Chapter 10 - THE NAME ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Audrey did not sleep that night.
She sat beside Maisie in Nathan’s guest suite while police tried to locate Derek.
His car was found abandoned outside a closed gas station.
Blood on the steering wheel.
No Derek.
No phone.
Charles denied knowing anything.
Lorraine hired a criminal-defense attorney and stopped talking.
Helena called twelve times.
Audrey answered none.
At 7:14 the next morning, Nathan arrived with coffee and a sealed envelope.
“The hospital confirmed something.”
Audrey looked at Maisie.
“What?”
“The genetic report you received was real.”
Her throat tightened.
“But?”
“But it wasn’t routine testing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone specifically requested paternity comparison using Derek’s sample.”
Audrey stared.
“When did the hospital have Derek’s DNA?”
“They shouldn’t have.”
Exactly.
Nathan sat down.
“The sample appears to have entered the system four months ago.”
“Before Maisie was born.”
“Yes.”
Audrey laughed softly.
“Wonderful.”
There was always another layer.
“Who ordered the comparison?”
“The physician ID belonged to a retired obstetric specialist.”
“Name?”
“Dr. Jonathan Vale.”
Audrey frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
Nathan slid the envelope toward her.
“You should.”
Inside was an old newspaper clipping.
Jonathan Vale.
Her grandfather’s younger half brother.
Audrey had heard the name only once.
Jonathan supposedly died overseas when she was a child.
Another Vance family ghost.
“Is he alive?”
“We don’t know.”
Audrey looked at the genetic report.
“I know Derek is Maisie’s father.”
Nathan said nothing.
“Do you think I cheated?”
“No.”
“I didn’t.”
“I believe you.”
“Then the report is wrong.”
“Possibly.”
Nathan hesitated.
“Or it isn’t comparing what you think.”
Audrey looked up.
He placed a second document beside it.
Derek’s genetic sample had an annotation.
REFERENCE SAMPLE — SUBJECT D.H.
“What?”
Nathan had already asked the hospital.
Derek’s initials were Derek Halston.
But hospital audit logs showed the sample had originally entered under another identity.
Daniel Hale.
Audrey stared.
“Who is Daniel Hale?”
Nathan didn’t know.
Neither did she.
Then Audrey remembered Sienna’s recording.
Lorraine calling someone “doctor.”
The missing Vance ring.
The old trust amendments.
Everyone using names that could be changed on paper.
“What if the sample isn’t Derek’s?”
Nathan nodded.
“That’s what I think.”
Relief came quickly.
Then disappeared when he added:
“But someone desperately wanted you to believe it was.”
Why?
To destroy Audrey’s trust in Derek further?
There was hardly any trust left to destroy.
To challenge Maisie’s inheritance?
That made more sense.
If Maisie weren’t legally recognized as Derek’s child, custody claims changed.
If Maisie’s paternity became disputed, guardianship became complicated.
But none of that explained why Derek screamed RUN THE BABY’S DNA.
He had discovered something.
Something larger.
At 9:02, Detective Morales called.
“We found Mr. Halston.”
Audrey stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Relief surprised her.
Derek had betrayed her in ways she could barely comprehend.
She still didn’t want him dead.
“Where?”
“St. Vincent Medical Center.”
“What happened?”
“He was found unconscious near Route 60.”
“Can he talk?”
“Not yet.”
Audrey looked at Maisie.
“Was anyone with him?”
“No.”
Morales paused.
“But he had something in his jacket.”
“What?”
“An old photograph.”
Nathan moved closer.
“Of who?”
“We’re sending it.”
Audrey’s phone chimed.
The image loaded.
Lorraine.
Thirty years younger.
Standing outside a hospital.
Beside her was Charles Vance.
And in Lorraine’s arms was a newborn baby.
On the back:
DEREK — THREE DAYS OLD.
Audrey stared at Charles.
Then Lorraine.
Her mouth went dry.
Nathan understood at the same time.
“If Charles is Derek’s father…”
Audrey finished the thought.
“Then Derek is a Vance descendant.”
And suddenly the entire inheritance structure changed.
Derek hadn’t merely been recruited to marry Audrey.
He may have been placed beside her because he had his own claim.
Her phone rang.
Helena.
This time Audrey answered.
“Mom.”
Helena was crying.
“Audrey, I need to tell you something before Charles does.”
“I already know Derek may be his son.”
Silence.
Then Helena whispered:
“No.”
Audrey frowned.
“What?”
“That isn’t the secret.”
“Then what is?”
Her mother’s breathing shook.
“Your grandfather knew about Derek.”
Audrey sat down.
“How?”
“He arranged the adoption.”
Audrey could barely speak.
“Adoption?”
“Lorraine didn’t give birth to Derek.”
Nathan stared.
Audrey’s pulse slowed.
“Then who did?”
Helena began sobbing.
“Audrey…”
“Who is Derek’s mother?”
A knock sounded at the front door.
Nathan immediately stood.
Nobody should have known where Audrey was staying.
Another knock.
Three slow taps.
Helena whispered through the phone:
“Do not open that door.”
Audrey looked toward Nathan.
“Why?”
“Because Charles has spent thirty years searching for Derek’s biological mother.”
The knock came again.
Maisie woke and began crying.
Audrey picked her up.
“Who is she?”
Helena finally answered.
“Our mother.”
Audrey stopped breathing.
“My grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“That would make Derek—”
“I know.”
Helena’s voice broke.
“Derek isn’t Charles’s son.”
A shadow moved beneath the guest-suite door.
“He’s Charles’s half brother.”
Audrey stared at Nathan.
That meant Derek carried a direct Vance blood claim older than Audrey’s.
Maybe stronger.
Then someone slid an envelope beneath the door.
Nathan reached for it.
Audrey whispered:
“Don’t.”
But he had already opened it.
Inside was Maisie’s original birth certificate.
Not the hospital copy Audrey had received.
Another version.
One she had never signed.
The mother line read:
AUDREY VANCE.
The father line did not read Derek Halston.
It contained another name.
Jonathan Vale.
Audrey nearly dropped the phone.
“That’s impossible.”
Then Maisie’s crying abruptly stopped.
Audrey looked down.
Her newborn daughter was staring past Audrey’s shoulder toward the window.
Nathan followed her gaze.
A gray-haired man stood outside in the garden.
Watching them.
He lifted one hand.
On his finger was the missing black Vance signet ring.
Audrey’s phone received a message from an unknown number.
DON’T TRUST THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
A second message arrived.
DON’T TRUST HELENA.
Then a third:
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY DEREK IGNORED THOSE 17 CALLS, ASK WHO WAS ACTUALLY WITH HIM WHILE YOU WERE GIVING BIRTH.
Audrey looked back toward the garden.
The gray-haired man was gone.
Then Helena screamed through the phone.
A crash sounded on her end.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Mom!”
Audrey heard heavy breathing.
Then a man picked up Helena’s phone.
His voice was unfamiliar.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Congratulations on the baby, Audrey.”
Her blood turned cold.
“Who is this?”
The man laughed softly.
“You already met my daughter.”
Audrey tightened her arms around Maisie.
“Who?”
A pause.
Then:
May you like
“Sienna.”
The call went dead.
