They Chose Their Adopted Daughter, So the Real Heiress Walked Out novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: No More Handling
"Everyone sit down," Clark said.
He pushed the door shut behind him and held up one hand, palm out, in his calm voice.
"We're upset. Nobody here has said anything they can't take back. Chloe, sit. Eli, give me the photograph."
Eli put his hand over his pocket.
"No."
"Eli."
"I said no."
I picked the photograph up off the desk myself and held it against my chest.
"You came in at the end, Clark. Did you hear the part where she said she's Dad's daughter?"
"I heard a distraught girl say a lot of things."
"You never say anything that can be quoted," I said. "So say something now. Did you know?"
His eyes went to his watch.
It was the tell I had learned in my first month at his table. He checked it every time he was about to lie to me.
His hand stopped before it reached his wrist.
"I guessed," he said.
Nobody moved.
"When?"
"I was nineteen. I found old ledger pages in Dad's desk with monthly payments to a woman in Dayton, ending the month Chloe came. I added it up." He looked at the floor. "I never asked, and nobody ever told me. I decided it was the family's business to handle."
"The family's business," Eli said.
"Yes."
"You told me in the hospital that you would handle Talia. You said she always comes around."
"I was trying to keep things calm."
"You were trying to keep her quiet." Eli's voice had cracked. "You knew why Dad told me never to leave Chloe's side. You let me pick her in that hallway and you let me think I picked right."
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