Chapter 8 - THE FIRST WIFEThomas agreed to meet Emily at a quiet lake outside Chicago.
Jonathan insisted on bringing security, but Thomas refused to come if the meeting looked like an ambush.
Emily went anyway.
She left Lydia with Rosa and traveled with Jonathan in an unmarked car.
Thomas waited beneath a row of bare trees.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and carried the same dark eyes Arthur had possessed. His hair was silver at the temples, but his face had the hard lines of someone who had spent a lifetime searching for answers.
He looked at Emily for a long time.
“You look like your father,” he said.
“You knew him?”
“Only from photographs.”
“Who is your mother?”
“Margaret Bell.”
Emily’s heart tightened.
“Is she alive?”
Thomas looked toward the lake.
“She lives in a nursing facility in Wisconsin. Her mind is failing, but she remembers Eleanor.”
“Did Eleanor take you?”
Thomas nodded.
“She paid the clinic to tell Arthur that Margaret had abandoned me. Then she arranged for me to be sent away.”
“Why didn’t Arthur find you?”
“Because Eleanor showed him forged records. She told him I had died from pneumonia.”
Emily closed her eyes.
All those years, Arthur had believed his son was dead.
Eleanor had stolen a child to secure her place in the family.
“Why did you contact Daniel?”
Thomas’s expression darkened.
“I didn’t.”
Emily looked at him.
“Victor did.”
“My adoptive father has been using me for years. He told me that Arthur abandoned me because he wanted nothing to do with me. He told me the Whitmore family destroyed my mother.”
“Didn’t they?”
“Eleanor did. Arthur was guilty of cowardice, but I no longer believe he wanted me dead.”
Thomas handed Emily a folder.
Inside was a letter written by Margaret Bell.
The paper was yellow with age.
Arthur,
Eleanor has taken my baby. She says if I tell anyone, she will have you arrested for kidnapping and ruin my family. She says she can make your son disappear forever.
I know you love him. I know you did not agree to this. But if you come for him, she will destroy both of us.
I am leaving the city. I will wait until you are strong enough to fight her.
Margaret.
Emily read the letter twice.
“Arthur never received this.”
“No. Victor kept it.”
“Why?”
“To control me.”
Thomas sat on a bench.
“Victor told me my entire life that Arthur had discarded me. When I discovered the letter, I realized he had lied. I began investigating.”
“What did you find?”
“That Victor and Eleanor continued working together after he adopted me. They used me as a possible replacement heir in case Daniel failed.”
Emily’s skin prickled.
“Replacement heir?”
“They planned to reveal me after Daniel took control of the company. They would claim Arthur had secretly recognized me. But Victor wanted control through me, not for me.”
“And now that Lydia exists?”
“Victor wants both Daniel and me to fight. While the family is divided, he plans to seize the company through court-appointed receivers.”
Emily looked toward the gray water.
“How did you know about the final will?”
“Arthur contacted my mother before he died.”
“What did he tell her?”
“That he had found me.”
Emily stared at him.
“Arthur knew you were alive?”
“He discovered the truth six months before his death. He wanted to meet me, but Eleanor learned about it.”
“Did they meet?”
“No. Arthur died first.”
Thomas gave her another document.
It was a handwritten note from Arthur addressed to Margaret.
I will correct everything. I will name Thomas and his descendants in the succession documents. I will protect Emily and her child. Please give me time.
Emily felt tears burning her eyes.
“He tried to fix it.”
“He tried too late.”
A vehicle appeared on the road behind them.
Jonathan stood immediately.
“Someone followed us.”
Thomas looked toward the trees.
“Victor.”
The vehicle stopped.
Two men stepped out.
One carried a gun.
Jonathan pulled Emily behind the bench.
Thomas ran toward the lake.
A gunshot cracked through the air.
Thomas fell.
Emily screamed.
The shooter fled before security could reach him.
Thomas lay on the frozen ground, blood spreading across his coat.
Emily dropped beside him.
“Thomas!”
He opened his eyes.
“Take the folder.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
Jonathan pressed a cloth against the wound.
“Call an ambulance!”
Within minutes, the road filled with sirens.
Thomas survived the shooting, but the bullet damaged his shoulder.
Victor denied involvement.
Daniel, still in custody, claimed he knew nothing.
But the folder contained evidence of years of fraud, forged adoption papers, and secret payments from Eleanor.
The most important page was a letter written by Arthur the night before his death.
I know Eleanor plans to kill me. If she succeeds, Emily and her child must be protected. Thomas must be found. He is my son, and I abandoned him through weakness. Do not allow my mistakes to become the inheritance of another generation.
The letter changed everything.
Thomas was not an enemy.
He was another victim.
Emily brought him to New York under medical protection.
When they appeared together at the probate hearing, the courtroom erupted.
Victor’s lawyers objected.
Jonathan submitted DNA results proving Thomas was Arthur’s biological son.
The judge ordered an immediate investigation.
The next day, Victor disappeared.
Eleanor was moved to a federal prison.
Daniel remained silent.
But silence did not mean surrender.
Two weeks later, Emily received a message from Daniel through his attorney.
He wanted to see her.
“Do not go,” Jonathan warned.
Emily looked at Lydia, sleeping peacefully in her arms.
“I need to know what he is planning.”
“Or he wants to manipulate you.”
“He already tried to kill me. I am not going because I trust him.”
Thomas, his arm still in a sling, watched her from across the room.
“Go,” he said. “But take a recorder.”
Emily nodded.
She would meet Daniel one final time.
Not as his wife.
May you like
Not as the woman he had once promised to protect.
As the mother of the child he had tried to murder.
