Jason called Emily before Thomas could stop him.
She answered on the fourth ring.
I heard only Jason’s side.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“No, don’t come here.”
Another pause.
“Because Thomas is here.”
Silence.
Jason’s face tightened.
“Yes. That Thomas.”
He listened.
“No, Emily, I’m not hanging up.”
His free hand trembled.
“Did Marcus Hale ever enter your hospital room after the accident?”
Whatever Emily said made him close his eyes.
“Did he?”
Another pause.
“Okay.”
His voice softened unexpectedly.
“No. I’m not accusing you.”
He looked at Thomas.
“I’m trying to understand.”
He listened for nearly a minute.
Then his expression changed.
“What injection?”
Thomas went rigid.
Jason’s eyes moved toward him.
“What did they tell you it was?”
Another pause.
“Who gave it to you?”
Jason’s jaw clenched.
“Did you see his face?”
He listened.
“All right.”
His shoulders sagged.
“Stay where you are. I’ll call you back.”
He ended the call.
“What injection?” I asked.
Jason looked pale.
“She remembers someone giving her medication after I left the hospital.”
Thomas said nothing.
“She thought it was for nausea.”
Jason’s voice sharpened.
“She says it made everything blurrier.”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
Jason stepped toward him.
“You knew.”
“Daniel knew.”
“You keep hiding behind a dead man.”
“I’m telling you where the information came from.”
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to take something out of Jason.
He backed away.
“When did Dad learn this?”
“Years later.”
“How?”
“Emily told him.”
“Why would she tell Dad instead of me?”
“Because Daniel asked questions that made her remember details she had buried.”
Jason laughed bitterly.
“So everybody decided I was the one person who shouldn’t know anything.”
Thomas did not deny it.
I looked at the photograph from the courthouse.
“Why were Daniel and Emily there?”
Thomas sat again.
“To meet an attorney.”
“What kind of attorney?”
“Medical malpractice.”
Jason turned.
“They were going to sue the hospital?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what?”
“Daniel wanted access to archived records.”
“Why?”
“Because Chloe’s DNA suggested Marcus.”
“And Sophie?”
Thomas looked toward the photograph.
“After Sophie was born, Daniel noticed something in her newborn blood panel.”
I felt a chill.
“What?”
“The same rare clotting marker.”
Jason stared.
“That means she could have inherited it from me.”
“Yes.”
“Or Marcus.”
“Yes.”
Jason’s face tightened.
“Was Marcus Sophie’s father too?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Daniel tested her.”
Jason’s voice rose.
“Everybody tested my children except me.”
No one answered.
“What did the test show?”
“That Sophie was biologically yours.”
Jason closed his eyes.
The relief was immediate and painful to witness.
He sat.
“She’s mine.”
“Yes.”
He covered his face.
For several moments his shoulders shook.
When he finally lowered his hands, tears remained on his cheeks.
“What about Chloe?”
Thomas’s answer was gentle.
“You are her father in every way that mattered to her.”
Jason looked at him coldly.
“Don’t use Mom’s words.”
Thomas nodded.
Jason stared at the test documents.
“So Sophie is biologically mine. Chloe likely isn’t.”
“Yes.”
“And Chloe’s biological father may have assaulted Emily while she was unconscious.”
“Yes.”
Jason swallowed.
“Did Dad prove that?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the hospital records were altered.”
Jason looked up.
“Altered how?”
“Medication times changed. Staff initials overwritten. Security logs missing.”
I stared at Thomas.
“That does not happen by accident.”
“No.”
“Who changed them?”
“Daniel believed Richard’s old connections helped Marcus.”
My stomach turned.
Even dead, Richard Parker’s influence seemed to extend into another generation.
Jason leaned forward.
“Grandpa protected Marcus?”
“Richard was already dead by then.”
“Then how?”
“Administrators who owed him favors. People he had hired. People who still protected the Parker name.”
Jason gave a bitter laugh.
“What name?”
Thomas looked at him.
“That name mattered to people once.”
“To Dad?”
“Too much.”
I looked at Daniel’s letters.
“He spent his life ashamed of Richard.”
“Yes.”
“Then why protect any of this?”
Thomas’s eyes shifted toward me.
“Because exposing Richard’s fertility scheme would have exposed Jason’s conception.”
I felt the violation again.
My body.
My pregnancy.
My son.
Decisions made around me.
Records signed without my knowledge.
A donor I had not chosen.
A procedure I had not consented to in the form it apparently took.
Jason noticed my face.
“Mom.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Neither are you.”
He looked away.
For once, neither of us pretended otherwise.
I turned to Thomas.
“You said someone interfered with the family after Chloe.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Marcus.”
Jason’s expression hardened.
“He was dead before Sophie?”
“No. Sophie was born nine years ago. Marcus died seven years ago.”
“What did he do?”
Thomas removed a small notebook.
“Daniel believed Marcus followed Emily.”
Jason stared.
“Followed her?”
“For months.”
“Why?”
“He had become convinced Chloe should belong to him.”
My skin prickled.
“Did Emily know?”
“Not initially.”
Jason whispered, “Did he contact her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After Sophie’s birth.”
“What did he say?”
Thomas opened the notebook.
“These are Daniel’s notes.”
He read several entries.
Marcus had sent anonymous messages.
Asked whether Chloe knew her “real family.”
Left gifts outside the house without a name.
Once placed an old Parker family photograph inside Emily’s mailbox.
Jason stood abruptly.
“We found that photograph.”
I looked at him.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“What did you think it was?”
“Junk mail.”
He laughed once, horrified by the memory.
