Chapter 14 - Hope
Hope spent nine days in the neonatal unit.
Nine days of monitors.
Tiny diapers.
Warm blankets.
Quiet conversations with nurses.
She was small.
But stubborn.
The nurses said it affectionately.
I smiled every time.
Daniel had once used that word as an accusation.
Stubborn.
Difficult.
Disobedient.
Now I heard it differently.
Persistent.
Alive.
Mine.
Not his.
Daniel filed a request from jail seeking information about the baby.
His lawyer argued that he remained the legal father.
My attorney responded immediately.
A judge issued protective restrictions.
Daniel would receive no direct access.
No visitation.
No medical updates beyond what the court required.
Evelyn attempted to claim grandparent rights.
The request was denied almost instantly.
When Thomas told me, I stared at him.
“She actually asked?”
“Yes.”
“She buried Hope with me.”
“I’m aware.”
“And she asked a court to let her visit?”
“People like Evelyn often believe consequences are negotiations.”
I looked through the nursery glass.
“Not this one.”
While Hope grew stronger, investigators made progress in Raymond’s case.
Divers found human remains in a submerged section near the far side of Lake Mercer.
DNA testing would take time.
Patricia already knew.
She sat beside me in the hospital café when Ruiz called.
Patricia closed her eyes.
“Twenty-six years.”
Then she whispered, “He didn’t leave.”
I took her hand.
For decades, Evelyn controlled Raymond’s story.
She called him selfish.
Unfaithful.
Weak.
She told her children he abandoned them.
Now bones from the lake were telling a different story.
A week later, forensic identification confirmed the remains belonged to Raymond Bell.
The medical examiner also found evidence inconsistent with accidental drowning.
Evelyn was arrested again on an additional murder charge.
She was already in jail.
But this charge changed everything.
Daniel’s bargaining power disappeared.
His information was no longer needed.
Victor had already provided enough.
The lake had provided the rest.
Keller rejected Daniel’s proposed deal.
When his lawyer informed him, Daniel reportedly became furious.
He demanded another meeting.
This time he claimed he had information about me.
Keller refused to let him use vague threats as leverage.
Then Daniel said the sentence that reached me through Ruiz.
“Claire isn’t as innocent as everyone thinks.”
I almost smiled.
There it was.
The old strategy.
When control failed, destroy credibility.
“What does he claim I did?”
Ruiz asked.
“He says you planned to steal money from him.”
“The money he stole from me?”
“Yes.”
“He says you manipulated Mara.”
“Mara watched him bury me.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Ruiz hesitated.
“He claims the baby may not be his.”
For several seconds, I simply stared.
Then I started laughing.
I laughed so hard the nurse entered to check on me.
Daniel had reached the bottom of his bag.
Sexual suspicion.
Financial suspicion.
Mental instability.
The usual weapons.
I wiped tears from my eyes.
“Let him request a paternity test.”
Ruiz smiled.
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
The test was performed through the proper legal process.
Daniel was Hope’s biological father.
The result destroyed his newest accusation.
But something else happened.
The test established paternity.
And with it, my attorney gained grounds to request a court-supervised financial examination tied to child support and marital dissolution.
Daniel had accidentally opened another door.
Behind that door were accounts investigators had not yet discovered.
One of them contained more than two million dollars.
Another contained payments to a name nobody recognized.
LUCAS VANE.
Ruiz called me immediately.
“We need to know who Lucas Vane is.”
I had no idea.
Mara did.
When shown the name, she went completely white.
“That isn’t a person.”
“What is it?”
May you like
Mara whispered.
“It’s where Mom kept the things she never wanted Daniel to know.”
