Chapter 6 - The Truth About Wesley Rourke
Wesley drove without speaking.
Delaney did not ask him to.
The birth certificate sat inside his jacket like something alive.
Nathaniel Rourke.
His father.
It explained the message.
THE TRAITOR IS IN OUR BLOOD.
But not enough.
If Nathaniel was Wesley’s biological father, why had Arthur raised him?
Why had Evelyn hidden it?
Why had Nathaniel spent decades trying to destroy him?
The ranger station was abandoned but intact.
Vincent arrived after midnight.
Karen was with him.
Wesley stepped outside before the car fully stopped.
Karen got out.
For one second, they simply looked at each other.
Then she ran to him.
Wesley held his sister tightly.
Fourteen years of anger disappeared into one embrace.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“So am I.”
“You hate me?”
“Ask tomorrow.”
She laughed through tears.
Then noticed Delaney.
“You must be Delaney.”
Delaney nodded.
Karen hugged her too.
Delaney stiffened.
Then hugged back.
Vincent approached.
Wesley’s expression changed.
Vincent stopped six feet away.
“You want to hit me?”
“Yes.”
“Fair.”
“Later.”
“Also fair.”
Wesley removed the birth certificate.
Vincent read it.
His face went pale.
“Where did you get this?”
“Elias.”
“This can’t be right.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
Karen took the paper.
Her hands trembled.
“Mom never said anything.”
Wesley looked at her.
“Would she remember?”
“Maybe.”
“Take me to her.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Wesley stepped closer.
“I’m done taking orders.”
“Peter followed you from the estate.”
Wesley turned.
“How?”
“Tracker.”
They searched the SUV.
Delaney found it beneath the rear bumper.
Vincent crushed it.
“They know this general area now.”
“We move.”
“To where?”
Delaney spoke.
“There’s another place.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My father had a cabin.”
“Of course he did,” Wesley muttered.
She almost smiled.
“It’s two miles through the woods.”
They walked.
Bruno seemed happiest about this development.
Near dawn, they reached a small hunting cabin.
No electricity.
No road access.
Perfect.
Karen made coffee over a gas burner.
Wesley sat across from Vincent.
“Tell me everything.”
Vincent did.
Nathaniel survived his boating accident deliberately.
He disappeared because Arthur discovered he had been stealing.
Years later Nathaniel returned using intermediaries.
He built influence quietly.
Peter Hale appeared fifteen years ago.
Smart.
Patient.
Useful.
Nobody knew he was Nathaniel’s son.
Not until Karen discovered old sealed adoption records.
Wesley placed the certificate on the table.
“And me?”
Vincent shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Delaney looked at the document.
“There may be another explanation.”
“Such as?”
“Forgery.”
Wesley looked at her.
“My father kept it.”
“Which father?”
That stopped everyone.
Delaney continued.
“If Elias discovered Nathaniel forged records, he might have hidden the evidence.”
Karen looked at the certificate.
“Mom would know.”
Wesley stood.
“Then we stop talking.”
By afternoon, Vincent arranged a route into Albany using back roads and a borrowed vehicle.
Wesley hated returning.
The ninety-day agreement was broken.
But it had never been a real exile.
It was a trail.
Mirror Lake had been designed to lead him to the truth.
Karen’s townhouse looked exactly as Wesley remembered.
Geraniums.
Blue door.
Small porch.
The neighboring townhouse appeared empty.
Karen unlocked a connecting basement door.
Wesley descended.
The apartment was warm.
Quiet.
A record player played an old jazz album.
A woman sat near the window reading the same page of a book repeatedly.
Silver hair.
Thin shoulders.
Elegant hands.
Wesley stopped on the final step.
“Mom.”
Evelyn looked up.
For a moment, no recognition.
Then her eyes widened.
The book slipped from her hands.
“Wesley?”
He crossed the room.
Dropped to his knees beside her chair.
She touched his face.
“Oh, my boy.”
Wesley closed his eyes.
For fourteen years, he had imagined what he would say if she had survived.
Angry speeches.
Questions.
Accusations.
He said none of them.
He simply leaned forward.
Evelyn held him.
And Wesley Rourke cried like the twenty-year-old son who had once stood beside an empty coffin.
Later, when her mind was clear, Karen showed her the certificate.
Evelyn stared at it.
Then laughed.
Actually laughed.
“This again.”
Wesley looked at her.
“Again?”
“Nathaniel made it.”
The room went silent.
“He’s not my father?”
“No.”
Evelyn touched Wesley’s hand.
“Arthur was your father in every possible way, including blood.”
“Why forge this?”
“To destroy Arthur.”
Nathaniel had been obsessed with Evelyn before she married Arthur.
Years later, he fabricated evidence of an affair.
He intended to convince Arthur that Wesley belonged to him.
Arthur discovered the forgery.
Instead of confronting Evelyn, he asked her quietly.
She told him the truth.
Arthur believed her.
That humiliation became another reason Nathaniel hated his brother.
Wesley exhaled slowly.
“So the document that could destroy me is a lie.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Delaney.
“It can destroy you because it gives Nathaniel something he needs.”
“What?”
“A claim.”
“To what?”
“The Rourke family trust.”
Karen understood first.
“If Nathaniel proves Wesley is his son…”
“He can challenge ownership of everything Arthur left Wesley.”
Vincent swore quietly.
This was never only revenge.
Nathaniel wanted legal control.
And Peter?
Peter was the fallback heir.
If Wesley fell, Peter inherited through Nathaniel.
Karen spread documents across the table.
“We can prove the certificate is false.”
“How?”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“Arthur kept the real DNA test.”
“Where?”
She looked at Wesley.
“Mirror Lake.”
Delaney groaned.
“We just left Mirror Lake.”
Evelyn laughed.
For one beautiful moment, they were a family complaining about inconvenience.
Then Bruno began barking upstairs.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Vincent stood.
Karen went pale.
Wesley moved toward the stairs.
A knock sounded at the front door.
Slow.
Three knocks.
Then Peter Hale’s voice.
“Wesley.”
Everyone froze.
Peter had found them.
“Open the door.”
Wesley looked at Vincent.
Vincent whispered, “How?”
Peter answered through the door as if he had heard.
“Because Karen has been helping me for two years.”
Wesley slowly turned toward his sister.
Karen’s face drained of color.
“No.”
Peter laughed from the other side.
“She never told you?”
Wesley stared at Karen.
“What is he talking about?”
Karen whispered, “I can explain.”
Peter knocked again.
“Ask her who gave me the ninety-day plan.”
Wesley’s heart sank.
Karen began crying.
“I had no choice.”
May you like
And for the second time in forty-eight hours, Wesley wondered whether the sister he had risked everything to protect had secretly been working for the man trying to destroy him.
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