Chapter 7 - THE OTHER HEIRThe man in the photograph was named Victor Hale.
Jonathan identified him within an hour.
Victor had once been Arthur Whitmore’s private secretary. He had left the company fifteen years earlier after a financial scandal. Arthur had accused him of stealing confidential documents, but no charges were ever filed.
“Why would Victor contact Daniel?” Emily asked.
Jonathan placed a file on the table.
“Because Victor was Eleanor’s first partner.”
Rosa’s face tightened.
“He was the man she loved before Arthur.”
Emily looked at the photograph again.
Victor was older now, with silver hair and a narrow face. He stood beside Daniel as if they had known each other for years.
“Does he have a child?”
Jonathan hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Lucas Hale.”
Emily felt a cold sensation move through her.
“Why does that name matter?”
“Because Lucas is the current chief financial officer of Whitmore Holdings.”
The room fell silent.
Emily had met Lucas several times. He was polite, soft-spoken, and always seemed uncomfortable around Eleanor. He had been one of the few executives who welcomed Emily after her marriage.
“Lucas is Victor’s son?”
“Yes.”
“Does Daniel know?”
“He must.”
Emily looked toward the nursery where Lydia slept.
The child had inherited a company surrounded by enemies. Some enemies wore expensive suits and smiled during meetings.
Victor Hale began attacking the trust in court.
His lawyers argued that Arthur’s final will had been signed under mental distress and that Emily had manipulated him during the last months of his life.
They claimed the baby’s inheritance was invalid because the child had been conceived before Arthur’s death and the succession clause was therefore “speculative.”
Jonathan destroyed the argument with medical records, witness statements, and the recording Arthur had made.
But Victor had money.
Money could delay justice.
Money could create confusion.
Money could exhaust a grieving mother until she surrendered.
Emily returned home six weeks after Lydia’s birth.
The mansion had been closed by investigators. Emily refused to return there, so she moved into a smaller townhouse owned by the Whitmore charitable foundation.
The first night, she woke to a sound outside the nursery.
She sat up, heart pounding.
The baby monitor was silent.
Emily walked into Lydia’s room.
The window was open.
A white envelope lay on the floor.
She did not touch it.
Security searched the house, but they found no intruder. The envelope was examined for fingerprints.
Inside was a copy of a document.
It was a birth certificate.
The name of the mother had been blacked out.
The father was listed as Arthur James Whitmore.
Emily stared at it.
“This is impossible.”
Jonathan studied the paper.
“Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?”
“Arthur may have had another child before his marriage to Eleanor.”
Rosa sat down slowly.
“I knew about him.”
Emily looked at her.
“You knew?”
“Arthur told me once. He believed the boy had died.”
“Who was the boy?”
Jonathan pointed to the certificate.
The name was Thomas Whitmore.
“Thomas was born in 1968,” he said. “He would be almost sixty now.”
Emily thought of the photograph.
“Victor Hale was Eleanor’s first partner. What if Thomas is Victor’s son?”
Rosa shook her head.
“Thomas was Arthur’s child. Eleanor took the baby after he was born and told Arthur the mother had abandoned him.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she wanted Arthur to believe she was the only woman who could give him a family.”
Emily’s mind raced.
“If Thomas survived, he could challenge Lydia’s inheritance.”
Jonathan nodded.
“And if Victor raised him, that would explain why Daniel trusts Victor.”
They searched Arthur’s private records.
A hidden file revealed that Arthur had paid monthly support to a woman named Margaret Bell until 1970. Then the payments stopped.
Margaret had worked as a nurse at a private clinic.
She had given birth to a son named Thomas.
At the age of two, Thomas had disappeared.
Emily felt sick.
“Eleanor stole him.”
“Or arranged for him to disappear,” Jonathan said.
The next clue came from the old family physician.
Dr. Samuel Ortiz was dead, but his daughter, Isabel, agreed to meet Emily.
They sat in a quiet café away from reporters.
Isabel brought a notebook filled with her father’s handwriting.
“My father knew Arthur had another son,” she said. “He believed Thomas was alive.”
“Where?”
“He never found out. But he wrote that Eleanor sent money to a children’s home in Pennsylvania.”
Jonathan leaned forward.
“Which home?”
“St. Matthew’s.”
The home had closed decades earlier. Its records were transferred to a state archive.
Emily and Jonathan searched the records.
They found Thomas Bell listed as an abandoned child.
At age ten, he was adopted by Victor Hale.
The adoption papers contained one strange detail.
The child’s blood type did not match the mother listed on the original birth record.
Victor had taken him.
He had raised Arthur’s stolen son.
And now he was using him to challenge Lydia’s inheritance.
“Where is Thomas now?” Emily asked.
Jonathan looked at the final record.
“His legal name is Thomas Hale. He lives in Chicago.”
Emily stared at the address.
“He doesn’t know who he is.”
“Maybe he does,” Rosa said.
That night, Emily received a phone call from an unknown number.
She answered without speaking.
A man’s voice came through.
“You have my brother’s company.”
Emily froze.
“Who is this?”
“Thomas.”
Her grip tightened around the phone.
“Are you Victor Hale’s son?”
“I am Arthur Whitmore’s son.”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your security cannot reach.”
“What do you want?”
“I want the truth.”
“You have it.”
“No. You have a will. That is not the same as truth.”
Emily looked toward Lydia’s crib.
Thomas continued.
“Your husband tried to kill you because he believed you were the only person between him and the company. He was wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your father-in-law did not write the final will alone.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“Who helped him?”
Thomas gave a bitter laugh.
“The person who knew Eleanor best.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
The call ended.
Emily stared at the phone.
May you like
If Thomas’s mother was still alive, then she might know exactly what happened to Arthur’s first child.
And she might know why Arthur had hidden the truth for fifty years.