“It had Grandpa in it. Dad. Thomas.”
He pointed at Thomas.
“I asked Emily why somebody sent it.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she didn’t know.”
Thomas nodded.
“She didn’t.”
Jason looked sick.
“What else did Marcus do?”
“He began threatening Daniel.”
“Why Daniel?”
“Because Daniel confronted him.”
“When?”
“Shortly after Sophie’s birth.”
Jason walked toward the window.
“What happened?”
“They fought.”
“Physically?”
“Yes.”
I stared at Thomas.
“Daniel was nearly sixty.”
“Marcus was younger.”
“Was Daniel injured?”
“He broke two ribs.”
A memory surfaced.
Daniel had called me around that time.
We were divorced in everything but paperwork by then.
He told me he had fallen from a ladder.
I had believed him.
“How many times did Daniel lie to me?” I whispered.
Thomas heard.
“Too many.”
Jason turned from the window.
“Did Marcus admit what happened to Emily?”
Thomas shook his head.
“He claimed they had a relationship.”
Jason’s face hardened.
“Did Emily?”
“No.”
“Did Dad believe Marcus?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus changed his story repeatedly.”
Thomas flipped through the notebook.
“First he said Emily had invited him to the hospital room. Then he said she contacted him later. Then he claimed they had been seeing each other before the accident.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed.
“Any evidence?”
“None.”
“DNA proves he fathered Chloe.”
“Yes.”
“Not consent.”
“No.”
The word hung in the room.
Jason sat again.
For the first time since Thomas arrived, his anger quieted into grief.
“I accused her.”
I said nothing.
“She kept saying I didn’t understand.”
His voice broke.
“I accused her of cheating.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have listened.”
“You had evidence that looked terrible.”
He shook his head.
“She was terrified.”
I remembered Emily’s hands shaking over tea.
“You can apologize for the accusation,” I said. “That does not erase the truth she still hid about Thomas.”
Jason nodded.
“I know.”
Thomas looked toward the phone.
“She may not know everything.”
Jason stared.
“What do you mean?”
“Daniel deliberately withheld parts of the investigation from her.”
“Why?”
“He believed Marcus might be watching her.”
Jason’s eyes sharpened.
“Watching?”
“Not just following.”
Thomas turned several notebook pages.
“There were signs someone had entered your home.”
Jason frowned.
“When?”
“When Chloe was about seven.”
My heart tightened.
“What signs?”
“Nothing stolen. Drawers slightly moved. Window latch damaged.”
Jason went pale.
“We had a broken kitchen latch.”
Thomas nodded.
“I fixed it.”
Jason stared.
“You?”
“You were at work.”
“I thought Dad did it.”
“He asked me to.”
Jason gripped the table.
“Marcus went inside my house.”
“Daniel believed he did.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked toward the notebook.
“Because Chloe had begun receiving headaches.”
Jason blinked.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Daniel feared someone was giving her something.”
The room went cold.
“What?”
“Sedatives.”
Jason’s chair scraped back.
“That never happened.”
“She complained of headaches and fatigue.”
“She was a kid.”
“She also had two unexplained fainting episodes.”
Jason stopped.
I remembered one.
Chloe collapsing at a school concert.
Doctors blamed dehydration.
“What did Daniel think?”
“That Marcus wanted access to Chloe’s blood.”
Jason stared.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus had inherited the clotting disorder badly.”
I understood before Thomas finished.
“He wanted to know whether Chloe was a donor match.”
“Yes.”
Jason looked horrified.
“For what?”
“Bone marrow.”
I covered my mouth.
“Did he need a transplant?”
“Eventually.”
Jason’s voice became low.
“So he may have fathered a child through assault, then years later stalked her because he wanted her tissue.”
Thomas looked sick.
“That is what Daniel feared.”
“Did he ever hurt Chloe?”
“We don’t know.”
Jason stood.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because certainty matters.”
“Not to this family apparently.”
Thomas accepted that too.
Jason walked into the adjoining room.
I could see him gripping the back of the sofa.
I wanted to go to him.
I did not.
He needed space.
After a moment he returned.
“Why did Marcus kill himself?”
Thomas looked at the notebook.
“His transplant options failed.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“Daniel had gathered enough evidence to take the records to federal investigators.”
Jason stared.
“Dad was going to expose everything.”
“Yes.”
“What stopped him?”
“Marcus died.”
“And Dad?”
“Daniel stopped.”
I looked at Thomas.
“Why?”
“He thought the danger was over.”
“Then why keep investigating Sophie?”
Thomas turned toward me.
“Because two months after Marcus died, Emily received another anonymous message.”
Jason frowned.
“What message?”
Thomas took a photocopy from the notebook.
The original had been printed from an old email account.
Jason read aloud.
You think he was the only one watching.
A cold sensation moved through me.
Jason’s voice dropped.
“Who sent it?”
“We never found out.”
“Did Dad think Marcus was alive?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Thomas closed the notebook.
“He began to suspect someone had helped Marcus.”
“Who?”
“We didn’t know.”
Jason looked toward the leather bag.
“Do you know now?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Yes.”
My pulse quickened.
“Who?”
Thomas’s face became grim.
“A woman named Dr. Helen Voss.”
The name stirred something.
I had heard it before.
Jason had too.
He frowned.
“Why do I know that name?”
Thomas looked directly at him.
“Because she delivered Sophie.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: The Doctor Who Delivered Sophie Had Been Connected to Daniel for Decades, and Her Records Revealed Why He Truly Disappeared
A Small Question at Sunday Dinner Made Me Notice What Everyone Else Had Chosen Not to See
Part 7 of 15
