Life after Goodbye novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Real Daughter

"This page is from Birchline Diagnostics in Waukesha," I said into the microphone. "It's signed by their director."

The room was so quiet that I heard the chandelier hum.

"It says the lab never ran a test for Chelsea Dorsey. It says the number on the letter in that frame belongs to no case at all."

Chelsea laughed, high and bright.

"Calla's been unwell," she said to the room. "Please, everyone, she needs..."

"The paper in your frame came from a box of blank sheets they handed out at a trade show," I said. "Anyone could have taken some."

My father had stopped looking at the frame.

He was looking at Chelsea.

"Daddy, she's lying," Chelsea said. "She's been jealous of me from the beginning."

"Then let's hear you," I said. "Both of you."

I set the old phone against the microphone and pressed play.

Chelsea's own voice rolled over the ballroom, small and sweet and perfectly clear.

"She's pregnant, Mama. If the old man puts it in the trust, we lose everything. It won't see his birthday. It can't live."

Nobody breathed.

A woman near the front put both hands over her mouth.

"That is edited," Chelsea said. Her voice had gone thin. "She cuts things. Ask Ansel, she played him a cut one."

"I did," I said. "He wouldn't listen to the rest."

Ansel stood very still beside the head table.

"The tea you gave me at Ansel's table in September held misoprostol," I said. "Crushed fine, in ginger. Dr. Hagan tested it."

Cormac rose from his chair.

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