Chapter 11 - The Secret Beneath Briarwood
The investigation moved quickly after Claire's interview.
Detective Hayes obtained warrants covering Briarwood's ownership records, relevant medical files, and the private facility itself.
State investigators coordinated with local deputies and medical personnel.
Dominic remained at the hospital with Mia and Harper while the operation began.
It was the first time in years that he had watched other people take responsibility for a dangerous situation he considered his own.
He hated the helplessness.
But when Harper climbed onto the chair beside him and asked if her mother would be safe, he understood why restraint mattered.
“Yes,” he told her.
“She's being protected.”
Harper studied him.
“Are you protecting her too?”
“I'm trying.”
The little girl seemed satisfied.
She held out a crayon drawing.
It showed three people standing beneath an enormous yellow sun.
One figure wore a black coat.
One wore a blue dress.
The smallest had pink ribbons in her hair.
“That's us,” Harper explained.
Dominic looked at the drawing.
Mia smiled weakly from her hospital bed.
Harper pointed to the man.
“You're here because you found Mommy.”
Dominic felt his throat tighten.
“Thank you.”
“Can you put it on your refrigerator?”
He smiled.
“I'd like that.”
At 6:42 that evening, his phone rang.
Hayes.
“We found Briarwood.”
Dominic rose.
“Rebecca?”
“Possibly.”
“What do you mean, possibly?”
“We found patient records under several assumed names.”
“Was Rebecca among them?”
“We believe she was registered as Rachel Morris.”
“Where is she now?”
Hayes hesitated.
“The facility is mostly empty.”
Dominic felt his stomach drop.
“Nathan moved them.”
“Some patients appear to have been transferred recently.”
“And the boy?”
“We found evidence a child lived there.”
“Is he gone?”
“Yes.”
Dominic pressed one hand against the wall.
“Where did they take him?”
“We're tracing the transfers.”
He closed his eyes.
Seven years.
Rebecca had survived seven years of confinement.
Now, just as her sister learned she was alive, she had disappeared again.
“Was anyone arrested?”
“Several employees are being questioned.”
“What about Warren Bennett?”
“We have a material witness who can identify his role in the facility's operations.”
“Who?”
“A former nurse.”
Dominic waited.
Hayes continued.
“She says Rebecca was not there for medical treatment.”
“What was she there for?”
“To prevent her from contacting the outside world.”
Dominic gripped the phone.
“And Samuel?”
“The nurse says he was born at the facility.”
A long silence followed.
Then Hayes said, “Dominic, there is something unusual about his records.”
“What?”
“The birth certificate lists no father.”
“That could mean anything.”
“Yes.”
“But there's a genetic testing order in his file.”
Dominic frowned.
“Testing for what?”
“Paternity.”
“Whose?”
Hayes paused.
“Nathan Cross's.”
“And?”
“The results were negative.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Claire had been telling the truth about that much.
“Then why keep the boy?”
“We're trying to find out.”
After the call, Mia watched Dominic from her bed.
“What happened?”
He told her.
Rebecca had been at Briarwood.
Samuel existed.
Both were missing.
Mia listened without interrupting.
Then she began to cry.
Dominic sat beside her.
“We're closer.”
“That's what Rebecca thought seven years ago.”
“Mia—”
“She thought she was getting out.”
“She thought Elena could help her.”
“And then Elena died.”
Dominic had no answer.
Mia wiped her face.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“You lost your wife.”
He looked away.
“And my sister lost seven years.”
“Neither of us deserved this.”
“No.”
Mia drew a slow breath.
“Dominic, what if Rebecca wasn't just trying to protect evidence?”
He turned back.
“What else would she protect?”
“A person.”
Dominic frowned.
“The boy?”
Mia nodded.
“Maybe he knows something.”
“He was born after Elena died.”
“I know.”
“But what if the reason Nathan kept Rebecca alive wasn't the money anymore?”
Dominic considered it.
Nathan had stolen millions.
He had allegedly manipulated business agreements, concealed a woman, and orchestrated a campaign to recover Elena's evidence.
Why leave Rebecca alive?
Why keep her son with her?
Why order a paternity test?
The answer began forming slowly.
Control.
Nathan did not merely want Rebecca silenced.
He wanted her dependent on him.
And when he learned Samuel was not his child, something changed.
Dominic called Hayes again.
“Ask the Briarwood nurse whether Nathan visited Samuel.”
“I'll check.”
“And ask whether anyone else visited.”
“Anyone specific?”
“Warren Bennett.”
A pause.
“Why?”
“Because Claire said the truth about Samuel would destroy Nathan.”
“Go on.”
“If Nathan isn't the father, maybe the boy connects someone else to Rebecca.”
Hayes was quiet.
“That's possible.”
“Someone whose involvement Nathan has been hiding.”
“Or someone whose involvement threatens his version of events.”
Dominic nodded.
“Exactly.”
An hour later, Hayes called back.
The nurse had remembered something.
A man visited the facility every year on Samuel's birthday.
He brought books.
Toys.
Sometimes a cake.
He never stayed long.
Rebecca was forbidden to speak to him privately.
The nurse had never known his name.
But she remembered a distinctive physical feature.
A scar running from his left ear to the corner of his jaw.
Dominic stood so quickly that Mia flinched.
“What is it?” she asked.
He stared at the wall.
He knew a man with that scar.
A man who had once worked as Nathan's accountant.
A man who supposedly died in a boating accident five years ago.
May you like
His name was Peter Sloan.
And Peter Sloan had been Elena's younger brother.
