Chapter 3 - MATTHEW'S LAST SECRET
Damian did not remember crossing the airfield.
One moment he was standing beneath the hangar lights.
The next, his hand was gripping the edge of a metal worktable hard enough to turn his knuckles white.
“Our father believed Sophie was mine?”
Claire remained several feet away.
“He knew she might be.”
“Might?”
“Matthew never confirmed it.”
Isabel answered instead.
“Matthew knew.”
Damian looked at her.
“He knew from the beginning.”
Something inside Damian shifted.
Not jealousy.
Not even anger.
Something worse.
Shame.
“You were with Matthew.”
“After you.”
Rachel stayed silent.
She understood instinctively that whatever existed between Damian and Isabel belonged to a part of their lives no one could enter casually.
Isabel folded her arms.
“You ended things with me eight years ago.”
“I remember.”
“You said anyone close to you became leverage.”
“I remember that too.”
“I found out I was pregnant six weeks later.”
Damian looked away.
“And you didn't tell me.”
“I tried.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“What?”
“I came to your father's house.”
Claire whispered, “I was there.”
Isabel nodded.
“Arturo met me before Damian did.”
The old airfield suddenly felt colder.
“What did he say?”
“That if the child was yours, she would belong to the Marino family.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
Isabel continued.
“He didn't mean emotionally.”
Rachel understood.
“He wanted control.”
“He wanted an heir he could shape.”
Damian almost laughed.
His father had spent Damian's entire childhood doing exactly that.
“Matthew knew?”
“Not then.”
Isabel looked down.
“Matthew found me crying outside a coffee shop two days later. He had always been kind to me. I told him everything.”
Damian thought of his cousin.
Matthew who had made people laugh at funerals.
Matthew who had once taken a broken nose for Damian at sixteen.
Matthew who had never once mentioned this.
“He married you.”
“Eventually.”
“To protect you.”
“To protect Sophie.”
Damian closed his eyes.
For four years, a quiet part of him had resented Matthew for leaving Sophie behind.
Now Matthew's entire life looked different.
Rachel touched the edge of the table.
“What happened on June fourteenth?”
Claire and Isabel exchanged a glance.
Isabel answered.
“We were leaving Pittsburgh.”
“Why?”
“Matthew said Arturo had found out.”
Damian looked at Claire.
“Through you?”
“No.”
She seemed offended by the idea.
“Mercer.”
That name changed the air.
Claire continued.
“Mercer helped arrange Isabel's admission under my identity when Sophie was born. I trusted him then.”
“You were what—twenty-five?”
“Twenty-six.”
“You falsified hospital information.”
“I was trying to keep Dad from finding a pregnant woman.”
Her eyes hardened.
“And before you judge me for that part, remember who raised us.”
Damian didn't argue.
Rachel noticed.
It was the first time Damian had allowed Claire's motive to exist beside her wrongdoing.
Not excuse it.
But acknowledge it.
Leo approached.
“We searched Mercer's abandoned vehicle.”
“And?”
“No records.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“He's not stupid.”
Leo continued.
“But we found an old Allegheny parking decal and a photograph.”
He handed Damian an evidence sleeve.
Inside was a faded Polaroid.
Isabel sat in a hospital bed looking exhausted.
Claire stood beside her wearing medical scrubs she clearly did not belong in.
Matthew held a newborn.
On the back, in Matthew's handwriting, were six words.
KEEP HER SAFE UNTIL IT'S SAFE.
Damian stared at the picture.
Rachel looked at Isabel.
“You kept this?”
Isabel shook her head.
“Mercer did.”
Claire's face changed.
“He shouldn't have had that.”
“Why?”
“I destroyed every copy I knew about.”
Damian looked up.
“You're very comfortable destroying history.”
Claire flinched.
Good, he thought.
She should.
But Isabel stepped between them emotionally if not physically.
“Matthew wanted photographs.”
Damian looked at her.
“He said someday Sophie deserved proof that her beginning wasn't something shameful.”
Damian's thumb moved over the plastic sleeve.
