Chapter 5: The Boy She Tried to Silence
By the time we reached our street, three police cars were parked outside our house.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
Richard barely stopped the car before I jumped out.
“Ethan!””
I ran toward the front door.
Mrs. Collins stood on the porch wearing a cardigan over her nightdress. She was holding a kitchen towel against her forehead.
“Emily, thank goodness.””
“What happened?””
“Nicole came back about twenty minutes after you left. She said your father had authorized her to take Ethan to her sister's house.””
“She doesn't have a sister!””
“I know that now.”” Mrs. Collins looked shaken.
“But she had paperwork. She told me Richard had signed it.””
Dad reached the porch.
“Where is my son?””
“Inside, with the officers.””
I pushed past them.
Ethan sat on the living room sofa wrapped in a blanket. A police officer knelt beside him, asking questions. My brother's face was blotchy, and his small hands were clenched around the green dinosaur.
When he saw me, he jumped up.
“Emily!””
I dropped to my knees and caught him in my arms.
“I'm here, buddy. I'm here.””
He clung to my neck.
“She said you weren't coming back.””
I held him tighter.
“She lied.””
He pulled away enough to look at me.
“She said Dad was going to prison and that she'd send me somewhere nobody could find me.””
My throat tightened.
“That's not happening.””
Richard came through the doorway.
Ethan ran to him.
“Dad!””
My father dropped to his knees and wrapped both arms around him.
“I'm sorry, son.””
“Nicole tried to take me.””
“I know.””
“Why does she hate us?””
Richard pressed his cheek against Ethan's hair.
“I don't know yet.””
The police officer stood.
“Mr. Hayes, we need to speak with you. Your wife claims she has legal authority to take your son. She also alleges that your daughter has been behaving erratically and may be a danger to the family.””
I rose slowly.
“She accused me of being pregnant to get me thrown out of the house. Now she's trying to take my brother. Does that sound like someone who's concerned about family safety?””
The officer looked uncomfortable.
“I'm not making any judgments, ma'am. I need to establish the facts.””
Richard stood and took a folded document from the coffee table.
“This is the paperwork she showed Mrs. Collins?””
The officer nodded.
Richard examined the signature.
“That isn't mine.””
The officer's expression sharpened.
“Are you certain?””
“Absolutely.””
He pointed to the bottom of the page.
“The signature is supposed to be mine, but the date is wrong. And this isn't the attorney I use.””
I leaned over his shoulder.
The document claimed that Richard had authorized Nicole to take Ethan into temporary custody because of an alleged family emergency.
At the bottom was a signature that resembled my father's.
It was good enough to fool a neighbor.
But it wasn't good enough to fool him.
The officer photographed the document.
“Mrs. Hayes has left the premises,” he said.
“We'll need to contact her and verify the circumstances. In the meantime, please make sure your son remains with a responsible adult.””
Richard nodded.
When the officers left, I turned to Mrs. Collins.
“Thank you for protecting Ethan.””
She squeezed my hand.
“I've lived next door to your family for twenty years. I knew your mother. She would never have wanted this.””
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Margaret always said you and Ethan were the best thing she ever did.””
I hugged her.
Then I noticed something on the floor beside the sofa.
A small black object.
I picked it up.
It was a wireless audio recorder.
“Ethan, is this yours?””
He nodded.
“I hid it in the couch when Nicole came in.””
My pulse quickened.
“What did you record?””
“I don't know. I just turned it on when she started yelling.””
I looked at Dad.
“Let's listen.””
We sat around the coffee table while Ethan pressed the playback button.
Nicole's voice emerged first.
“Where is the dinosaur, Ethan?””
My brother whispered, “I don't know.””
“Don't lie to me.””
“I didn't take anything!””
A sharp sound followed, as if something had been knocked off a table.
Then Nicole said, “Your sister is a liar. She's trying to turn your father against me.””
Ethan's voice shook.
“Emily doesn't lie.””
“Your sister is going to ruin this family.””
“She didn't do anything!””
“Enough!””
A chair scraped across the floor.
Then Nicole's voice dropped into a chilling calm.
“If you tell your father what you heard, you'll lose both of them. Do you understand? Your father will go to prison, and your sister will disappear. You'll be left with nobody.””
