Chapter 10 - The Second Child in the Red Dress
Amelia could not move.
“Mom?”
Rose Hart lowered the gun.
Her hair was shorter and her face thinner, but Amelia knew the woman who had raised her.
Rose crossed the chapel.
Amelia stepped backward.
“You died.”
“I disappeared.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I knew Richard would move against you once I was gone.”
“Then why leave me alone?”
“Because you were never alone.”
Rose looked toward Julian.
“He protected you without knowing why.”
Julian stared at her.
“You arranged our meeting.”
“Yes.”
Amelia remembered the charity auction where she first met Julian. Rose had insisted she attend despite Amelia’s reluctance.
Everything seemed connected by invisible hands.
Richard leaned against the wall, blood darkening his coat.
“You should have remained hidden.”
Rose aimed at him again.
“You should have died the first time.”
Eleanor looked between them.
“What do you mean by another child?”
Rose opened a leather folder.
Thirty years earlier, two baby girls were present at Samuel’s clinic.
Lillian Blackwood.
And Mara Quinn’s newborn daughter.
Mara’s baby had been born weeks earlier and hidden under false records.
When Richard ordered Samuel to remove Lillian, Mara created a second plan.
She exchanged the infants.
The child delivered to Rose was not the child Richard expected.
Amelia felt the floor tilt.
“Who am I?”
Rose took out two birth records.
“One child wore the jade pendant. The other wore a red thread bracelet.”
Amelia touched the pendant.
“You told me it was found with me.”
“It was placed with you after the exchange.”
Eleanor stared at Mara.
“You switched them?”
Mara’s face filled with grief.
“I thought Richard would search for Lillian. I wanted my daughter hidden where no one knew to look.”
“Where did you take my child?”
Mara looked toward the chapel doors.
“She never left Magnolia House.”
Footsteps sounded above them.
A young brunette woman entered wearing a dark coat over a red dress.
Eleanor gasped.
The woman had Amelia’s eyes.
The same dimple.
The same shape of face visible in Eleanor’s childhood portraits.
Rose spoke carefully.
“This is Clara Quinn.”
The woman looked at Eleanor.
“My name is not Clara.”
She removed a necklace from beneath her dress.
A faded red thread bracelet hung from it.
“My name is Lillian Blackwood.”
Amelia stared at her.
The jade pendant in her hand no longer proved she was Eleanor’s daughter.
It proved only that someone wanted the world to believe she was.
Julian looked at Rose.
“The DNA report matched Amelia to Eleanor.”
“Preston’s sample came from a glass Eleanor never used,” Rose said. “Richard arranged it.”
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
She stepped toward Lillian.
The young woman raised a gun.
“Do not touch me.”
“You are my daughter.”
“You spent thirty years living in mansions while I moved through foster homes under Mara’s name.”
Mara whispered, “I tried to protect you.”
“You protected your own daughter.”
She looked at Amelia.
The accusation required no explanation.
If Clara was Lillian, then Amelia might be Mara’s biological child.
Mara took one step toward her.
“Amelia.”
Amelia pulled away.
“Do not.”
Every relationship had changed again.
Eleanor had humiliated a woman she believed unworthy, then embraced her as a daughter, only to learn the real child stood across the chapel filled with rage.
Julian had nearly married Amelia believing she was unrelated, then feared she was his sister, then his niece.
Now no one knew who Amelia truly was.
Richard laughed weakly.
“This is why blood should never control an empire.”
Rose struck him across the face.
“You created the confusion.”
“No. I used what all of you were willing to believe.”
The chapel clock struck midnight.
Screens throughout Magnolia House activated.
A legal announcement appeared.
Control of Blackwood Industries had transferred to Lillian Blackwood.
Two names appeared beneath it.
Amelia Hart.
Clara Quinn.
The trust recognized both women as Lillian.
Until one identity was disproved, they shared authority.
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“That is not possible.”
Charles Vale, still bleeding beside the table, lifted his head.
“I changed one document you never found.”
Eleanor rushed toward him.
“You knew there were two children?”
“I discovered it after Richard’s funeral.”
“Why did you keep it secret?”
“Because one of them was being raised by the person who ordered the original kidnapping.”
Everyone turned toward Rose.
Amelia stared at the woman she had loved as a mother.
Rose’s expression became unreadable.
Samuel stepped between them.
“Rose did not order it.”
Charles coughed.
“I did not mean Rose.”
He pointed toward Eleanor.
The chapel fell silent.
Eleanor looked at him.
“You said Richard arranged everything.”
“He arranged the removal.”
Charles struggled to breathe.
“But the first order to take the child came from you.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
Charles reached inside his jacket and removed an old cassette recorder.
“Your voice is on this.”
He pressed play.
A younger Eleanor spoke through the damaged speaker.
“Take the baby before Richard learns what I discovered. Replace her with Mara’s child. No one can know which girl carries the Caldwell blood.”
Eleanor stumbled backward.
“I never said that.”
The recording continued.
“Samuel will hide one. Rose will raise the other. When Richard destroys himself, my daughter will return and inherit everything.”
Lillian aimed her gun at Eleanor.
“You planned my disappearance.”
“I do not remember this.”
Richard laughed.
“Because I had Samuel remove the memory.”
Everyone looked at the doctor.
Samuel’s face went pale.
Amelia whispered, “What did you do?”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“There was an experimental treatment. Richard forced me to use it on Eleanor after the kidnapping.”
Eleanor touched her temple.
Fragments of the lost night began returning.
The nursery.
Two infants.
Mara crying.
Rose holding the jade pendant.
Eleanor signing a document.
Then Richard entering with blood on his hands.
She looked at Amelia and Lillian.
“I did not know which child was mine.”
Richard slid slowly toward the chapel exit.
Julian noticed.
“Stop him.”
Before anyone could move, the lights went out.
A gunshot thundered.
A woman screamed.
When the emergency lights returned, Richard was gone.
The chapel doors stood open.
Blood led into the underground tunnel.
Lillian still held her gun.
Rose stood beside Amelia.
Eleanor was on her knees.
Julian looked toward the altar.
The jade pendant had disappeared.
So had the original birth records.
A small screen activated beside the clock.
Richard appeared inside a moving car.
Beside him sat a young woman wearing Amelia’s torn red wedding dress.
Her face was hidden beneath a veil.
Richard held up the jade pendant.
“You are still asking which woman is Lillian Blackwood.”
He smiled.
“You should be asking where the third baby went.”
The veiled woman slowly lifted her head.
Amelia stopped breathing.
The stranger had Eleanor’s red hair.
Julian’s dark eyes.
And Amelia’s face.
Richard placed one hand on her shoulder.
“This is the daughter who was never exchanged.”
The screen cut to black.
Behind Amelia, the chapel door locked again.
Then someone whispered from inside the family crypt.
“Do not believe him.”
A child’s voice answered from the darkness.
May you like
“He always lies about the babies.”
Continue to the next part: The third Blackwood daughter emerges from the sealed crypt carrying the original jade pendant and the identity that could destroy every surviving member of the family.
