CHAPTER 16 — SARAH’S SECOND CHILD
Eleanor survived surgery.
The bullet had missed her lung.
Maya did not ask to visit her.
I did not pressure her.
The flash drive contained thousands of fertility clinic records.
Sarah’s name appeared twice.
The first file concerned Maya.
The second was dated two years earlier.
Sarah had undergone an IVF cycle before we were married.
I remembered the treatment.
I remembered the failure.
At least, I thought it had failed.
According to the clinic, one viable embryo had been created and transferred to another patient without Sarah’s consent.
That embryo had resulted in a live birth.
Sarah had another biological child.
A son.
The records listed no name, only a patient number.
Beatrice recognized the number.
Her face went pale.
“No.”
“You know who he is.”
She refused to answer.
Federal investigators traced the birth through archived hospital records.
The child had been adopted privately.
His adoptive mother was Margaret Mercer.
Gavin’s mother.
Gavin was Sarah’s biological son.
The revelation made every relationship even more twisted.
Gavin was not my half brother.
He was Sarah’s son from a stolen embryo fertilized by an anonymous donor.
Charles had claimed paternity to control him.
He raised Gavin in the shadows, feeding him resentment toward me while concealing that Sarah was his biological mother.
“Did Gavin know?” I asked Beatrice.
“Not until Sarah’s final year.”
“What did he do when he learned?”
“He refused to believe her.”
Sarah tried to contact him.
Gavin assumed it was a trick to stop him from helping Charles.
Charles showed him forged records suggesting Sarah had willingly abandoned the embryo.
Gavin’s hatred deepened.
Every person in this family had been handed a false version of their own life.
Eleanor believed Charles was her father.
Gavin believed Charles was his father.
Sarah believed I chose the company over her.
I believed my mother was dead.
Maya believed I was tired of her.
Charles did not control people through loyalty.
He controlled them through lies tailored to their deepest wounds.
Gavin learned the truth from the flash drive only hours before the gala.
That was why he intended to release everything.
Not simply to hurt me.
To punish Sarah’s memory.
I visited him in federal detention.
He sat across from me, exhausted.
“Sarah was your biological mother,” I said.
“I read the file.”
“She tried to find you.”
“She left me.”
“Your embryo was stolen.”
He looked away.
“She raised you.”
“No. Margaret Mercer raised me.”
“She was still your mother.”
His eyes turned cold.
“You don’t get to tell me what that word means.”
He was right.
I had just told Maya the same thing.
“Charles used both of us,” I said.
“You still got the better life.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised him.
“I had money, his name and his approval. You had none of that.”
Gavin leaned forward.
“And yet Sarah loved you.”
“She loved you too.”
“You don’t know that.”
I placed one of Sarah’s letters against the glass.
It was addressed to MY SON, WHO MAY NEVER FORGIVE ME.
Gavin stared at it.
His hands began to shake.
Then the prison alarm sounded.
A guard entered quickly.
“Mr. Sterling, step away from the glass.”
Smoke appeared beyond the corridor.
Gavin looked toward the ceiling.
Fear crossed his face.
“Charles,” he said.
May you like
“What?”
“He said if the truth ever came out, none of us would leave alive.”
