CHAPTER 20 — ELEANOR’S LAST CHOICE
The car was found beside the river.
Empty.
Maya’s backpack lay on the passenger seat.
My mind returned to the dinner table.
The bowl.
Her fear.
Every promise I had made afterward.
Detective Morales traced Eleanor’s temporary phone to an abandoned family chapel on the Sterling estate.
I entered with officers behind me.
Eleanor stood near the altar.
Maya sat on a pew wrapped in a coat.
She was frightened but unharmed.
“Daddy.”
She ran toward me.
I held her so tightly she complained she couldn’t breathe.
I loosened my arms but did not let go.
Morales moved toward Eleanor.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Eleanor raised them.
“I didn’t kidnap her.”
“You left without the supervisor.”
“Because Gavin sent a message saying he would take Maya unless I came here.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
A sound came from the balcony.
Gavin stepped into view.
He held no weapon.
Only Sarah’s letter.
“I wanted to see if Eleanor would choose the child or herself,” he said.
Eleanor looked up at him.
“I brought her. Now let her go.”
“You brought her because you still believe biology gives you ownership.”
Maya pressed her face against my coat.
Gavin descended the stairs.
Police aimed at him.
He ignored them.
“I read Sarah’s letter,” he said to me. “She apologized for not finding me sooner.”
“She was trying.”
“So everyone keeps saying.”
He looked at Maya.
“You know what the Sterling family does to children? It turns them into evidence. Heirs. Leverage.”
He was not entirely wrong.
That was what made his anger dangerous.
“You can help expose the family without hurting Maya,” I said.
“I already exposed it.”
“Then stop.”
Gavin looked toward Eleanor.
“Tell her the truth.”
Eleanor’s voice shook.
“What truth?”
“You never intended to love Maya. You wanted Charles to recognize you. When he didn’t, you wanted his money. When Richard married you, you wanted Sarah’s place.”
Maya stared at her.
Eleanor began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
“He’s right.”
She looked at Maya.
“I told myself you were stolen from me. I told myself Sarah had taken my life. But when you loved her, I hated you for proving that motherhood was something she earned and I didn’t.”
Maya remained beside me.
“I’m sorry,” Eleanor said.
Maya did not answer.
“You don’t have to forgive me.”
That was the first truly selfless thing Eleanor had said.
Gavin closed his eyes.
Police moved closer.
He looked at me.
“Charles is dead.”
Morales’s radio confirmed it.
My father had died from his wounds at the clinic.
Gavin had spent his life waiting for Charles to recognize him.
Now the man was gone.
Nothing had changed.
Gavin lowered his hands.
“I don’t know who I am without hating all of you.”
Lily’s voice came from the chapel entrance.
“Then find out.”
She had followed Thomas and the police.
Gavin stared at her.
Sarah’s two lost children stood in the same room.
One raised in secrecy.
One raised in resentment.
Maya held my hand.
Gavin finally surrendered.
As officers led him away, Eleanor turned to Maya.
“May I say goodbye?”
Maya looked at me.
The choice was hers.
She stepped forward but remained out of reach.
“You are my biological mother,” Maya said.
Eleanor nodded.
“But Sarah is my mom.”
Eleanor’s face crumpled.
“I know.”
Maya returned to me.
It should have ended there.
Then Morales received a call from the clinic investigation.
She listened silently.
When she hung up, she looked at Lily and me.
“The DNA report from the second embryo is back.”
“What did it show?”
Morales hesitated.
“Lily is Sarah’s daughter.”
May you like
I waited.
“But Richard, you are not her biological father.”
