Chapter 3 - The Name They Took From Me
Nobody moved toward the door.
Thomas raised one hand.
Alexandra stepped in front of me.
I hated how instinctively I wanted to let her.
“Clara Beatrice,” Margaret called again.
The voice reached somewhere inside me.
Lavender.
Buttons.
A lullaby.
I pressed both hands against my temples.
“I remember her voice.”
Alexandra turned.
“What?”
“Not words. Just…”
I swallowed.
“I know that voice.”
Margaret knocked again.
Thomas spoke through the door.
“Ms. Crane, step away.”
Silence.
Then she laughed.
“Still hiring people to protect the Vale family, Alexandra?”
My sister’s expression tightened.
Margaret continued.
“Ask her why her father paid me fifty thousand dollars two days before you disappeared.”
I looked at Alexandra.
“What?”
Margaret laughed again.
“They didn’t tell you that?”
Alexandra closed her eyes.
My chest tightened.
“So it’s true.”
“It happened,” Alexandra said.
“What happened?”
“Our father paid Margaret.”
“Why?”
“We never knew.”
Margaret answered through the door.
“Because your father wanted you gone.”
I moved toward the door.
Alexandra grabbed my hand.
“Don’t.”
I pulled free.
“She says Dad wanted me gone.”
“She’s manipulating you.”
“Then tell me why he paid her.”
“We found the payment after Dad died.”
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“You’ve known for eleven years?”
“Yes.”
“And you kept looking for me?”
“Every day.”
“Then why didn’t you tell investigators?”
“We did.”
Thomas nodded.
“Police reviewed it. There was no proof linking the payment to the disappearance.”
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“Because David Vale bought silence.”
Alexandra shouted toward the door.
“You kidnapped a three-year-old child.”
“I saved her.”
My blood turned cold.
“Saved me from what?”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“Margaret?”
“From becoming another Vale.”
Alexandra’s face changed.
Hatred.
Not polished irritation.
Not businesslike anger.
Hatred.
“You left her outside an institution.”
“I had no choice.”
“You had twenty-four years to come forward.”
“And you had twenty-four years to admit what your father was.”
I looked from Alexandra to the door.
The truth was becoming impossible to separate from revenge.
“Open it.”
Thomas shook his head.
“We need police present.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I spent twenty-four years having strangers decide what information about my own life I was allowed to hear.”
I looked at Alexandra.
“No more.”
She stared at me.
Then nodded.
Thomas reluctantly unlocked the door.
Margaret Crane stood outside.
She was sixty-two.
Smaller than I expected.
Gray threaded through her brown hair.
Her coat was ordinary.
Her shoes were wet.
Nothing about her looked like the monster I had imagined.
Then she saw me.
Her entire face collapsed.
“Oh, Clara.”
She reached toward me.
Alexandra stepped between us.
Margaret stopped.
“Of course.”
“Don’t touch her,” Alexandra said.
Margaret’s gaze returned to me.
“You look like Caroline.”
My mother.
I swallowed.
“Why did you take me?”
Margaret lowered her hand.
“I didn’t.”
Alexandra laughed bitterly.
“You disappeared three days after Clara did.”
“I was afraid.”
“Because you were guilty.”
“Because your father threatened me.”
I stared at her.
“Explain.”
Margaret looked behind us.
“Not with Sterling ears listening.”
Thomas checked the corridor.
“Nobody else is here.”
Margaret entered.
The door closed.
She sat.
I remained standing.
“Start talking.”
She looked at my sisters.
“Your father hired me because Caroline was planning to leave him.”
Alexandra frowned.
“That’s a lie.”
“No.”
“Our parents remained married until Mom died.”
“Because after Clara vanished, Caroline stopped trying to leave.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“What are you saying?”
“David knew your mother would never leave while there was any chance Clara could come home.”
Alexandra whispered, “No.”
Margaret turned toward me.
“Your father wasn’t supposed to lose you permanently.”
My stomach twisted.
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted me to take you for forty-eight hours.”
Nobody breathed.
“Why?”
“To frighten your mother.”
Isabelle staggered backward.
Margaret continued.
“Caroline had contacted a divorce attorney. She planned to take all four girls and move to California.”
