We were in the car within two minutes.
Jason drove this time.
Too fast.
Thomas sat beside him, repeatedly telling him to slow down.
I was on the phone with Emily in the back seat.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Her breathing was ragged.
“She knocked around four.”
“Was Sophie there?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Sophie now?”
“With our neighbor. I sent her over the second I realized Chloe was gone.”
“Good.”
“I should have stopped her.”
“Emily.”
“I should have known.”
“You could not know.”
“She knew Chloe’s name.”
“What did she say?”
“That she was a relative from Jason’s side.”
“Did she give a name?”
“Rebecca.”
Jason heard.
His knuckles whitened on the wheel.
Emily continued.
“She said she had information about Chloe’s biological father.”
“What did Chloe do?”
“She got angry at first.”
“Then?”
“Rebecca showed her something.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Jason glanced at the rearview mirror.
“Of Marcus?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Chloe leave voluntarily?”
Emily began crying harder.
“That’s what I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“She told me she wanted to talk to Rebecca outside.”
“You allowed that?”
“I followed them.”
Her voice broke.
“Rebecca said Chloe deserved answers nobody else would give her. Then Chloe got into her car.”
“Did Rebecca force her?”
“No.”
Jason shut his eyes briefly.
Emily whispered, “But Chloe didn’t know who she was really dealing with.”
That distinction mattered.
A sixteen-year-old leaving willingly with a woman claiming to know her biological history might not trigger the same immediate response as a physical abduction.
But Rebecca had lied to gain access.
And Daniel’s recordings suggested she had spent years collecting medical information without consent.
“Call the police anyway,” I said.
“I already did.”
“Good.”
“They want a description of the car.”
“What was it?”
“Dark blue SUV. Massachusetts plate. I only remember the last three digits.”
“Give them everything.”
Jason spoke toward the phone.
“Emily, did Rebecca mention where she was taking Chloe?”
Silence.
Then Emily said, “The old clinic.”
Thomas turned sharply.
“What clinic?”
Emily heard him.
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“She said something about showing Chloe where all of this started.”
Thomas looked at Jason.
“Richard’s clinic closed thirty years ago.”
“Building still there?”
“Not the original.”
“What replaced it?”
Thomas thought.
“Research offices. Then a private diagnostics company.”
Jason’s jaw clenched.
“Address.”
Thomas gave it.
I relayed the information to police.
Then Emily said, “Jason?”
“Yes.”
“I need to tell you something.”
He swallowed.
“Okay.”
“About Thomas.”
Thomas stared through the windshield.
Emily’s voice shook.
“I lied to your mother.”
Jason’s face hardened.
“About what?”
“I said Thomas and I slept together once.”
Jason’s hands tightened.
“It was twice.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Jason said nothing.
“The second time was after Chloe was born.”
Emily was crying openly now.
“I was terrified and confused. Thomas told me the DNA results were uncertain. I thought maybe if I stayed close to him, I could understand what was happening.”
Jason’s voice became flat.
“So you slept with him.”
“Yes.”
Thomas said quietly, “Jason—”
“Not one word.”
Thomas fell silent.
Emily continued.
“It happened once more. Then never again.”
Jason drove.
His face became unreadable.
“I’m sorry.”
He did not answer.
“I know that isn’t enough.”
“No.”
“I know.”
Jason finally said, “Right now Chloe matters.”
“Yes.”
“We deal with us later.”
Emily inhaled sharply.
“Okay.”
The words were small.
Devastated.
But mature enough to understand that neither forgiveness nor separation belonged in the middle of a search for their daughter.
Jason ended the call.
Nobody spoke for several miles.
Then he said, “You lied.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Yes.”
“You stood in my kitchen and said one time.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Cowardice.”
Jason nodded slowly.
“At least you’ve learned the family vocabulary.”
Thomas looked out the window.
“I’m sorry.”
“Save it.”
The former clinic stood in an industrial district outside Boston.
The original building had been renovated so thoroughly that almost nothing of Richard’s era remained visible.
A sign identified the current tenant as Vale Genomic Services.
We stared at it.
Jason whispered, “Vale.”
Rebecca’s surname.
Thomas looked ill.
“She owns it.”
