Chapter 8 - THE DEATH CERTIFICATEMy father's death certificate was wrong.
The coroner's report had been altered.
The original toxicology report revealed traces of a rare medication.
A medication Eleanor's family company manufactured.
My father had discovered the hospital switch.
He had planned to expose the Whitmores.
Three days later, he died.
My mother had known.
She had spent decades carrying the guilt.
“I should have told you,” she said.
I held her hand.
“You were trying to keep me alive.”
“I thought silence would protect you.”
“It protected them.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Adrian stood beside us.
“I can help.”
My mother looked at him.
“Your family destroyed ours.”
“I know.”
“Why should we trust you?”
He looked at me.
“You shouldn't.”
I turned.
He placed his wedding ring on the table.
“I won't ask Lydia to forgive me.”
My heart tightened.
“I lied to her.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I allowed my mother to control our lives.”
“Yes.”
“And I failed Noah.”
He looked toward the crib.
“But I'm done being afraid.”
He left the ring.
Then he walked away.
For three days, I didn't see him.
During those three days, the investigation exploded.
News outlets discovered the Whitmore scandal.
Investors panicked.
The family company lost billions in market value.
Then police found Eleanor's private files.
Inside was a list of people she had paid over thirty years.
Doctors.
Lawyers.
Bankers.
Politicians.
And one name that terrified me.
Adrian Whitmore.
I called him immediately.
He answered on the first ring.
“Lydia?”
“Why is your name in her files?”
Silence.
“What did you do?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Then he said:
“I know what it is.”
“What?”
“When I was twenty-one, my mother made me sign a document.”
“What document?”
“A transfer.”
“To whom?”
“Your father.”
My heart stopped.
“What about him?”
Adrian's voice cracked.
“My mother didn't just arrange his death.”
“She paid me to deliver the document that led him to the meeting where he was killed.”
I couldn't speak.
He continued.
“I didn't know what it meant.”
“You were there?”
“No.”
“But you led him there.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The truth was devastating.
Adrian wasn't innocent.
He hadn't known everything.
But he had been part of the machine that destroyed my family.
And now I had to decide whether love could survive a truth this ugly.
Then Noah began crying.
I picked him up.
And made my decision.
May you like
Not for Adrian.
For my son.
