“When your mother first suspected she was pregnant, she came to me,” Dr. Michaelson began. “She told me that she was apprehensive to tell Matthew about the pregnancy for many reasons, but mostly because she knew he didn’t want any children. So, naturally, I tried to reassure her that everything would be fine. I had no idea Matthew was furious with Elise and swore he would have nothing to do with fatherhood. She probably would have been okay with his reaction to her pregnancy had it not been for the fact that the baby was fathered by somebody else. Because Matthew couldn’t produce children of his own, there was no question that you did not belong to him. Matthew had apparently been spending a lot of time traveling for work and she was lonely. She told me that she and Wyatt began spending more and more time together when Matthew was out of town, and the affair inevitably happened. Don’t misunderstand, that doesn’t make what she did right or acceptable, but she made her choice and accepted responsibility for the consequences.” Dr. Michaelson strongly emphasized his point.
“Was she in love with Wyatt?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know, but she did tell me that while she regretted what she had done, she never stopped loving your father and never would.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes at the phrase “your father.”
Dr. Michaelson gave her an apologetic look and continued. “Your mother died in childbirth, but she wouldn’t have if I were a stronger person.”
He could see Chloe come to the instant realization of the truth—he was responsible for her mother’s death. “Matthew made it undeniably and painfully clear to me that neither you nor your mother were to survive the birth.”
Chloe looked at him in absolute disbelief. “How could you do that? First do no harm. Ring a bell?”
“Because you lived, my wife died.” There was no blame in his voice as he looked at Chloe with grief in his eyes that showed the years of guilt and horror he had been carrying with him all this time. “But first he tortured her until I made my choice: my wife, or you and your mother. Helen died in a fire. The official report was that she had drunk herself into a stupor and passed out, leaving candles burning as she slept. The unofficial report—the truth—was that she had been bloodied, bruised, and broken. She had been lain out on the bed while Matthew’s men spread accelerant throughout the house and lit a dozen candles, tipping them over as they left the house, and burned her alive.”
Chloe didn’t think it was possible to feel someone else’s pain the way she was now. Her heart was aching. She couldn’t fathom what her friend had gone through and the pain he had been enduring all these years because of her father and his absolute abhorrence of her mother and her. She wanted to be angry with Elias, wanted to hate him and resent him for the rest of her life for causing her mother’s death. But, in his mind, he’d done the right thing, he’d saved an innocent life that he felt had the right to experience life, fully aware of the consequences of his decision.
“You…” Chloe couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. “Why?”
A tear slowly ran down the doctor’s face. “How could I not? Helen wanted me to choose what I believed was right, which told me that she was willing to sacrifice herself if it meant saving another life. That’s what kind of woman she was and I have to believe she understands and forgives me. After the funeral, I had no choice but to sell my practice and go to work for Matthew, where he repeatedly reminds me of the two reasons I wasn’t with my wife when the house caught fire. One was because I could be used to his benefit, the other is to make me live with the consequences of my choices. He always has, and always will, blame me for forcing him to play father to you.”
Chloe turned to David. “Is Wyatt dead because of my father as well?”
David’s features softened as the memory of his son saddened him. “If I had tangible, undeniable proof that Matthew murdered my son—or ordered him murdered in Las Vegas—I would have no reservations whatsoever in doling out the consequences to him personally.”
“And he has no idea that you are here with David?” Chloe asked Elias.
“He knows I’m with David, but he doesn’t know where we are.”
“How do you know?”
David chimed in. “If he did, I would know it. The doctor comes to Chicago at least once a year to see me and that’s what Matthew believes now. When we found out where you were, the doctor was able to detain him for a few days so that we could try to get to you first.”
“How did you find out where I was, Elias?”
Dr. Michaelson told her the story of how she had been located and how he had overheard the conversation in Matthew’s office.
“Madeline?” Chloe asked, surprised. “Who does Madeline know in Louisiana?”
“She didn’t say,” Elias explained, “but she was adamant that her source was telling the truth.”
“Do you know there is another one here with me, another with the tattoo?” Chloe asked David.
He nodded. “We heard, but don’t know who she is.”