A police cruiser was already entering the parking lot behind us.
Jason got out before I could stop him.
Two officers intercepted him.
He explained everything quickly enough to sound unbelievable.
Missing daughter.
Unknown relative.
Old fertility records.
Potential illegal genetic testing.
One officer kept the professional expression of someone trying not to decide too early whether we were unstable.
Then dispatch confirmed Emily’s report and vehicle description.
That changed things.
The building appeared closed.
No lights except a security lamp near the entrance.
The officers called for additional units.
Jason paced.
I touched his arm.
He did not pull away this time.
“They’ll find her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
I corrected myself.
“But Chloe is smart.”
That he accepted.
One officer walked around the building.
Another checked the parking lot.
Thomas suddenly pointed toward a side gate.
“Her car.”
A dark SUV sat behind the building.
Jason moved.
The officer stopped him.
“You stay here.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“And I need you here.”
Jason looked ready to argue.
Then movement appeared behind a second-floor window.
A silhouette.
Someone stepped close to the glass.
Chloe.
“Dad!”
Even through the closed window, we heard her.
Jason surged forward.
The officers entered the building.
The next minutes were unbearable.
Then the front door opened.
Chloe emerged with an officer beside her.
She was not restrained.
Not injured.
She looked furious.
Jason ran to her.
She let him hug her for perhaps three seconds.
Then pushed him away.
“You lied to me.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“All of you.”
“Chloe, are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did Rebecca touch you?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten you?”
“No.”
“Then we’re leaving.”
Chloe shook her head.
“Not yet.”
Jason stared.
“What?”
Rebecca appeared behind the officers.
She held her hands visibly away from her body.
“I asked her to come.”
Jason moved toward her.
The police stopped him.
“You stay away from my daughter.”
Rebecca’s face was calm.
“You should be saying that to half the people in your family.”
Jason lunged once.
The officer restrained him.
Chloe shouted, “Dad!”
He froze.
She looked shaken now.
“Please.”
That word reached him.
He stepped back.
Police questioned Rebecca separately.
Because Chloe had apparently entered the vehicle voluntarily and reported no physical threat, the situation became legally complicated.
But investigators were interested in the medical records inside the building.
Very interested.
Jason asked Chloe what Rebecca had shown her.
Chloe looked at Rebecca.
Then at me.
“A video.”
My stomach tightened.
“Of whom?”
“Grandpa Daniel.”
Jason frowned.
“My dad?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Chloe’s eyes filled.
“He said he was sorry.”
Jason stared.
“For what?”
“For letting everyone believe the wrong thing about Marcus.”
Thomas whispered, “What wrong thing?”
Rebecca answered from several yards away.
“He did not assault Emily.”
Jason turned on her.
“You don’t speak to us.”
Chloe said, “Dad.”
He looked at his daughter.
“She has evidence.”
“What evidence?”
Chloe held up a flash drive.
Jason stared.
“What is that?”
“Hospital security footage.”
Thomas went pale.
“That footage was missing.”
Rebecca smiled without warmth.
“It was never missing.”
She looked at him.
“Daniel had a copy.”
I stared at Rebecca.
“How did you get it?”
“From him.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he give it to you?”
“He thought I was helping.”
Jason laughed bitterly.
“According to his recording, he stopped trusting you.”
Rebecca’s expression shifted.
“So you found the truck.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, uncertainty entered her face.
“What else did he leave?”
Jason did not answer.
Chloe stepped between them.
“I watched the footage.”
Jason’s anger softened.
“What did you see?”
“Mom in the hospital.”
“What else?”
“Marcus came in.”
Jason’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“He stayed four minutes.”
“Was Mom conscious?”
“Barely.”
“Did he touch her?”
Chloe shook her head.
“Not like that.”
Jason looked at Rebecca.
“What happened?”
Chloe answered.
“He took a blood vial from the tray.”
Thomas frowned.
“Why?”
Rebecca said, “Because Helen asked him to.”
Jason looked at her.
“Helen.”
“Yes.”
“She told us Marcus may have assaulted Emily.”
Rebecca laughed once.
“Helen has spent forty years telling whatever version keeps her out of prison.”
I thought of Helen’s tears.
Her selective admissions.
