CHAPTER 14 — ELEANOR’S REAL FATHER
The DNA results arrived two days later.
Charles was not Eleanor’s biological father.
Beatrice had lied.
Or been lied to.
The actual match came from an unexpected source.
Eleanor’s DNA shared a paternal connection with David Hale, our family attorney.
I summoned David to the federal prosecutor’s office.
He stared at the report for a long time.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
I almost laughed.
That sentence had become the Sterling family anthem.
David admitted he had an affair with Eleanor’s mother before she married Sarah’s father.
Charles later learned about the pregnancy and claimed the child as his own secret daughter because it gave him leverage over David.
“He made you believe Eleanor was his,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And you spent thirty years protecting him because he threatened to expose your affair.”
David’s face collapsed.
“I protected my career. My marriage. My reputation.”
“At Sarah’s expense.”
“Yes.”
“Did Eleanor know?”
“No.”
Eleanor was brought into the room under guard.
When she saw David, she looked confused.
I gave her the DNA report.
She read it once.
Then again.
“No.”
David stood.
“Eleanor—”
“Don’t say my name.”
“I am your father.”
She threw the report at him.
“You let Charles use me.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You wrote the surrogacy agreement.”
“I believed Charles was protecting you.”
“You wrote a contract that erased me from my child’s life.”
David could not answer.
For the first time, Eleanor looked less like a villain and more like the abandoned girl Charles had manipulated.
Then I remembered the dog bowl.
“You still made Maya suffer.”
Her expression hardened.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Do you?”
“I hated her because she loved Sarah.”
Maya had called Sarah Mom.
She had called Eleanor by her first name.
Each time, Eleanor saw the life she believed had been stolen from her.
“That does not excuse what you did,” I said.
“I know.”
It was the first honest thing she had said.
Eleanor offered to cooperate with prosecutors.
She would testify about Gavin, the forged trust amendment and Charles’s role in Sarah’s treatment.
In exchange, she wanted one thing.
A supervised conversation with Maya.
“No,” I said.
“I am her biological mother.”
“You are also the woman who abused her.”
“I need to tell her why.”
“She doesn’t owe you relief.”
Eleanor looked toward the one-way glass.
“Then tell her Gavin is planning to release her medical history and conception records.”
My blood turned cold.
“He has copies?”
“He has everything.”
“When?”
“At the Sterling Foundation gala tomorrow night.”
The gala would be attended by journalists, donors and political leaders.
Gavin intended to expose Maya’s conception publicly.
“Why?”
“To destroy the last thing you still care about.”
Eleanor leaned closer.
“There is only one way to stop him.”
May you like
“What?”
“You need to let me stand beside him on that stage.”