“It’s Alice.” Chloe turned to Christopher, whose silence throughout the evening had been bothering her. Chloe saw out of the corner of her eye that David was about to say something, and she held up a finger to stop him as she addressed Christopher. “You’ve been quiet so far. Other than being alive, do you have anything to contribute to the plethora of weight being thrown on me this week? Was I just someone for you to use as leverage too?”
“I put Christopher to work in Boston,” David said in Christopher’s defense. “When Sasha asked me about leaving Boston and recommended that you take her place, my concern for your safety grew. Without telling Matthew my reasons, I put Christopher in Boston solely to keep an eye on you, make sure that Matthew didn’t abuse his power or fail my expectations when it came to you and your new responsibilities.” David smiled and glanced between Christopher and Chloe. “The fact that you two fell in love just happened to be a happy bonus.”
Chloe had heard enough. She couldn’t seem to pick an emotion, although disgust and anger were the easiest to feel at the moment. In a matter of hours, she had learned she was a bastard child who was supposed to be murdered instead of born, both her mother and biological father had been murdered, the man she had once desperately loved and mourned was alive, and the man behind it all was who she believed to be her father. And in the midst of it all, she had two things on her mind that she couldn’t shake, and she had to deal with them sooner or later—she had to talk to Hunter and she had to find Alice.
“Renee,” David said as she stood to leave. She shot him a dangerous look and he corrected himself. “I apologize. Chloe, I know this is a lot of information to take in, but it is past time that you learned the truth. It’s also time that Matthew is stopped before the next one dead is you.”
“In an effort to get to you,” she clarified, and David nodded.
Chloe understood everything that had been said, and had to admit that while she wasn’t prepared for what she’d heard, she was grateful that it was David who’d found her first. Her features softened as she sat back down and faced David.
“Are you going to kill him?”
“Once I have an undisputable reason to, yes.”
Chloe wasn’t surprised by his abrupt honesty and wasn’t sure how to feel about David’s plans. There was a large part of her that understood David’s reasoning. “And you need my help?”
“Not as much as he needs you to get to me,” David replied. “I need you to not let Matthew use you as he intends to. I don’t care what happens to me, but if he decides he has no further use for you…well, let’s just say that his consequences will be swift and severe. He didn’t give a second thought to murdering your mother and father, and he wouldn’t think twice about putting you in the ground either.”
Chloe felt a chill run down her back at the truthfulness of David’s words. “I know this is a redundant question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. I have heard stories that Wyatt was more of a partier and playboy than he was interested in running the business. Not that I’m trying to defend Matthew, but is it possible that he didn’t have anything to do with Wyatt’s death?”
“Anything is possible.” David removed something from his coat pocket and held it in his fist. “Then one day, maybe a year or so after she left Boston, Sasha came to me. She was troubled and wouldn’t tell me exactly what it was that was bothering her, but she did say the reason she couldn’t tell me was because she was afraid of hurting you. Then she gave me this.”
David leaned forward and placed the item in Chloe’s hand. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. Chloe held a small key, only about an inch and a half long, with three jagged teeth on one side. Not a key big enough for a big lock or a door, but a key just the right size for a small box. A box she had seen before. A box she had handled before. A small metal box that she wouldn’t open until she knew it was the right time.
Chloe stared at the key as David continued. “She never told me what the key represents and she never told me what they key fits. All she told me was that you would have the answers.”
Chloe looked at David from under her lashes, the weight of awareness of the key threatening to pull her arm to the floor. “I don’t have all of the answers you’re looking for, David.”
“Does that key have anything to do with Wyatt’s death?” David asked, hopeful.
“I don’t know that answer, but I do know what the key fits. Sasha gave me the key to the hiding place of a small metal lockbox the night of my sixteenth birthday and asked me not to try to open it. She said if I was as smart as she knew I was, I would know when to open it.”
“Did she tell you what is in the box?”
“Proof.”
“Where is the box now?”
“Alabama,” she stated. “I’ll leave tomorrow. I can be there and back in one day.”
David nodded in both satisfaction and gratitude. “You know what will happen if this box contains anything to do with my son’s death.”
The fact that she knew Matthew’s death warrant was signed didn’t bother her. “I’ll be leaving for Boston after I return with the box.”