Ethan began crying.
I stopped the recording.
My hands were shaking.
Richard looked as though someone had struck him.
“She threatened an eight-year-old child.””
“She's been doing it for a long time,” I said.
He turned to Ethan.
“Why didn't you tell me she was treating you like this?””
Ethan stared at the carpet.
“Because she said you wouldn't believe me.””
Richard closed his eyes.
The shame on his face was almost unbearable to watch.
“I should have known.””
I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Dad, you can regret what happened without letting her use that regret to control you again.””
He nodded, though I wasn't sure he had heard me.
My phone vibrated.
Another message from the unknown number.
This time, there was an attachment.
A photograph of my mother standing beside a woman outside a courthouse.
The woman was Nicole—or Laura, or whoever she truly was.
Beneath the picture was a single sentence.
*YOUR MOTHER KNEW WHO I WAS. ASK HER WHAT SHE PROMISED TO KEEP SECRET.*
I showed the message to Daniel, who had arrived moments earlier.
He studied the photograph.
“Where did you get this?””
“Someone sent it to me.””
He zoomed in on the courthouse sign.
“That's the Hartford Superior Court. This was taken shortly before Margaret died.””
Dad looked at the image.
“Why would Margaret be meeting Nicole at a courthouse?””
Daniel swallowed.
“Maybe they weren't meeting by choice.””
He pointed to the corner of the photograph.
A man stood behind them, partially obscured by a stone column.
I recognized him immediately.
Arthur Cole, the attorney who had represented the Bennett family—and who had supposedly helped my father recover after his accident.
“What is he doing there?”” I asked.
Daniel's expression darkened.
“That's the question we should have asked years ago.””
He placed the photograph on the table and opened the folder he had brought from the storage unit.
“There are more documents. I didn't have time to explain everything before Nicole showed up.””
He removed a notarized affidavit.
The date was twenty-seven years earlier.
The affidavit stated that Laura Bennett had been declared deceased following the house fire. Her surviving sister, Nicole, had received the family estate.
But there was something unusual about the document.
The signature belonged to Arthur Cole.
And beneath it was a handwritten note:
*Identity confirmation provided by Richard Hayes.*
Dad stared at the page.
“I didn't sign this.””
Daniel nodded.
“I believe you.””
“Then how did my name get here?””
“Someone used your medical records. After your accident, you were unconscious for several days. If they had your identification, they could have made it appear that you confirmed her death.””
I looked from the affidavit to my father.
“Dad, if you were engaged to Laura, and the police believed she died in that fire, what happened to the woman you thought you loved?””
Richard's voice was barely audible.
“I don't know.””
Daniel leaned forward.
“There's one more thing.””
He took out a small envelope addressed to Margaret.
Inside was a copy of an old birth certificate.
The child's name had been crossed out, but the date and hospital were still legible.
I read the date.
Then I read it again.
The child had been born twenty-seven years earlier.
The same year as the fire.
The same year as my father's accident.
“What is this?”” I asked.
Daniel looked at Richard.
“Laura had a baby.””
My father went completely still.
“No.””
“Richard—”
“No. If she had a child, I would know.””
“Not if someone concealed the birth.””
I stared at the certificate.
“Who was the father?””
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“Richard, the hospital record lists you as the father.””
The room went silent.
My father backed away from the table.
“I was twenty-three. I barely remember that year.””
Daniel nodded.
“That's why I believe someone used your accident to erase more than a few memories.””
I felt dizzy.
“If Laura had a child, where is that child now?””
Daniel opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, Ethan spoke from the sofa.
“Emily?””
I turned.
He was staring at the birth certificate.
“That's my birthday.””
I looked down.
The date on the certificate matched Ethan's birthday exactly.
My brother's face had gone pale.
“Dad,” he whispered, “am I the baby?””
Richard stared at him.
Then at Daniel.
Then back at the certificate.
Nobody answered.
Because the possibility was suddenly impossible to ignore.
Ethan might not have been the child of Richard and Margaret at all.
May you like
And if Nicole had spent years trying to control him, perhaps it wasn't because he was the youngest member of the family.
Perhaps it was because she knew exactly who he was.
