Chapter 4 - The Night on South Road
Adrian punched the chapel wall.
The sound cracked through the room.
Victoria flinched.
Claire did not.
She couldn't feel anything.
Thomas Hawthorne had been dead eighteen years, yet suddenly he seemed to occupy every corner of the chapel.
"What happened?" Adrian demanded.
Victoria sank onto a wooden pew.
"It wasn't supposed to happen."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"Nobody ever says it was."
Claire remained standing.
"Tell me everything."
Victoria covered her face.
When she spoke, her voice sounded older than Claire had ever heard it.
"Thomas discovered Samuel was your father during the night you were born."
Claire said nothing.
"He was furious. Not only because Anna had lied to him. Thomas had built his entire future around the belief that you were his daughter."
"Why?"
"He wanted another child."
Adrian's mouth hardened.
"He already had one."
Victoria looked at him.
"Your father always wanted a daughter."
Adrian turned away.
Claire almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Victoria continued.
"Samuel came to the house after midnight. He wanted Anna and the baby."
"Me."
"Yes."
"Did my mother want to go with him?"
"Desperately."
Something warm and painful moved through Claire's chest.
Her mother had chosen Samuel.
Chosen Claire.
"But Thomas refused," Victoria said. "He threatened Samuel. Samuel threatened him back."
"With the records."
Victoria nodded.
"Samuel had discovered Thomas was paying officials to approve development projects. Environmental permits. Zoning boards. Contracts."
Adrian whispered, "That would've destroyed the company."
"It would've destroyed everything."
Claire stared at Victoria.
"So Thomas killed him."
"No."
"You just said Thomas was driving."
"They fought. Samuel left in his truck. Thomas followed him. I got into the car because I was afraid."
"Afraid for Samuel?"
Victoria looked at Claire.
"Yes."
That answer surprised her.
"Why?"
"Because by then I understood Samuel wasn't the enemy."
Victoria breathed slowly.
"I hated Anna. I blamed her for breaking my marriage. But Thomas had been breaking it long before she arrived. Anna was simply the first person who made me admit what kind of man I'd married."
Adrian looked at her.
"You never told me any of this."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From what?"
"From becoming him."
Adrian's face hardened.
"You did a terrible job."
Victoria closed her eyes.
Claire interrupted.
"South Road."
Victoria nodded.
"Thomas caught Samuel near the bridge. He kept trying to force his car beside Samuel's truck. I begged him to stop."
Her hands trembled.
"Then Thomas rammed him."
Claire went still.
"Once?"
Victoria looked at her.
"Three times."
Claire felt sick.
"The truck went through the guardrail."
Nobody spoke.
"We stopped," Victoria said. "I ran down the embankment."
"Was Samuel alive?"
"Yes."
Claire's knees weakened.
"How long?"
"Minutes."
"Did you talk to him?"
Victoria nodded.
"What did he say?"
Tears filled Victoria's eyes.
"He asked about you."
Claire's breath caught.
"He asked whether you were safe. Whether Anna was safe."
Victoria wiped her cheek.
"And then?"
"He gave me his watch."
"Why?"
"He said it belonged to his father. He wanted Claire to have it."
Claire whispered, "Where is it?"
Victoria's gaze dropped.
"I gave it to Anna."
Claire thought about every box she'd gone through after her mother's death.
No watch.
"She never showed me."
"She was afraid."
"Of Thomas?"
"Yes."
Adrian turned.
"What happened to Dad?"
"He called the police."
Claire stared at her.
"And told them what?"
"That Samuel lost control of his truck."
"You lied."
Victoria nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I was weak."
The answer came without defense.
Without excuses.
That unsettled Claire more than a justification would have.
"I had a child upstairs," Victoria said. "I had no money that Thomas couldn't control. My entire family depended on him. And he told me if I spoke, he would make sure Anna lost Claire."
Adrian's voice was low.
"So you covered up a killing."
Victoria looked at him.
"Yes."
Claire walked outside.
Dawn was beginning.
The horizon behind the trees had turned pale blue.
She stood beside the chapel steps, fighting the urge to scream.
A few minutes later Adrian joined her.
"You okay?"
She looked at him.
"What do you think?"
"Fair."
