Chapter 13 - THE FOURTH NAME
I knew there hadn't been a fourth baby.
I remembered every second of that delivery.
Emergency C-section.
Three incubators.
Three bracelets.
Three terrified little faces.
No fourth heartbeat.
No fourth child.
But Alexander Cross existed on paper.
Gabriel read the trust three times.
“Who created this?”
“Victor,” Adrian said.
“When?”
“Two weeks after the boys were born.”
I frowned.
“So he knew there were triplets.”
“Yes.”
“Then why invent another?”
Daniel arrived later that evening.
He took one look at the file.
His face changed.
“What?”
He sat down.
“Alexander wasn't Claire's child.”
Gabriel stared.
“Then whose?”
Daniel looked toward Serena.
She had come to the estate to speak with the prosecutors.
Her face went white.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Serena backed away.
“No.”
Gabriel's expression sharpened.
“Serena.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I had a baby.”
Silence.
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Gabriel looked stunned.
“Whose?”
She laughed bitterly.
“Not yours.”
That seemed important enough to state.
“Then whose?” I asked.
Serena sat.
“A man I was seeing before everything happened.”
“Name?”
“Ethan Cole.”
Adrian went still.
Everyone noticed.
Serena looked at him.
“What?”
Adrian's face drained.
“Ethan was my brother.”
Silence.
Serena covered her mouth.
“You're Adrian Cole?”
“Yes.”
She whispered,
“Oh God.”
Adrian's younger brother had died in a boating accident five years ago.
Or so everyone believed.
Apparently death in our social circle required extensive verification.
Serena continued.
“I found out I was pregnant after Ethan disappeared.”
“Why didn't you keep the baby?” I asked gently.
Her face crumpled.
“I did.”
Silence.
“For three days.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
“What happened?”
“Victor took him.”
My skin went cold.
“He told me the baby died.”
Adrian grabbed the table.
“No.”
Serena looked at him.
“He said there were complications.”
Adrian's voice broke.
“My brother had a son.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor took him.”
“Yes.”
I understood.
Alexander wasn't a fourth Cross triplet.
Victor had given him the Cross name to build another possible heir.
“Where is he?”
Adrian asked.
Daniel answered.
“That's the problem.”
The trust had recent withdrawals.
School payments.
Medical insurance.
Clothing.
Alexander was alive.
Somewhere.
The address led to a private boarding school in Vermont.
We arrived the next afternoon.
Serena could barely walk into the administration building.
The headmistress looked confused.
“Alexander Bell?”
Serena started crying at the name.
Bell.
Her mother's family name.
“Yes.”
The headmistress smiled cautiously.
“He's in art class.”
A little boy appeared twenty minutes later.
Dark hair.
Blue eyes.
Adrian's brother's face.
Serena covered her mouth.
Alexander stopped.
He looked at her.
“Who are you?”
She couldn't speak.
Adrian knelt.
His eyes were wet.
“Hey, buddy.”
Alexander looked at him.
“You look like my dad.”
Adrian broke.
Completely.
Because someone at the school had apparently shown Alexander photographs of Ethan.
Serena finally whispered,
“I'm your mom.”
The boy stared.
No hug.
No dramatic music.
Just confusion.
“Mrs. Bell said my mom died.”
Serena cried harder.
“She lied.”
Alexander looked frightened.
I stepped back.
This reunion didn't belong to us.
Later, Serena sat alone outside.
I joined her.
“I don't deserve him.”
I looked at her.
“That's not your decision.”
She turned.
“After what I did to you?”
“This isn't about me.”
She cried quietly.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“Because Gabriel loved you in a way no one had ever loved me.”
That surprised me.
“He divorced me.”
“He never stopped loving you.”
I looked away.
Serena continued.
“Victor knew that. That's why he used me.”
Silence.
Then she whispered,
“The day Gabriel gave you divorce papers, he came to my apartment afterward.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“To tell me never to contact him again.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He said the divorce was only to protect you.”
My chest hurt.
Serena wiped her face.
“He told me if anything ever happened to you, he would burn down every empire in New York to find who did it.”
I couldn't speak.
Then my phone rang.
Gabriel.
“Claire.”
His voice sounded wrong.
“What?”
“The verdict came in.”
Victor had been convicted.
All major counts.
I exhaled.
“That's good.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
Silence.
Then Gabriel said,
“My father asked to see me before sentencing.”
“Why?”
“He says he knows what really happened the morning I filed for divorce.”
My stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Gabriel's answer was quiet.
“He says Serena wasn't the one who prepared the papers.”
