Chapter 7 - Charles's Confession
Brandon stared at the message.
"I'm going."
I shook my head.
"Not alone."
"He specifically asked."
"Exactly."
Martin agreed.
"Grace is right."
Brandon looked at both of us.
"He's my father."
"That doesn't make him incapable of keeping secrets," Martin said.
Brandon flinched.
The truth hurt because it was true.
We drove home together.
Charles was waiting in our kitchen.
Lily was at Rebecca's house.
Good.
He looked older than he had two days earlier.
He sat with both hands around a cup he wasn't drinking.
When Brandon entered, Charles looked at Martin and me.
"I asked him to come alone."
Brandon answered, "They stay."
Charles nodded.
"Fair."
Brandon placed the ledger page on the table.
"Dad."
Charles saw his signature.
His face fell.
"So you found it."
"You knew?"
"Not about the box."
"About Mercer Family Services."
Charles closed his eyes.
"Yes."
My stomach tightened.
Brandon sat across from him.
"Start talking."
Charles breathed slowly.
"Thirty years ago, Eleanor told me she'd found evidence that your father—"
He stopped.
Brandon frowned.
"My father?"
Charles looked ashamed.
"I'm not sure anymore."
The sentence landed strangely.
Brandon leaned forward.
"What does that mean?"
Charles rubbed his forehead.
"Eleanor told me there was a possibility you weren't biologically mine."
Silence.
Brandon stared.
I grabbed his hand.
Charles continued quickly.
"I never believed her."
"Then why mention it now?"
"Because she used it."
"Used it for what?"
"To convince me we needed private money."
Martin frowned.
"Explain."
Charles looked at the forged authorization.
"She said Henry intended to disinherit us if he discovered Brandon might not be my biological son."
Brandon stood.
"This is insane."
"I know."
"You signed transfers?"
"One."
"How much?"
"Two hundred thousand dollars."
Martin inhaled.
Charles continued.
"She told me it was temporary. A reserve. In case Henry cut us off."
"Mercer Family Services?"
"She created it."
"Why Mercer?"
Charles's voice dropped.
"I didn't know until later."
Brandon realized first.
"Daniel."
Charles nodded.
"His surname."
I felt sick.
"So she used a company named after the son you thought was dead?"
"I didn't know Daniel existed then."
"But you knew she'd had a child?"
"Yes."
Brandon paced.
"Did you know his name?"
"No."
Charles looked shattered.
"She told me the child never had one."
Martin said quietly, "That's another lie."
Charles nodded.
"I know."
Brandon stopped.
"What happened to the money?"
"I thought it remained in reserve."
"Did it?"
"I don't know."
"How do you not know?"
"Because I signed once and refused to sign again."
Brandon stared.
"The later signatures."
"Not mine."
Martin pointed to the records.
"There are eleven authorizations using your signature."
Charles looked horrified.
"I signed one."
"So she forged you too."
Charles nodded.
"Apparently."
Brandon sat again.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then he asked the question I knew was coming.
"Am I your son?"
Charles looked directly at him.
"Yes."
"You don't know that."
"I know it."
"Biologically."
Charles's eyes filled.
"I never tested."
Brandon looked away.
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't care."
"That's easy to say now."
"No."
Charles leaned forward.
"Listen to me."
Brandon reluctantly looked at him.
"When your mother told me there might be another man, you were six years old."
Brandon froze.
"Six?"
"I had already taught you to ride a bicycle."
Charles's voice broke.
"I had already sat beside your hospital bed when you had pneumonia. I had already carried you asleep from the car a hundred times."
He wiped his face.
"I wasn't going to let a laboratory tell me whether I was your father."
Nobody spoke.
Brandon lowered his eyes.
Charles continued.
"If you want a test now, I'll do it."
Brandon swallowed.
"But whatever it says changes nothing for me."
I watched something soften in Brandon.
Not heal.
But soften.
Martin interrupted gently.
"There may be a legal reason to test."
Both men looked at him.
"The trusts rely on biological descent from Henry Whitmore."
Charles nodded.
"Then we test."
Brandon hesitated.
"Fine."
The DNA test could be expedited.
Samples were collected that afternoon through a private laboratory.
Forty-eight hours.
Until then, we focused on the financial records.
Howard's flash drive showed nearly two million dollars redirected over twenty years.
Some went to Rebecca unknowingly.
Some went to private accounts.
Some went to Mercer Family Services.