They stood in silence.
Finally Claire said, "My mother knew."
"About the crash?"
"She had to."
"Maybe not everything."
"She knew my father died three days after I was born. She knew Thomas threatened him. She ran from this place."
Claire wrapped her arms around herself.
"And then she spent the rest of her life lying to me."
"Maybe she thought she was protecting you."
"Everybody keeps protecting me by taking away my right to know my own life."
Adrian said nothing.
That was the first useful thing he'd done.
Claire looked toward the mansion.
"Why did Victoria hire me?"
"I don't know."
"She recognized my name."
"Maybe."
"She knew my mother had a daughter named Claire."
Adrian frowned.
"You're right."
Claire looked at him.
"She brought me into this house."
They returned to the mansion.
Victoria was already in the study.
Claire went straight at her.
"Why did you hire me?"
Victoria didn't pretend confusion.
"I saw your application."
"And?"
"Your name."
"So you knew."
"I suspected."
"You could have rejected me."
"Yes."
"But you didn't."
Victoria looked toward the window.
"I wanted to see you."
Claire blinked.
"Why?"
"Because I had spent twenty-seven years wondering whether you were alive."
"You knew where my mother was."
"For a while. Then she disappeared."
"You gave her money."
"Yes."
"What happened to it?"
"I don't know."
"Did Thomas take it?"
Victoria shook her head.
"He couldn't. I gave it in cash."
Claire paced.
"My mother struggled her entire life."
Victoria whispered, "I know."
"No, you don't."
"I followed what I could."
Claire stopped.
"You followed us?"
"From a distance."
"That's sick."
"Perhaps."
"Why didn't you help?"
"Anna made me promise."
"My mother would rather freeze than accept help?"
Victoria looked at her.
"Your mother didn't trust Hawthorne money."
Claire understood that.
Then Adrian appeared in the doorway holding the cassette tape from the chapel.
"I found something to play this."
He placed an old cassette player on the desk.
Victoria stared at the tape.
"I've never heard that."
Claire pressed play.
Static.
Then a man's voice.
Young.
Nervous.
"Anna, if you're listening to this, something happened."
Claire closed her eyes.
Samuel.
Her father.
His voice.
She had never heard it before.
She put a hand over her mouth.
Samuel continued.
"Thomas knows I've been collecting records. I think he knows about us too."
A breath.
"Claire isn't born yet. At least she wasn't when I recorded this."
Claire cried silently.
"I don't know if she's really a girl. You just keep saying she is."
A small laugh filled the tape.
It was warm.
Alive.
For twenty-seven years, that laugh had been waiting in a metal box.
Claire sank into a chair.
Samuel continued.
"If I'm right and she's a girl, tell her I'm sorry I couldn't give her more."
Claire bowed her head.
"Tell her she wasn't an accident. Tell her I loved her before I ever saw her."
Adrian looked away.
Victoria was crying openly now.
Then Samuel's tone changed.
"There's something else."
Static.
"Thomas thinks the financial records are all I have."
Claire lifted her head.
"He doesn't know Anna found the adoption file."
Victoria froze.
Claire looked at her.
"The what?"
On the tape, Samuel continued.
"If Thomas ever learns what that file says, he'll burn the whole world to keep it hidden."
Adrian stopped breathing.
Claire stared at Victoria.
"What adoption file?"
Victoria stood.
"No."
Claire stepped toward her.
"What adoption file?"
"Turn it off."
Adrian moved between them.
"Mother."
"Turn it off!"
Samuel's voice continued.
"It isn't about Claire."
Victoria lunged for the player.
Claire caught her wrist.
The cassette clicked.
Samuel's last sentence came through the speaker.
"It's about Adrian."
Silence.
Adrian stared at the machine.
Then at his mother.
"What does that mean?"
Victoria began to cry.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
Her whole body shook.
Adrian stepped back.
"Mom."
She couldn't answer.
Claire understood before he did.
Adrian shook his head.
"No."
Victoria closed her eyes.
Adrian's voice cracked.
"Thomas wasn't my father?"
Victoria whispered:
"No."
May you like
And suddenly Claire realized she wasn't the only person in Hawthorne Manor whose entire childhood had been built on a lie.
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