Chapter 7 - ARTHUR'S PART
Grant wanted to reject it.
Then he remembered Arthur's recording.
I failed to fix what I allowed.
Not discovered.
Allowed.
Celeste had believed Arthur was innocent at first.
June had not said.
This time he brought Nora.
"Did my father know?"
"Yes."
Arthur had promised Celeste support.
Then Evelyn offered him a solution.
She would claim the child as hers.
Arthur would avoid divorce scandal.
The Bennett name would have an heir.
Celeste would be told the child died.
"And you helped?" Grant asked.
"I was twenty-nine. Dr. Creed was my supervisor. I signed one transfer form."
"One form."
"I have hated that piece of paper every day since."
There were too many adults in his story who had called fear a reason.
Arthur eventually regretted it.
Not immediately.
Years later, after Grant began asking why he had no baby photographs from the hospital.
Arthur tried to pay Celeste.
Then threatened her.
Then created the hidden trust amendments.
"Your father didn't become good," June said. "He became guilty."
Grant understood the difference.
Nora asked about Samuel Creed.
"He kept copies."
"Of what?"
"Everything."
"Why?"
"Insurance."
Creed blackmailed Arthur and Evelyn for decades.
When Arthur died, Evelyn kept paying.
That explained the ledger.
But not the new payment.
June gave them a Florida address.
Before they could contact police, Grant received a call.
Samuel Creed.
His voice was old and thin.
"You found June."
"Where are you?"
"That doesn't matter."
"Why did my mother pay you three weeks ago?"
"Because your wife ordered a DNA test."
Grant's blood went cold.
"How did Evelyn know?"
"She has people at the lab."
"Why pay you?"
"She wanted the original birth file destroyed."
"Did you destroy it?"
"No."
"Where is it?"
Creed coughed.
"Somewhere Evelyn can't reach."
"Tell me."
"I want immunity."
"From what?"
A pause.
Then Creed said, "From helping your mother plan what came after the test."
Grant's voice hardened.
May you like
"What came after?"
"Taking Maddie."