Daniel’s warning that she was frightened.
Not innocent.
Frightened.
“What happened after Marcus left?” I asked.
Chloe looked at me.
“Another person came in.”
“Who?”
Chloe swallowed.
“Grandpa Daniel.”
Jason’s face changed.
“What did Dad do?”
“He sat with Mom.”
“Anything else?”
“He talked to her.”
“She was conscious?”
“A little.”
“What did he say?”
Chloe looked toward Rebecca.
“Show them.”
Rebecca asked one officer whether she could access a laptop under supervision.
The officer agreed after another investigator arrived.
We gathered in the building lobby.
Rebecca played the video.
The image was grainy.
No sound.
Emily lay in the hospital bed.
Marcus entered.
He looked at her chart.
Removed a vial from a tray.
Left.
Minutes later, Daniel entered.
He sat beside Emily.
Held her hand.
Then a nurse appeared.
She injected something into Emily’s IV.
Daniel stood.
Argued.
The nurse pointed toward the door.
Daniel left.
The timestamp continued.
Six minutes later, another man entered.
Jason leaned toward the screen.
“Who is that?”
Nobody answered.
The man wore a white coat.
His face was visible only briefly when he turned toward the camera.
Thomas gasped.
“No.”
Jason looked at him.
“You know him?”
Thomas covered his mouth.
“That’s Michael Reeves.”
I stared.
“Michael?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No. It can’t be.”
Rebecca paused the video.
The man was about twenty-three.
The age matched.
Jason frowned.
“Michael supposedly died at twenty-three.”
Thomas stared at the date.
“This was the year he died.”
Rebecca said, “Three months before.”
“What was he doing in Emily’s room?”
Rebecca looked at Chloe.
Then at Jason.
“He believed Emily was his biological sister.”
Jason’s expression tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Laura lied to him too.”
“What did he do?”
Rebecca played the video.
Michael approached Emily.
He touched her hair.
Then he reached beneath the blanket near her arm.
Jason stiffened.
But seconds later Michael stepped back holding another blood vial.
He labeled it.
Placed it inside his coat.
Then left.
No assault.
No sexual contact.
Only blood.
Jason stared.
“Then how did Marcus become Chloe’s biological father?”
Rebecca closed the laptop.
“He didn’t.”
Thomas whispered, “The DNA.”
“Was interpreted using false assumptions.”
Jason stared.
“Then who is Chloe’s biological father?”
Rebecca looked directly at him.
“You are.”
No one spoke.
Jason almost laughed.
“What?”
“You are Chloe’s biological father.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Our tests—”
“Your family tree is so genetically distorted by Richard’s donor practices that basic relationship calculations become misleading.”
Thomas stared.
“Then why did Daniel’s comparison identify Marcus?”
“Because the sample labeled Marcus wasn’t Marcus’s.”
My skin prickled.
“Whose was it?”
Rebecca looked at Thomas.
“Yours.”
Thomas stepped backward.
“No.”
Rebecca continued.
“Daniel collected samples carelessly while he was trying to untangle decades of falsified records. One was mislabeled.”
Jason’s breathing became shallow.
“So the test said Chloe matched a man who is my half-brother.”
“Yes.”
“That could happen if I’m her father.”
“Yes.”
Jason covered his face.
Chloe watched him.
“Dad?”
He lowered his hands.
Tears filled his eyes.
“You’re mine.”
Chloe’s expression collapsed.
“I was always yours.”
Jason crossed the space between them.
This time when he hugged her, she did not pull away.
I turned away because the sight was too intimate.
Too painful.
Too beautiful.
Then Rebecca spoke.
“But Sophie is the problem.”
Jason slowly released Chloe.
“What does that mean?”
Rebecca looked toward the police officers.
“Helen knows.”
“Helen told us Sophie was biologically mine.”
“She lied.”
Jason’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Because Sophie is the descendant Richard’s project had been waiting for.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 12: Rebecca’s Evidence Cleared Chloe’s Paternity, but Sophie’s Genetic Records Exposed the Reason Daniel Was Killed Before He Could Tell Us
A Small Question at Sunday Dinner Made Me Notice What Everyone Else Had Chosen Not to See
Part 11 of 15
