Margaret sat down heavily.
“So the wedding is not legally binding?”
“No,” the attorney replied.
Julian looked toward the garden again.
He had come to the estate expecting to leave as Vanessa’s husband. Instead, he was standing in a guesthouse with four children he had never met, an uncompleted marriage, and the possibility that the three boys celebrated as Whitmore heirs were not his sons at all.
I should have felt satisfaction.
I didn’t.
There was no satisfaction in watching another person’s world break apart. I knew too well what it felt like to stand in the center of a room while everyone else decided your future without asking what you could survive.
Rachel came to stand beside me.
“We need to find Vanessa,” she said. “Not to interrogate her. She shouldn’t be alone.”
I nodded.
Julian looked at me. “Will you come?”
“No.”
The answer surprised him.
“I’m not part of your marriage,” I continued. “And I’m not going to become the person your family uses to manage this crisis.”
His eyes lowered.
“You’re right.”
“I’ll stay here with the children.”
“I want to know what happened.”
“So does everyone else. But that doesn’t mean you’ll get answers tonight.”
He seemed about to argue, then stopped.
Instead, he turned to Charles. “Where is Daniel?”
Charles’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t know.”
Margaret looked at him with sudden anger. “You must know something.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in years.”
“Why?”
Charles did not answer.
Julian stepped closer to his father.
“Why have I never heard his name?”
“Because Daniel wanted no connection to this family.”
“That doesn’t explain why you helped him disappear.”
“I didn’t help him disappear.”
“Then what did you do?”
Charles looked older than he had an hour earlier. The authority that usually surrounded him had fallen away, leaving behind a man who seemed exhausted by the weight of choices he had refused to explain.
“Daniel was born with a heart condition,” he said. “His mother believed the Whitmore name would give him opportunities, but I was young and afraid. I made mistakes. I thought financial support was enough.”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
“When I married your father, Daniel was already an adult,” she added. “He refused to meet you. He didn’t want to be brought into the family as some kind of obligation.”
