Peter. She looked at the photograph next, and something in her expression softened with grief.
“She has Rebecca’s eyes.”
Claire turned toward her.
“You believe it’s Anna?”
“I believe she could be.”
Daniel shook his head.
“This is exactly how people get manipulated. A photograph. A few documents. Anonymous messages. You’re letting a stranger construct a story.”
Claire looked at him.
“Then tell us which part is false.”
Daniel said nothing.
I balanced Luca against my shoulder and listened to his tiny breaths while the adults around him dismantled thirty years of family history.
“Did you know the second baby lived?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Thomas?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Peter?”
“Apparently.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
“Why did the message say not to tell you where Anna is?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is getting old.”
Daniel pushed away from the table.
“So is being accused of things I didn’t do.”
Marlene laughed once.
“You gave Victor Peter’s location.”
“Yes.”
“And Peter died two days later.”
“I told you, I didn’t know—”
“You knew enough to hide it for twenty-eight years.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“I was twenty-seven, broke, terrified, and stupid.”
“You married his sister.”
“I loved you.”
“After helping a man find my brother.”
“I didn’t help kill Peter.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know I never wanted him dead.”
Marlene stared at him with such quiet disgust that Daniel looked away first.
Claire pulled the phone closer.
The unknown number had not sent anything else.
I typed:
WHY SHOULD ANNA FEAR DANIEL?
The answer did not come immediately.
Claire watched the screen.
Daniel watched me.
“You’re feeding whoever this is information.”
“No. I asked a question.”
“They know we’re together.”
“They already knew what was in Rebecca’s box.”
“That should concern you.”
“It does.”
“Then stop.”
Claire looked at him.
“You sound scared.”
“I am scared.”
Finally, honesty.
“Of what?”
Daniel’s shoulders dropped.
“Of what Victor built.”
“He’s dead.”
“Victor Shaw is dead. His system isn’t.”
I remembered what Daniel had said about favors, debts, people in banks and police departments and construction offices.
“What system?”
Daniel dragged a chair out and sat.
“Victor never trusted anyone with everything. That was how he survived. One person handled money. Another person handled permits. Somebody else took care of lawsuits. Somebody else cleaned records. Nobody could expose the whole structure because nobody knew the whole structure.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“Peter did.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Peter started connecting pieces.”
“That’s why Victor wanted him.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas?”
“Thomas knew enough to understand Peter was right.”
My mother’s face had tightened beside me.
“You always blamed Thomas.”
“I blamed him for helping Victor.”
“Now you’re saying he tried to stop him.”
“Both can be true, Elaine.”
That silenced her.
Daniel continued.
“Thomas took Victor’s money when he started his company. He signed things he should never have signed. He moved money he knew wasn’t clean. Then Peter showed him where it came from.”
“Rebecca’s trust,” Claire said.
“Part of it.”
“What else?”
“Other families. Other accounts.”
I felt cold.
“How much?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Enough to destroy people who still have things named after them.”
Claire gave him a hard look.
“You keep saying things like that without names.”
“Because names get people hurt.”
“That fear didn’t save Peter.”
Daniel absorbed the blow.
“No.”
“Or Rebecca.”
His eyes dropped.
“No.”
“Or Thomas.”
My mother flinched.
Daniel looked at the screen.
“No.”
Claire leaned closer.
“So stop protecting ghosts.”
My phone vibrated.
We all looked down.
The reply had arrived.
DANIEL IS NOT THE ONE ANNA FEARS MOST.
Daniel exhaled.
Then another message:
BUT HE KNOWS THE NAME OF THE MAN SHE DOES.
Claire looked at him.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“No.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
The third message arrived immediately.
ASK HIM WHO SIGNED REBECCA’S DEATH CERTIFICATE.
Daniel stood.
“No.”
Marlene turned.
“What?”
Daniel grabbed his keys.
Claire moved first.
She stepped between him and the doorway.
“Sit down.”
“I’m leaving.”
“Who signed it?”
“Move.”
“Who signed my mother’s death certificate?”
Daniel looked at Marlene.
She had gone still.
“Daniel.”
He closed his eyes.
“Dr. Leonard Voss.”
Marlene sat back.
My mother whispered, “Oh God.”
I looked between them.
“Who is Leonard Voss?”
No one answered quickly enough.
“Mom?”
Elaine looked at me.
“He was Victor’s doctor.”
“Personal doctor?”
“Friend too.”
Daniel added, “And chairman of St. Vincent’s medical board.”
The hospital where Rebecca delivered the twins.
Claire’s face changed.
“He had access to my birth records.”
“Yes.”
“And Rebecca’s death record.”
“Yes.”
“And Peter?”
Daniel hesitated.
“What about Peter?”
“Did Voss have anything to do with Peter’s death?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer sounded genuine.
Claire looked at Marlene.
“Is he alive?”
Marlene nodded.
“He retired years ago.”
Daniel corrected her.
“He retired publicly.”
“What does that mean?”
“He sits on three foundations and owns part of a private clinic network.”
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Of course he does.”
I looked at the photograph of Anna again.
“Why would Anna fear a retired doctor?”
Daniel sat slowly.
“Because Voss handled problems.”
“What kind?”
“Medical ones.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means if Victor needed a diagnosis to disappear, Voss could make it happen.”
My mother spoke.
“Thomas once said Leonard could turn a living person into a dead one with paperwork.”
Claire looked at her.
“You remember that now?”
