“Your little business. Your little house. Your perfect husband. Everybody talks about Natalie like she clawed her way out of nothing.”
Grant stiffened.
“Diane—”
“No. She wants the truth? Fine.”
She stared directly at me.
“You had advantages Brielle never had.”
I almost laughed.
“I worked two jobs through college.”
“And why do you think you could?”
“What does that even mean?”
Then Thomas Vale spoke.
“Diane, don’t.”
She smiled at him.
That smile frightened me more than anything else she had done.
“Oh, she doesn’t know.”
I looked at Grant.
He looked equally confused.
“Know what?”
My mother stared at me for a long moment.
Then she spoke the sentence that split my life in two.
“I’m not your mother.”
Nobody moved.
I heard the monitor beside my bed beep.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
I laughed because I had no other possible response.
“What?”
Diane’s eyes looked glassy.
“I raised you. But I didn’t give birth to you.”
Brielle stared at her.
“Mom?”
Even she hadn’t known.
My pulse climbed so quickly that the nurse stepped toward the monitor.
“That’s a lie.”
Thomas Vale closed his eyes.
And that was when I knew it wasn’t.
I looked at him.
“You knew?”
He nodded slowly.
“Not until this morning.”
Grant stared between us.
“What the hell is going on?”
Thomas removed another document from his folder.
“A dormant trust account connected to Natalie’s Social Security number was flagged when Diane attempted to use information attached to it.”
“Trust?” I repeated.
“I don’t have a trust.”
“You do.”
My mother sat down.
For the first time since entering the room, she looked old.
Thomas handed Grant the documents.
“The account was created thirty-two years ago by Eleanor and Michael Vale.”
I stared at him.
His surname.
Vale.
Thomas Vale.
My heart began racing again.
