Chapter 10
Nathaniel shifted the folder against his ribs. The man in the doorway watched his hands; the men behind him watched Emily.
“You’ll have the folder,” Nathaniel said. “You won’t have my phone.”
The first man’s expression stayed mild. “Mr. Whitcomb asked for the archive returned.”
“And I heard you.” Nathaniel opened the folder just enough to find the dated letter from the family lawyer. He folded it once and slipped it inside his coat. Then he handed over the rest.
The man leafed through the papers. “You’ve made this difficult.”
“No,” Nathaniel said. “My father did that.”
They let Emily and Nathaniel leave, but not before the first man reminded them the family gathering was still scheduled for the next evening. Outside, cold air struck Emily’s face. Nathaniel showed her the letter inside his coat and the photographs saved on his phone.
“One page and pictures,” she said.
“Enough to prove what he ordered. Not enough to explain what happened to Evelyn.”
“Then don’t pretend it is.”
He met her eyes. “I won’t.”
The next night, the Whitcomb charity gala glittered beneath crystal chandeliers. Donors in black tie filled the ballroom, talking over the string quartet and the clink of glasses. Emily had left the girls at home with their sitter. She’d refused Arthur’s offer to “make the evening easier” by bringing them to the estate.
She hadn’t come to make anything easier for him.
Nathaniel stood beside her near the ballroom doors, the folded letter in his inside pocket. His father’s signet ring flashed as Arthur lifted a hand for quiet. The quartet stopped mid-phrase.
“My friends,” Arthur began, “thank you for joining us. Tonight, the Whitcomb family welcomes home three children who were lost to us for too long.”
A screen behind him lit up. Tess, Nora, and Belle appeared in a recent airport photograph, pressed close to Emily. It was the same moment Pike had photographed them without permission: three bright coats, three small faces turned toward their mother.
Whispers ran through the room. Camera shutters clicked.
Emily’s stomach clenched. Arthur had made the girls’ private reunion a picture for strangers to inspect.
“Evelyn’s daughters,” Arthur continued. “Our family’s heirs, at last returned to their rightful name.”
Nathaniel went rigid beside her.
Arthur gazed toward Emily with an expression of practiced sorrow. “Their adoptive mother has, understandably, found the truth difficult to accept. She has mistaken a lawful placement for ownership, and emotion for judgment. I hope we can all show compassion while the matter is resolved.”
A donor lowered her glass. Someone near the front murmured, “Is she unstable?”
Emily stepped forward before Nathaniel could answer. “You do not get to call my daughters lost and then claim you’ve brought them home.”
Arthur’s sorrowful look hardened at the edges. “They are Evelyn’s children.”
“They are my daughters.”
A hush opened around them. Emily could feel the room waiting to decide whether she was grieving, furious, or entertaining.
She held Arthur’s gaze. “I adopted them. I raised them. I’m the one they run to when the dark scares them and the one who knows which ribbon belongs to whom. No Whitcomb gets to turn them into an announcement.”
A murmur moved through the guests. One reporter leaned closer, microphone raised.
Arthur stepped nearer, his voice dropping, though not enough to keep the people around them from hearing. “You’re making a scene in front of people who can help those girls.”
“You mean people who can help you control them.”
For the first time, his composure slipped. His eyes cut to Nathaniel. “You brought her here to accuse your own family?”
“I brought myself,” Nathaniel said. “And I’m done letting you speak for Evelyn.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened. “Be careful, son. You have no idea how much you’re risking.”
“I know what you risked. Their lives. Their mother’s chance to find them.”
The ballroom seemed to draw a single breath. Arthur’s attorney, standing at his shoulder, opened a leather case.
“My client has reason to believe the adoption documents are fraudulent,” the attorney said. “He intends to challenge them. The court should determine whether these children were placed legally.”
Emily saw the attorney’s careful phrasing and Arthur’s steady eyes. He had taken the story he’d buried and dressed it as a rescue.
Nathaniel’s hand moved toward the letter inside his coat.
“Don’t,” Arthur said softly. “Not here.”
“Why? You’ve decided here is where we discuss the girls.”
“I have decided to protect them from a woman who has lied about their history.”
Emily’s control frayed. “You hid them from their mother. You knew they were alive.”
A camera flash whitened the ballroom. Arthur turned toward the crowd as if he had been struck by her words instead of exposed by them.
“Emily is upset,” he said. “I understand. But grief and confusion can make people say things they cannot support.”
Nathaniel took a step between them. “I can support every word.”
His father’s gaze held his. “And what will that cost you?”
Before Nathaniel could answer, Emily’s phone vibrated in her hand. Their sitter’s name appeared on the screen. She answered, and the tiny speaker carried the murmur of a television into the ballroom.
“Emily, I’m sorry,” the sitter whispered. “The girls heard the broadcast. I’ve turned it off, but—”
“Mommy?” Tess’s voice came through, small and uncertain. “The man said you stole us.”
Emily’s breath caught. Across the room, Arthur’s attorney kept talking. A reporter was already speaking into a camera.
Tess continued, “Did you buy us?”
For one terrible second, Emily couldn’t speak. The chandeliers blurred. She gripped the phone so tightly her knuckles hurt.
“No, sweetheart,” she managed. Her voice broke on the last word. “I’m coming home.”
She ended the call and looked at Arthur. Something in her face had changed; the room’s stares no longer mattered as much as the sound of Tess trying to understand a lie.
May you like
Then a reporter’s voice cut through the ballroom, clear enough for every guest to hear.
“We’re receiving a new allegation from a source close to the Whitcomb family: Emily Hale may have bought the three girls through an illegal adoption.”
