"My Son Was Feeding a Girl Behind the Wall" Chapter 4 — My Wife Knew Everything
Claire looked exhausted when Ryan entered the interview room.
Her hair was loose.
Her eyes were swollen.
For seven years, Ryan had thought he knew every expression on his wife's face.
Now he knew nothing.
He placed the DNA report on the table.
Claire looked at it.
Then at him.
"She's mine."
Claire closed her eyes.
"You knew."
She didn't answer.
"How long?"
"Ryan—"
"How long did you know I had a daughter?"
Claire's chin trembled.
"Before we got married."
Ryan stared at her.
The answer hurt more than he expected.
"You knew before our wedding?"
"I didn't know where she was."
"But you knew Emily was pregnant."
"Yes."
Ryan pushed away from the table.
He couldn't sit.
"Seven years."
"I was scared."
"Don't."
"I loved you."
"Don't use that word to explain this."
Claire began crying.
"Emily came back."
Ryan stopped.
"When?"
"Before you proposed."
The room went silent.
"She came looking for you."
Ryan slowly turned.
"And?"
"She never got to you."
"Why?"
"My mother met her first."
Ryan felt cold.
"Margaret."
Claire nodded.
"My mother told Emily you were done with her. She told her you didn't want the baby."
Ryan stared at Claire in disbelief.
"And you knew?"
"Not at first."
"When did you find out?"
"A few weeks later."
"And you said nothing."
Claire covered her face.
"I thought she had left."
"You let me marry you knowing the woman I loved had tried to come back carrying my child."
"I know."
"No. You don't."
Ryan's voice dropped.
"You don't know what you took from me."
Claire looked at him.
"I didn't put Sophie in that room."
Ryan laughed once without humor.
"Leo saw you feeding her."
"I found her there."
"And instead of calling the police?"
"I panicked."
"You locked a six-year-old child behind a wall."
"I didn't lock her in!"
"Then who did?"
Claire shook her head.
"My mother."
Ryan stopped.
Claire leaned forward.
"Margaret brought Sophie to the estate. She told me it was temporary."
"Why?"
"She wouldn't tell me everything."
"And you accepted that?"
"No."
"You hid her."
Claire's silence answered him.
Ryan turned away.
"You're unbelievable."
"I was going to get Sophie out."
"When?"
"I don't know!"
Claire's voice broke.
"My mother said if the police got involved, everything would come out."
"What is everything?"
Claire stared at him.
"I don't know all of it."
Ryan leaned over the table.
"Then tell me what you do know."
Claire swallowed.
"Emily came back."
His entire body went rigid.
"What?"
"Three months ago."
"Emily is alive?"
"I saw her."
Ryan could barely breathe.
"Where?"
"Outside our house."
Before Claire could continue, the door opened.
Michael stood there.
"Ryan. You need to see something."
Ryan followed him into the hallway.
Michael held a tablet.
"I got access to an old backup from the estate's exterior security system."
He opened a video.
The timestamp showed 2:13 a.m., two weeks earlier.
A black SUV pulled into the Whitmore driveway.
A woman stepped out.
Margaret Hayes.
Ryan watched her open the rear passenger door.
She lifted a small child from the vehicle.
Sophie.
Ryan's jaw tightened.
"That's enough for the police."
"Keep watching."
Another door opened.
A man stepped out of the passenger side.
Ryan leaned closer.
The man's face turned toward the camera.
Ryan recognized him immediately.
Dr. Daniel Carter.
The Whitmore family's physician.
The doctor who had treated Leo since he was three.
The man who had sat at their dinner table.
The man Ryan had trusted with his family's lives.
Ryan looked at Michael.
"What the hell is Carter doing there?"
Michael's expression was grim.
"I don't know."
Ryan watched the footage continue.
Carter carried a small medical bag into the house.
Then, before disappearing through the door, he looked directly toward the security camera.
As if he knew it was there.
As if he knew someone might eventually watch this.
And smiled.
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