Chapter 19 - WHAT THOMAS DID
Valerie finally agreed to meet.
She was fifty-seven.
Elegant.
Controlled.
And furious the moment she saw Diane.
“You.”
Diane remained seated.
“Yes.”
“You still attach yourself to everyone else's money?”
Elena almost admired the efficiency.
Diane answered calmly.
“Not anymore.”
Valerie laughed.
Then looked at Elena.
“So you're the widow.”
“My name is Elena.”
“I know.”
Sophie spoke.
“Mom, who was Thomas Morgan?”
Valerie's expression changed.
“No.”
“Was he my father?”
“No.”
Diane stared.
Valerie snapped:
“Don't.”
Elena said:
“We have a trust document naming Valerie Reed and Thomas Morgan.”
Valerie's face lost color.
Sophie whispered:
“Tell me.”
Valerie finally did.
She had dated Marcus.
But before Marcus, she had been involved briefly with Thomas.
“Briefly” was not the full truth.
Thomas was charismatic.
Possessive.
Volatile.
Valerie ended the relationship.
Months later she began dating Marcus.
Thomas did not accept it.
One night he arrived drunk.
There was an encounter Valerie never wanted discussed publicly.
She became pregnant weeks later.
She did not know which brother was Sophie's father.
Thomas died before Sophie was born.
Marcus offered support.
Not because he knew Sophie was his.
Because he believed his family owed Valerie something.
Sophie stared at her mother.
“Why did you tell me my father abandoned me?”
“I said your father wasn't there.”
“You let me think he chose to leave.”
Valerie's eyes filled.
“I didn't know how to tell a child the truth.”
“So you gave me a lie.”
“I gave you something survivable.”
Elena felt that sentence.
Families loved calling lies protection.
Valerie continued.
Marcus pushed for testing when Sophie was two.
Results excluded Marcus.
Testing Thomas was harder because he was dead.
Marcus wanted to approach preserved medical samples.
Valerie refused.
“Why?” Sophie demanded.
“Because if Thomas was your father, then every time I looked at you—”
She stopped.
Sophie stepped backward.
“I reminded you of him.”
“No!”
“You didn't want to know.”
“I loved you.”
“That's not the same answer.”
The room went silent.
Then Valerie turned toward Elena.
“Marcus kept pushing.”
“So you cut him off.”
“I told him if he contacted Sophie again, I'd accuse him publicly of abandoning his child.”
Diane whispered:
“That's why he stopped.”
Valerie glared.
“You don't get to judge me.”
“No,” Diane said. “I don't.”
Again, Elena noticed the difference.
Daniel had another question.
“Why did Marcus continue funding the trust?”
Valerie shook her head.
“I didn't know he did.”
“Then why does your signature appear on annual trust acknowledgments?”
Valerie froze.
Sophie slowly turned toward her mother.
“What?”
Daniel placed copies on the table.
Valerie Reed had signed documents every year for eleven years acknowledging the existence of SR-17.
The woman who claimed she knew nothing about Marcus's trust had been signing for it all along.
May you like
And the most recent acknowledgment was dated three months after Marcus died.
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