Alexandra shook her head repeatedly.
“That never happened.”
“You were fifteen.”
“I would remember.”
“Your mother hid it because your father monitored everything.”
“What did he want you to do?” I asked.
“Take you to a motel. Keep you safe. Then return you.”
“Why me?”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“You were your mother’s favorite.”
Alexandra flinched.
Margaret immediately corrected herself.
“Not favorite in love. You were the youngest. Caroline was extremely protective of you.”
I suddenly felt sick.
“So my father paid someone to kidnap me to control my mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you agreed.”
Margaret looked down.
“Yes.”
I stared at her.
“You expect sympathy?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Her face crumpled.
“I have regretted it every day.”
“Regret didn’t put me back in my family.”
“No.”
“Why did you abandon me?”
“I didn’t.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I took you to a motel outside Harrisburg. The next morning, David called.”
Margaret’s hands began shaking.
“He changed the plan.”
Alexandra whispered, “How?”
“He said Caroline had contacted police too quickly. Reporters were involved. Returning Clara would expose everything.”
“What did he tell you to do?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Drive west and wait.”
“For how long?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
She began crying.
“I waited two days.”
“And then?”
“Someone came for you.”
Every person in the room went still.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You handed me to a stranger?”
“No. I refused.”
Margaret wiped her face.
“A woman arrived claiming David sent her. I wouldn’t release you. We argued. She left.”
“And?”
“That night someone broke into the motel room.”
My skin prickled.
“When I woke up, Clara was gone.”
Alexandra stared.
“You expect us to believe someone kidnapped the child you had already kidnapped?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you disappear afterward?”
“Because David said he would have me arrested for Clara’s kidnapping if I spoke.”
“He should have.”
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
That answer silenced Alexandra.
I sat slowly.
“How did I reach Saint Matthew’s?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I searched privately for years.”
“You had my foster records.”
“I found them recently.”
“How?”
Margaret looked toward the ballroom.
“Evelyn Sterling.”
The name landed heavily.
“What does Evelyn have to do with this?”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
“She was the woman who came to the motel.”
I stopped breathing.
Alexandra stood.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Why would Evelyn Sterling be involved with our father twenty-four years ago?”
“She wasn’t Evelyn Sterling then.”
“What?”
Margaret looked at me.
“She was Evelyn Hart.”
Victoria sat down sharply.
I remembered the photograph from the hotel room.
Evelyn beside Margaret.
Three months before my disappearance.
“How did she know my father?”
Margaret looked almost afraid to answer.
“David Vale financed her first company.”
Alexandra shook her head.
“Our father never invested in Hart businesses.”
“Not officially.”
“Why would she take Clara?”
Margaret hesitated.
“That is the question you should ask Evelyn.”
Thomas interrupted.
“We can.”
Everyone looked at him.
He held up his phone.
“Hotel security located Mrs. Sterling.”
“Where?”
“She’s leaving through the service garage.”
Alexandra moved immediately.
Thomas stopped her.
“Police are already downstairs.”
Margaret looked toward the door.
“She won’t talk.”
“She will,” Victoria said.
Margaret shook her head.
“You don’t understand Evelyn.”
I stared at her.
“I understand exactly enough.”
Twenty minutes later, we were in another private hotel conference room.
Evelyn sat across the table.
An attorney sat beside her.
Miranda had vanished.
Julian remained somewhere upstairs.
Evelyn looked at my ruined dress.
Then at my sisters.
Then at Margaret.
Her face showed no surprise.
That told me everything.
“You know her,” I said.
Evelyn’s attorney spoke.
“My client will not answer questions regarding events currently under investigation.”
Evelyn raised one hand.
“It’s fine.”
Her lawyer frowned.
“Evelyn.”
She ignored him.
“Yes, Clara. I know Margaret Crane.”
“Were you at the motel?”
Her gaze shifted.
“Briefly.”
Alexandra leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Your father asked me to retrieve Clara.”
My hands curled.
“Why?”
“He had panicked.”
Margaret laughed bitterly.
“That’s your version?”
Evelyn looked at her with contempt.
“You’re hardly in a position to question anyone’s morality.”
“Neither are you.”
