Chapter 5 - The Children He Had LostThe first time Darwin heard Grace laugh, he had to leave the room.
Darwin learned that within twenty minutes of entering her home.
He also learned she had become exceptionally good at shutting him out.
“You cannot stay,” she said.
“You just told me someone broke into your house.”
“And?”
“And my mother believes you possess evidence capable of destroying our company.”
Sydney folded her arms.
“Your ability to make everything sound like it belongs to you remains remarkable.”
Darwin looked around.
The house was modest compared with the homes their friends had owned during their marriage.
Warm.
Bookshelves.
Children’s drawings on the refrigerator.
A pair of tiny rain boots beside the door.
Family photographs lined a console table.
Darwin tried not to look.
He failed.
Sydney with the twins at a beach.
Sydney holding two newborns.
The children at age two beside a Christmas tree.
And the man from the architecture firm.
He appeared in several.
Holding the little girl on his shoulders.
Helping the boy fly a kite.
Standing beside Sydney at what looked like a school carnival.
Darwin looked away quickly.
Sydney noticed.
“His name is Marcus.”
Darwin hated that his throat tightened.
“Your husband?”
“No.”
“Boyfriend?”
“My business partner.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“That’s because what you asked is none of your business.”
Darwin nodded.
Fair.
A door creaked upstairs.
Sydney immediately looked toward the staircase.
“Mom?”
The little boy appeared wearing dinosaur pajamas.
Noah.
Darwin’s heart slammed against his ribs.
Sydney’s voice softened.
“You’re supposed to be asleep.”
“I heard talking.”
“It’s okay.”
Noah looked at Darwin.
The resemblance was even stronger up close.
Not identical.
Sydney’s nose.
Sydney’s mouth.
But the eyes were Worthington.
So were the long fingers wrapped around the banister.
Darwin’s father had those hands.
So did Darwin.
Noah tilted his head.
“You were at the restaurant.”
Darwin could barely answer.
“Yes.”
“Are you Mommy’s friend?”
Sydney inhaled sharply.
Darwin looked at her.
Then back at the child.
“Someone she knew a long time ago.”
Noah accepted that.
Children accepted simple answers adults spent years complicating.
“Okay.”
Sydney walked upstairs and crouched beside him.
“Back to bed.”
“Can I have water?”
“I’ll bring some.”
Noah looked over her shoulder once more at Darwin.
Then disappeared.
Sydney remained at the top of the stairs for several seconds.
When she came down, her expression was guarded.
“You see why you cannot storm into our lives.”
“I didn’t storm in.”
“You’re in my living room twenty-four hours after discovering they exist.”
“Because someone broke into your house.”
“And once we deal with that, you leave.”
Darwin nodded.
“Show me what happened.”
Sydney led him to a home office.
Desk drawers had been damaged.
A wall cabinet bore fresh scratches near the lock.
“They knew exactly where to look,” Darwin said.
“Yes.”
“What did they take?”
“Nothing obvious.”
“Your father’s files?”
“Not here.”
“So you do have them.”
Sydney sighed.
“Darwin.”
“If the person who broke in thinks they’re here, you’re in danger.”
“I’m aware.”
“Are the twins?”
Her face changed.
That was the first argument that penetrated.
Darwin lowered his voice.
“My mother has resources. Private investigators. Corporate security. People whose loyalty is based entirely on money.”
“You think she ordered the break-in.”
“I think I no longer know what she’s capable of.”
Sydney sat at the desk.
“Neither do I.”
“Tell me what you found.”
She studied him.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it destroys your father’s reputation?”
“Yes.”
“The company?”
“If necessary.”
“Your inheritance?”
“Yes.”
She gave him a long look.
“Six years ago you weren’t willing to risk disappointment.”
He flinched.
She continued.
“Now you’re promising to risk everything.”
“I was a coward.”
Sydney looked surprised.
Darwin sat opposite her.
“I wanted children so badly that when I was told you probably couldn’t have them, I turned grief into blame. My mother gave me an enemy, and I accepted it because being angry at you was easier than admitting I was terrified.”
Sydney said nothing.
“I can’t undo that.”
“No.”
“But I can stop running from consequences.”
Something in her expression softened.
Very slightly.
Then disappeared.
Sydney unlocked a drawer.
Inside was a small metal box.
She removed a key.
“The storage unit my father rented was in Oakland.”
“You opened it?”
“Three months before our divorce.”
Darwin remembered.
That had been when she started behaving strangely.
“What was inside?”
“Tax ledgers. Correspondence. Copies of wire records. Trial data. Photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Lab notebooks.”
Darwin’s mouth went dry.
Sydney continued.
“Your father’s company was not only hiding financial losses. They manipulated adverse-event reporting during an early clinical program.”
“What drug?”
“Varexin.”
Darwin stared.
Varexin had become one of Worthington Biologics’ first successful oncology products.
It was no longer sold.
“But that was approved decades ago.”
“Yes.”
“What did they hide?”
“Three severe liver injuries during early trials.”
Darwin leaned back.
“Oh, God.”
“My father refused to sign the quarterly report. He wrote a memo saying the safety events had to be disclosed.”
“And my father?”
“Fired him.”
Darwin rubbed his face.
“Then Thomas threatened to report them.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Two weeks later, he died.”
Darwin looked at her.
“Do you believe my father killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you believe my mother did?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you suspect it.”
Sydney’s eyes hardened.