Matthew smiling.
Matthew holding Damian's daughter.
If she was Damian's daughter.
He still couldn't allow himself to say it.
Not yet.
Leo's phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
“I found something else.”
Damian waited.
“The emergency response roster from the crash.”
Claire went motionless.
Rachel noticed immediately.
“What?”
Leo looked toward her.
“You know someone on it.”
Rachel frowned.
“Who?”
Leo turned the screen.
She read the name.
Then read it again.
FRANKLIN HAYES.
Her father.
“No.”
Damian looked at her.
“Your father was a paramedic?”
“For twenty-three years.”
“Did he ever mention Matthew's crash?”
“Never.”
Claire sat down heavily.
Rachel's eyes snapped toward her.
“You knew.”
Claire said nothing.
Rachel walked closer.
“You knew my father was there.”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you knew his rehabilitation center?”
Claire's silence answered first.
Rachel's face lost color.
“Is that why I work for Damian?”
Damian turned.
“What?”
Rachel looked between them.
“Fourteen months ago, I applied through an agency.”
Damian remembered.
“You were the third candidate.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Rachel continued.
“The agency suddenly called me back after saying the position had been filled.”
Damian stared at his sister.
“What did you do?”
“I asked them to send Rachel.”
Rachel recoiled as though struck.
“You chose me?”
“I needed to know what Frank remembered.”
“You put me near Sophie to spy on my father?”
“At first.”
Rachel's eyes filled.
“At first?”
Claire's voice softened.
“Then Sophie loved you.”
“You don't get to make that sound beautiful.”
“I know.”
“You threatened him.”
“I know.”
Rachel's control broke.
“You keep saying that as though knowing makes it smaller.”
Claire stood.
“It doesn't.”
“Then stop saying it.”
Silence settled between them.
Damian looked at Rachel.
For the first time since she had entered his house fourteen months earlier, he understood that her employment had begun as part of someone else's scheme.
Rachel looked humiliated.
That angered him in an entirely different way.
“You didn't know,” Damian said.
She looked at him.
“I should have.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“Do not take ownership of Claire's decisions.”
Claire flinched again.
Rachel turned away.
Isabel studied her.
“Sophie loves you.”
Rachel swallowed.
“That doesn't change why I was brought there.”
“No.”
Isabel's voice was gentle.
“But it changes why you stayed.”
Rachel wiped beneath one eye.
Leo cleared his throat.
“There is one other detail.”
They all looked at him.
“Frank Hayes wasn't just listed as a responder.”
He enlarged the scanned report.
“He was the first medical person to reach Matthew.”
Damian felt his pulse slow.
“Was Matthew alive?”
Leo nodded.
“For at least twelve minutes after the collision.”
Claire began crying again.
Isabel turned away.
Damian's voice became dangerously quiet.
“You told me he died on impact.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“I was told—”
“By Mercer?”
“Yes.”
Rachel stared at the emergency report.
Her father had been there.
Her father had touched Matthew Marino while he was still alive.
“Why wouldn't Dad ever tell me?”
Claire whispered, “Because I made sure he understood what talking would cost him.”
Rachel looked ready to cross the room.
Damian stepped between them.
Not to protect Claire.
To protect Rachel from doing something she would regret.
Claire opened her handbag.
She removed nothing.
Her hand simply remained inside it.
“I visited Frank after his stroke.”
Rachel went still.
“What?”
“He couldn't speak properly. I wanted to know whether he had told anyone.”
“You went into his room?”
“Yes.”
Rachel's breathing changed.
“And?”
“He recognized me.”
“What did he do?”
Claire looked directly at Damian.
“He kept pointing at his wrist.”
Damian frowned.
Claire continued.
“At first I thought he was asking the time.”
Her voice dropped.
“Then I understood.”
Rachel whispered, “Understood what?”
Claire looked at her.
“Your father still has something from the crash.”
“What?”
Claire swallowed.
“Matthew's watch.”
Damian's face changed.
May you like
Claire looked at him.
“Go ask Frank why a dying man put it in his hand.”
