Chapter 3 - Samuel Brooks Was Never Forgotten
Margaret finally admitted that Samuel Brooks had been her first husband.
She and Samuel had separated privately before he began a relationship
with Catherine Reed. Their divorce was never completed because Samuel’s
family business was in the middle of a financial crisis.
Then Samuel died in a warehouse fire.
Hannah had been born months later.
Margaret knew Catherine was pregnant, and she knew Samuel was the
father.
“Why hide me?” Hannah asked.
Margaret answered with the ugliest truth first.
“Because you had a claim to Samuel’s estate.”
David stared at his mother.
Margaret explained that Samuel owned a major interest in Whitmore
Textiles. After his death, she feared a public paternity claim would
trigger years of litigation and give the Whitmore family another reason
to attack Catherine.
“So you paid my mother to disappear,” Hannah said.
“Yes.”
Hannah laughed bitterly. “She never spent it.”
Catherine had placed Margaret’s payment into a trust because accepting
it felt like agreeing that Hannah should vanish.
Margaret looked stunned.
Then Natalie revealed that her father, Jonathan Brooks, had kept
Samuel’s papers after his death.
Among them was a brass key.
“My father wrote that it opens a locker containing proof Samuel’s
warehouse fire wasn’t an accident.”
Margaret stood abruptly.
She recognized the key.
Samuel had carried it for years.
David looked at his mother.
“You knew there was more to his death.”
Margaret whispered, “I knew he was afraid before he died.”
“Afraid of who?”
Margaret looked toward the old photograph.
“Robert’s mother. Eleanor Whitmore.”
Laura felt the room tighten again.
Samuel had been dead thirty years.
Eleanor had been dead almost twenty.
Yet both were suddenly controlling Thanksgiving from beyond the grave.
May you like
And the key in Natalie’s hand was about to open the first thing Margaret
had failed to bury.