“I was nineteen years old when a police officer knocked on our door and told my mother her husband was dead. Three months later, our savings were gone because my father had spent almost everything hiring attorneys and forensic accountants. My mother lost the house. She died eleven years later still believing he had been silenced.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sydney looked away.
“There are apologies you can’t make on behalf of other people.”
Darwin nodded.
“Where are the files?”
“Safe.”
“I need to see them.”
“No.”
“You just told me—”
“I told you enough to understand the danger. I did not invite you into the investigation.”
“What investigation?”
Sydney hesitated.
Then the front door opened.
Marcus walked in carrying a laptop bag.
He stopped when he saw Darwin.
The room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.
“Syd.”
“I know.”
Marcus looked at Darwin.
“You’re Darwin.”
It wasn’t a question.
Darwin stood.
“Marcus.”
“Coleman.”
They shook hands.
Marcus’s grip was firm but not performative.
“I heard about the restaurant,” Marcus said.
“Apparently everyone has.”
“Only the people Sydney trusts.”
That landed precisely where intended.
Sydney stood.
“Marcus, someone searched the office again.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
His expression changed instantly.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I’m telling you now.”
Darwin looked between them.
“Again?”
Marcus turned.
“The house wasn’t the first place.”
Sydney exhaled.
“Three weeks ago our office storage room was entered after hours.”
“You told me nothing was taken.”
“Nothing was.”
“And before that?”
Sydney didn’t answer.
Marcus did.
“Someone followed her car.”
Darwin’s pulse accelerated.
“When?”
“Twice.”
“Why haven’t you hired security?”
“She has.”
Darwin looked at Sydney.
“You have?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“Outside.”
Darwin glanced through the window.
A dark sedan sat across the street.
He hadn’t noticed.
Marcus opened his laptop.
“We got another message.”
Sydney froze.
“What message?”
“Sent to the office account ten minutes ago.”
He turned the screen.
The email contained only one sentence.
RETURN THOMAS HOLSTON’S PROPERTY BEFORE YOUR CHILDREN PAY FOR HIS MISTAKE.
Darwin stopped breathing.
Sydney’s face went white.
Marcus immediately reached for his phone.
“I’m calling Detective Ruiz.”
Darwin stared at the message.
Children.
Whoever sent it knew about the twins.
He turned to Sydney.
“They need to leave the city.”
“No.”
“Sydney.”
“They have school.”
“They were threatened.”
“I know what the email says!”
Her voice cracked.
Noah appeared at the top of the stairs again.
This time his sister, Grace, stood beside him clutching the stuffed rabbit.
Sydney closed her eyes.
When she spoke again, her tone was gentle.
“Back upstairs, babies. Marcus is going to read tonight.”
Grace smiled.
“Voices?”
Marcus nodded.
“All the voices.”
The twins disappeared.
Darwin looked at Marcus.
“You live here?”
“Sometimes.”
Sydney shot Marcus a warning glance.
Darwin forced himself not to react.
None of that mattered.
Not now.
“Let me help protect them.”
Sydney shook her head.
“You don’t get to arrive after six years and become their protector.”
“I’m not asking to be their father.”
The words hurt.
But he continued.
“I’m asking to help keep two children safe because my family may have brought danger to their door.”
Sydney stared at him.
Marcus spoke first.
“We need every resource available.”
Sydney turned on him.
“Marcus.”
“He’s right.”
“You don’t know him.”
“I know the threat.”
Darwin looked at her.
“Use me.”
Sydney’s eyes narrowed.
“For what?”
“Everyone in my mother’s world assumes I’m still loyal to her.”
“And?”
“Let them.”
Sydney understood.
“You want to pretend you believe Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
“That could put you in danger.”
“It already has.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“What are you proposing?”
Darwin looked at the threatening email again.
“They want Thomas Holston’s evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then we give them something to chase.”
Sydney went still.
“A decoy.”
Darwin nodded.
“And while they’re chasing it, we find out who is willing to threaten children to get it.”
Sydney looked at him for a long time.
Then she said the words Darwin had not expected to hear.
“All right.”
He exhaled.
“But there’s one condition.”
“Anything.”
“You do exactly what I say.”
Darwin almost smiled.
Six years earlier, that condition might have offended him.
Now he simply nodded.
“Deal.”
Sydney opened the metal box again.
Beneath the key was a photograph.
She slid it across the desk.
Darwin looked down.
Four people stood outside a laboratory in 1998.
Thomas Holston.
Darwin’s father, Richard.
Dr. Halpern.
And Eleanor.
Darwin stared at the fertility doctor.
“What was Halpern doing at Worthington Biologics?”
Sydney’s expression turned grim.
“He wasn’t always a fertility specialist.”
Darwin looked up.
“He worked on Varexin.”
“Yes.”
“And twenty years later my mother sent us to his clinic.”
“Yes.”
Darwin felt the pieces shift into place.
The false diagnosis had not required Eleanor to buy the loyalty of a stranger.
Dr. Halpern had been protecting the Worthington family for decades.
And if he had helped bury evidence once, Darwin wondered what else he had buried.
Sydney pointed to the photograph.
“There’s one more thing you need to know.”
“What?”
“My father wrote the names of three people on the back of that photo.”
Darwin turned it over.
HALPERN KNOWS.
ELEANOR CONTROLS.
RICHARD IS AFRAID.
Below those words was one final sentence.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, ASK ELEANOR ABOUT NOVEMBER 14.
Darwin stared at the date.
May you like
November 14.
The date Thomas Holston died.
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