Then one transaction caught Martin's attention.
A $400,000 payment seven years earlier.
The month Lily was born.
Brandon stared.
"Where did it go?"
Martin traced the receiving bank.
An account belonging to Whitmore Legacy Holdings.
The company Eleanor had tried to use at the board meeting.
So the entity wasn't new.
It had existed for years.
"Why would she move money when Lily was born?" I asked.
Nobody knew.
Charles looked at the date.
Then his face changed.
"I remember that week."
"What?"
"Eleanor disappeared for two days."
Brandon frowned.
"She said she was visiting Rebecca."
Rebecca confirmed later that she hadn't seen her.
We traced the transaction further.
The funds purchased a property.
Not in Eleanor's name.
In Daniel Mercer's.
A house in Arizona.
Brandon called Daniel.
He answered on the fourth ring.
"What?"
"We need to talk."
"About?"
"A house."
Silence.
Daniel's tone changed.
"What house?"
"Arizona. Purchased seven years ago."
Another silence.
Then Daniel whispered, "She told me it was inheritance."
"From who?"
"Henry."
"Grandpa was dead."
"She said funds had been held for me."
Brandon looked at Martin.
"Did you know where the money came from?"
"No."
"Daniel."
"I said no."
"Why seven years ago?"
"I don't know."
"That's when Lily was born."
Silence.
Daniel exhaled.
"I need to show you something."
Brandon frowned.
"What?"
"Not on the phone."
"Where?"
"My hotel."
We met Daniel an hour later.
He had a suite downtown.
He opened the door holding a folder.
No hostility this time.
Only exhaustion.
"I've been going through things Mom gave me."
He placed the folder on the table.
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
Some from Eleanor.
Some apparently from Henry.
Daniel pointed to one.
"Read that."
Brandon did.
The letter was dated shortly before Lily's birth.
But Henry had been dead fourteen years.
Brandon looked up.
"It's fake."
"I know."
The letter claimed Henry had always intended Daniel to receive a reserve property.
The handwriting looked convincing.
Martin examined it.
"Forgery."
Daniel nodded.
"She built an entire story."
"For why?" I asked.
Daniel sat.
"I think to keep me loyal."
"To what?"
"To her."
He looked embarrassed.
"She told me the rest of the family knew I was alive and wanted nothing to do with me."
Charles whispered, "No."
Daniel looked at him.
"I spent thirty years believing you all rejected me."
Charles sat down.
"We didn't know."
"I know that now."
The room became quiet.
Two families had existed inside the same lie.
Then Daniel opened another envelope.
"This came last week."
He handed it to Brandon.
Inside was a copy of Lily's trust registration.
Red circles marked her name.
At the bottom Eleanor had written:
If Brandon completes this, everything changes.
Daniel said, "She wanted me to help stop it."
"How?"
"By taking control of Legacy Holdings before the protection trust activated."
Martin frowned.
"That still wouldn't override Henry's trust."
"She thought it would create enough voting confusion to delay you in court."
Brandon laughed bitterly.
"So while we were planning Christmas, she was planning litigation."
Daniel looked ashamed.
"I agreed at first."
"Why?"
"Because I thought you had stolen my inheritance."
Brandon stared at him.
Daniel continued.
"That's what she told me."
Charles whispered, "She set her sons against each other."
Daniel nodded.
"Seems like it."
Brandon looked down at Lily's registration form.
At the bottom was another handwritten note.
Not Eleanor's handwriting.
A short message.
Daniel noticed.
"That was already there when she sent it."
Martin leaned closer.
Four words.
Ask who Lily replaces.
I felt a chill.
Brandon looked at Daniel.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I was hoping you knew."
Brandon's phone rang.
The DNA lab.
Too early.
He answered immediately.
"Brandon Whitmore."
He listened.
His face changed.
"You're sure?"
Charles stood.
Brandon looked at him.
The entire room waited.
Finally Brandon hung up.
He stared at Charles.
"Dad."
Charles swallowed.
Brandon's voice broke.
"The preliminary test says you're my biological father."
Charles closed his eyes.
Relief flooded his face.
But Brandon wasn't finished.
"The lab found something else."
Everyone went still.
He looked at Daniel.
"They ran the familial markers we requested."
Daniel frowned.
Brandon swallowed.
"You and I aren't half-brothers."
A long silence.
Daniel whispered, "What?"
May you like
Brandon stared at him.
"We're full brothers."