I interrupted.
“What happened when you arrived?”
“Margaret refused to hand you over.”
“And then?”
“I left.”
“Did you return?”
“No.”
“Did you take me?”
“No.”
Something in her answer bothered me.
Not hesitation.
Precision.
“You didn’t take me.”
“No.”
“Did someone working for you take me?”
Her attorney touched her arm.
“That’s enough.”
Evelyn looked at me.
For the first time that evening, I saw fear.
Tiny.
But real.
I leaned forward.
“You know how I ended up at Saint Matthew’s.”
Her mouth tightened.
“No.”
“You know something.”
“I know your father was a complicated man.”
“Was he having an affair with you?”
Alexandra looked at me sharply.
Evelyn’s face went blank.
There.
I had guessed.
Margaret whispered, “Finally.”
Victoria stood.
“You and our father?”
Evelyn said nothing.
I felt suddenly cold.
“How long?”
Her lawyer began speaking.
Evelyn cut him off.
“Six years.”
Alexandra looked like she had been struck.
“Our mother knew?”
“Eventually.”
“And you helped Dad stop her from leaving?”
“I helped no one.”
“You went to the motel.”
“To fix his mistake.”
“By bringing me home?”
“Yes.”
“But you left without me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Margaret threatened to expose us.”
Margaret laughed.
“You were afraid Caroline would discover the affair.”
Evelyn’s eyes flashed.
“She already knew.”
“Then what were you afraid of?”
Silence.
I stared at Evelyn.
Something else.
There was always something else.
“What did my father promise you?”
Nothing.
“What?”
Evelyn looked away.
I saw Alexandra’s expression change.
She understood before I did.
“Money,” she said.
Evelyn’s jaw tightened.
Alexandra stood.
“How much?”
No answer.
Victoria pulled out her phone.
“I can have every historical corporate transfer reviewed within hours.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Don’t threaten me.”
“That wasn’t a threat.”
Victoria’s voice was almost gentle.
“It was a schedule.”
Evelyn’s attorney whispered urgently.
She ignored him.
Finally she said, “Five million.”
I stared.
“For what?”
“To disappear from his life.”
My stomach twisted.
“And me?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“You complicated the arrangement.”
“How?”
“Caroline had discovered evidence of David’s affair. She threatened to expose financial transactions involving one of my companies.”
“So Dad wanted Mom controlled.”
“Yes.”
“And kidnapping me accomplished that.”
“I didn’t approve.”
“But you knew.”
“Afterward.”
“And stayed silent.”
Her eyes hardened.
“I had children.”
I almost laughed.
“So did my mother.”
That landed.
Evelyn looked down.
For the first time all evening, she had no answer.
Thomas entered abruptly.
He walked to Alexandra.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“An archive box from David Vale’s former attorney.”
Alexandra’s expression changed.
“How?”
“The firm retained closed-case materials. We obtained authorization from the estate representative.”
Thomas placed a scanned document on the table.
My father’s signature was at the bottom.
The date was May 15.
One day after my disappearance.
Alexandra read aloud.
“Transfer authorization. Five million dollars to Hart Strategic Holdings.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Thomas placed another document beside it.
“This was attached.”
It was a handwritten note.
I read it.
Payment upon confirmation that C.B.V. cannot be connected to either party.
My heart hammered.
Either party.
I looked at Evelyn.
“What does that mean?”
She said nothing.
Thomas turned the page.
A second handwritten sentence appeared.
This one had been signed with initials.
Child delivered. Identity removed. No further contact.
Margaret stood.
“I never wrote that.”
Thomas nodded.
“We know.”
“Whose initials?”
He looked at Evelyn.
Then at me.
“E.H.”
Evelyn Hart.
I stood so quickly my chair toppled.
“You said you didn’t take me.”
“I didn’t.”
“You signed this.”
“Yes.”
“What does child delivered mean?”
Evelyn stared at me for a long moment.
Then she said something that changed the entire story.
“You were never supposed to go to Saint Matthew’s.”
My throat closed.
“Then where was I supposed to go?”
Evelyn looked toward Julian, who had just appeared in the open doorway.
His face was white.
May you like
She whispered:
“To the Sterlings.”
