Chapter 8 - The Child Nobody Knew
Meredith refused to enter the water.
For thirty terrifying seconds, nothing happened.
Then another photograph arrived.
Elara remained alive.
The threat had been a test.
June understood first.
“They wanted to see if you’d obey.”
Meredith sank onto the dock.
“I always obey.”
Caleb stood over her.
“Tell me about your son.”
Meredith wiped her face.
“His name is Noah.”
“How old?”
“Nineteen.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Caleb stared.
“You hid a child for nineteen years?”
“My mother raised him in Vermont.”
“Who’s the father?”
Meredith looked away.
June’s expression sharpened.
“That matters.”
Meredith said nothing.
Caleb crouched.
“You burned Elara because someone threatened Noah. You lied about June. You helped erase footage. If you want one ounce of mercy from me, start telling the truth.”
Meredith looked at him.
“Noah’s father is a Whitcomb.”
Caleb felt something cold move through him.
“My father?”
“No.”
“My brother?”
Caleb’s older brother, Adrian, had died in a boating accident twenty years earlier.
Meredith began crying again.
“It was Adrian.”
Caleb stood.
Adrian had been twenty-one when he died.
Meredith had been seventeen.
“You and Adrian?”
“We loved each other.”
“Why hide Noah?”
“Because Warren said the child would destroy the family.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if Adrian wasn’t Warren’s biological son.”
Caleb stared at her.
June whispered, “There it is.”
Caleb turned.
“What?”
“The family secret your mother discovered.”
Meredith nodded slowly.
“Evelyn found proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That Warren wasn’t Adrian’s father.”
Caleb shook his head.
“So what?”
“The real father was Warren’s business partner.”
“Who?”
Meredith whispered a name.
“Victor Dane.”
Caleb knew it immediately.
Victor Dane had helped build Whitcomb Holdings.
He had vanished from corporate records before Caleb was born.
“What happened to him?”
Meredith looked toward the lake.
“He disappeared two weeks after Evelyn died.”
June stared at her.
“And Lacey?”
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“She saw Victor that night.”
Caleb’s pulse quickened.
“Victor was at the lake?”
“Yes.”
“Then he’s the third person?”
“No.”
Meredith shook her head.
“The photograph was taken before he arrived.”
Caleb frowned.
“Then where was he?”
“Inside the boathouse.”
“With my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
May you like
Meredith’s voice dropped.
“Because she was helping him disappear.”
