Chapter 6 - THE FAMILY THEY WANTED
Evelyn asked for a lawyer and stopped talking.
Michael remained missing.
Peter Vale agreed to meet voluntarily.
He arrived in a navy suit, calm and offended.
"I have served this family for thirty-two years."
Detective Collins answered:
"Then you should be excellent at dates."
She placed the false trust amendment in front of him.
Peter looked once.
"Not mine."
"Metadata says otherwise."
"Metadata can be manipulated."
Rachel asked:
"Did you draft this language?"
"No."
"Did Evelyn?"
"No."
"Michael?"
"No."
Everyone in the room said no beautifully.
Then Collins asked:
"Who is Michael's father?"
Peter's face changed.
"My understanding is Robert Hale."
"Your understanding?"
"Yes."
"That is an odd way to describe a family friend you have known since birth."
Peter stood.
"I am done."
Collins stopped him with one more document.
Thirty thousand dollars from Hart Family Holdings to Peter's personal account.
"What did you correct?"
"Administrative work."
"What work?"
Then Collins said:
"Was Charles Hart Michael's biological father?"
Peter looked at the wall.
Rachel's pen stopped.
My brother was five years younger than me.
Our mother died when he was fourteen.
My father Robert raised us both.
Michael never resembled him.
Family joked about it.
Peter finally said:
"I cannot answer private family matters."
Anna's father had fathered a child with my mother?
Michael's mother was also my mother.
Unless the story we had been told was wrong.
Then Peter corrected us.
Michael was not my mother's child.
He had been brought into our home when he was eleven months old.
My parents told everyone my mother had suffered a difficult pregnancy and stayed secluded.
I remembered almost nothing.
"Who was his mother?" I asked.
Peter closed his eyes.
"Evelyn's younger sister."
Her name was Margaret Hart.
Officially from an accidental overdose.
Charles was not Michael's father.
Robert Hale - my father - was Michael's biological father.
My father had an affair with Margaret.
After Margaret died, my parents took Michael in and raised him as my mother's son.
Evelyn knew.
Charles knew.
Peter arranged the paperwork.
"So Michael is my half-brother."
"Yes."
"And Evelyn is his biological aunt."
"Yes."
Rachel whispered:
"That explains the loyalty."
It explained more than loyalty.
Evelyn did not see Michael as my brother.
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She saw him as the Hart bloodline Anna's trust should have favored.
And suddenly, the fight over Lily's inheritance was thirty years older than Lily herself.