Elaine’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know what it meant.”
Claire gave a bitter laugh.
“That sentence describes my entire family.”
No one challenged her.
I typed another question to the unknown number.
IS VOSS ANNA’S FATHER?
The reply took nearly a minute.
NO.
Then:
BUT HE KNOWS WHO IS.
Claire’s fingers pressed against her mouth.
Marlene whispered, “Then the paternity records.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Ask if Voss switched them.”
I did.
The reply came:
HE ERASED ONE CHILD AND REASSIGNED THE OTHER.
Claire closed her eyes.
My stomach turned.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Daniel answered slowly.
“It could mean one twin’s identity was removed, and the surviving record was attached to Claire.”
Marlene shook her head.
“But Claire is Claire.”
“Maybe.”
Claire looked at him.
“What does maybe mean?”
Daniel realized his mistake.
“I mean the name. Not you.”
“That doesn’t help.”
Marlene reached across the table.
“Rebecca named you Claire.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she told me before the delivery.”
“And Anna?”
“The second baby.”
“So I’m Claire.”
“Yes.”
Daniel said nothing.
Claire noticed.
“What?”
“There’s another possibility.”
Marlene snapped, “Don’t.”
Claire looked from one to the other.
“Tell me.”
Daniel spoke carefully.
“If Rebecca believed someone was looking for one specific child, she may have switched the names herself.”
Claire stared.
“Why would anyone be looking for one newborn twin?”
“Because only one might have been connected to the man she was afraid to name.”
Silence.
My thoughts stalled.
“Twins can have different fathers?” I asked.
Daniel looked at me.
“Rarely.”
Marlene frowned.
“That’s possible?”
My mother answered before he could.
“With fraternal twins, yes.”
Everyone looked at her.
Elaine swallowed.
“I was a nurse before Evan was born.”
I had forgotten.
She had stopped working when I was three.
Claire leaned toward the phone.
“You’re saying Rebecca could have conceived the twins from two different men.”
“It’s biologically possible,” Elaine said.
Daniel whispered, “That would explain the two paternity results.”
Claire stared at him.
“What two results?”
He froze.
Marlene turned.
“You said there was no result.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
There it was.
Another lie.
Claire stood slowly.
“What did you just say?”
Daniel looked down.
“I saw part of a lab report.”
“When?”
“After Rebecca died.”
“What did it say?”
“One sample excluded me.”
Claire’s breath caught.
“And the other?”
Daniel rubbed both hands across his face.
“Was inconclusive.”
Marlene stared at him.
“You knew there were twins.”
“No.”
“You just said two samples.”
“I thought they tested Claire twice.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because that’s what Voss told me.”
Claire laughed, sharp and exhausted.
“You believed the man who erased my sister?”
“I didn’t know he erased anyone.”
“When did he show you the results?”
“Two days after Rebecca died.”
The timing settled over us.
“Why then?” I asked.
Daniel looked toward the screen.
“Because I told him I planned to seek custody.”
“Voss wanted to stop you?”
“No.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“He wanted to help me.”
Claire stared.
“Help you how?”
“He said if I stopped asking questions about Rebecca’s accident, he would make sure no one challenged my claim to you.”
Marlene closed her eyes.
“You took the deal.”
“No.”
“You ended up raising her.”
“I didn’t agree that night.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
His voice lowered.
“A week later, I stopped asking.”
Claire sat down.
The betrayal was quieter now.
More complete.
“My mother died,” she said, “and you traded the truth for access to me.”
“I thought I was your father.”
“So that made it acceptable?”
“No.”
“Did you love me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did love keep looking exactly like control?”
Daniel could not answer.
My phone vibrated again.
The unknown sender had responded with a document.
A partial laboratory page.
Two infant codes.
114.
115.
Two lines beneath them.
PATERNAL MARKER PROFILE A: EXCLUDED.
PATERNAL MARKER PROFILE B: COMPATIBLE.
The father’s name had been blacked out.
Claire zoomed in.
“Which baby was which?”
Daniel leaned closer.
“I don’t know.”
Then I noticed a handwritten notation at the bottom.
C = 115.
A = 114.
Claire saw it too.
“If C means Claire…”
“Then you were 115,” I said.
“And Anna was 114.”
Another message appeared.
CORRECT.
Claire’s hands trembled.
“Ask whose profile matched.”
I typed it.
No answer.
A full minute passed.
Then two.
Daniel stared at the phone.
“Maybe they don’t know.”
The reply came.
WE KNOW.
A second line appeared.
ANNA’S FATHER WAS DANIEL BENNETT.
Every face on the call changed.
Daniel sat as if struck.
Claire looked at him.
“Anna is your daughter.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
The phone vibrated again.
CLAIRE’S FATHER WAS SOMEONE ELSE.
Marlene whispered, “Who?”
One final message appeared.
LEONARD VOSS KILLED REBECCA TO KEEP THAT NAME SECRET.
Daniel rose so abruptly his chair fell backward.
“Call the police.”
Claire stared at him.
“You spent thirty years avoiding the police.”
“I was wrong.”
“Why now?”
Daniel looked at the photograph of Anna.
“Because if Anna is alive, Voss already knows she’s looking.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: The First Person We Tried to Contact About Leonard Voss Already Knew Claire’s Name Before We Introduced Ourselves
Four Hours After Surgery, One Ordinary Question Made My Wife Look at Me Like a Stranger
Part 9 of 28
