Chapter 10 - The Father's Final Betrayal
I drove to the nursing home myself.
The retired doctor, Harold Finch, was eighty-one, frail, and confined to a wheelchair. But his memory was sharp, and he remembered the night Emily was born.
“My father took Celeste's baby?” I asked.
Dr. Finch nodded.
“Your father believed Richard Rowan was planning to use the child to control Nicholas. He arranged for the baby to be placed with a family outside New York.”
“Did he know Celeste was the mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Nicholas was the father?”
“He did. Nicholas begged him to tell Celeste where the child was.”
“Why didn't he?”
Dr. Finch looked toward the window.
“Your father thought he was protecting the family. He believed Richard would use the child as leverage in the criminal organization.”
I felt sick.
My father had spent his life protecting us from enemies, yet his decisions had created the very wounds Victor and Celeste later exploited.
“Did Nicholas know where Emily was?”
“He discovered the adoption shortly before he died. He was trying to reunite the family.”
“And Celeste?”
“She was told the child had died. Richard believed that lie was safer than the truth.”
I left the nursing home with more questions than answers.
That night, I sat beside Lily's hospital bed while Hannah slept in a chair. The little girl had finally begun to recover. Her small hand curled around my finger as she dreamed.
I thought of Nicholas writing about his daughters.
He had wanted them to grow up free.
I had no right to promise them a perfect life. But I could give them a chance at one.
The next morning, Celeste appeared at the hospital carrying flowers.
Security stopped her at the entrance.
She demanded to see me, insisting she had come to apologize.
I met her in the lobby.
“You don't get to come near those children,” I told her.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I made mistakes.”
“You threatened a sick little girl.”
“I was trying to protect myself.”
“From what?”
She leaned closer.
“From Victor. He has evidence that could destroy both of us.”
“Then give it to the police.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You still think this is about money?”
She pulled a folded paper from her purse.
It was a copy of a document bearing my father's signature.
“Your father didn't just hide Emily,” she whispered. “He signed the order that sent Nicholas to his death.”
May you like
Before I could take the paper, she stepped back.
“And I have the original.”
