Chapter 3 - WHAT MY FATHER KNEW ABOUT VIVIAN
My father had been dead for nine years.
Until that night, I believed he had taken every important Blackwell secret with him.
I was wrong.
Julian drove Grant and me to my father’s old Boston office while police traced Vivian’s vehicle.
Grant sat in the opposite corner of the SUV.
For once, we had nothing to say to each other.
The kiss.
Madison.
The custody plot.
The forged psychological report.
None of it disappeared because Lily was missing.
But fear had temporarily pushed betrayal aside.
My father’s office had remained sealed after his death because the building belonged to the family trust.
Julian unlocked it.
Dust covered everything.
Grant stared at a photograph of my father holding Lily as a baby.
“You think he knew my mother was dangerous?”
“I think he knew more than either of us.”
We found the answer behind his desk.
A wall safe.
Inside were corporate records, letters, and one cassette recorder.
Old-fashioned even when my father used it.
Julian pressed play.
Arthur Blackwell’s voice filled the room.
“Charles wants control. Vivian wants status. Together, they are more dangerous than either realizes.”
Grant stopped breathing.
My father continued.
“Vivian married into Hawthorne money, but she never stopped working with Charles Vale.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“My mother hated Madison’s father.”
“Apparently not enough.”
The recording explained that twenty-five years earlier, Charles and Vivian helped my father raise capital for Blackwell Therapeutics.
Then Charles began siphoning research funds.
Vivian helped hide the transfers.
My father discovered it and removed Charles.
But he never exposed Vivian publicly.
Why?
Because she threatened him with something involving Grant.
Grant stepped closer to the recorder.
My father’s voice continued.
“Grant is innocent. He cannot know what his mother did before he was born.”
Grant whispered:
“Before I was born?”
The tape ended.
Nothing else.
We searched the safe.
One envelope was addressed:
FOR ELEANOR, IF GRANT EVER TRIES TO TAKE BLACKWELL.
My hands trembled.
Inside was a legal memo.
The Blackwell family trust granted me controlling voting rights.
But there was another clause.
If I were declared mentally incompetent, my rights transferred temporarily to my legal spouse.
Grant.
Exactly why the forged diagnosis mattered.
Grant sat down.
“So that was the plan.”
I looked at him.
“You knew enough to file for custody.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Madison planned to use the diagnosis to take my company?”
“No.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Again, that answer.
No defense.
Then Julian found a sealed DNA report beneath the trust memo.
Grant stared at his name.
I opened it.
PATERNITY TEST.
Subject:
GRANT HAWTHORNE.
Alleged father:
EDWARD HAWTHORNE.
Probability of paternity:
0.00%.
Grant stopped moving.
His father had not been his father.
Then I read the second page.
A handwritten note from my father.
CHARLES VALE IS GRANT’S BIOLOGICAL FATHER.
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Meaning Madison was not simply Grant’s mistress.
If the report was real, she was his half-sister.
