I Will Find You(94)

“Someone special in the eyes of God,” she added.

“Exactly. Great genes. Someone who cares about you. It made perfect sense.”

“Except, of course, I never went to the clinic.”

“Yes. Your charade fooled everyone at Berg. It’s ironic when you think about it. Here you are, talking about how destructive my family was with burying secrets—”

“—when my sister and I were doing the exact same thing.”

“Yes, Rachel.”

“When did you figure out it was Cheryl and not me?”

“When you never got pregnant—and Cheryl did. So I went to the Berg clinic you supposedly visited. I showed the doctor your photograph. She didn’t recognize you. Then I showed her Cheryl’s photo…”

He shrugged.

“And then?”

“Then I waited. I planned. I watched. David was falling apart anyway. You know that, don’t you? The marriage wasn’t going to last. What Cheryl did. That lie ate him up. I think he always knew the boy wasn’t his. So I kept an eye on them. I remained patient.”

“You killed another child.”

“No, Rachel.”

“Someone was murdered that night.”

“That was part of the delay. I waited. I gave that child a spectacular life.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It’s not important.”

“It is to me.”

“No, Rachel, all that concerns you is the little boy whom I rescued that night. My son.”

“You set David up for the murder.”

“Not really. When that old woman testified at the trial about seeing him with the baseball bat, I confess that I was shocked. Do you know what I thought?”

“Tell me.”

“That he started to believe he had done it, so he buried the bat himself. Later I learned there was some grudge against his father. But no, I didn’t intend to send David to prison for life. None of this was his fault. He had done his best in raising my son. I didn’t want to hurt him more than necessary.”

“Why such extreme measures?”

“What else could I do, Rachel? I couldn’t admit I had made my clinic use my sample.” He held up his hand. “And before you get all high and mighty, let’s remember who started all this. You and your sister. Your lies.”

There was, Rachel knew, some truth to that. “So who knows?”

“Pixie, of course. Stephano. That’s about it. I brought my son here when I made the switch. I confess I was in a panic. I worried I had made a terrible mistake. Pixie ran a paternity test. It came back that the boy was mine. We stayed at the Payne estate for almost six months. I never left the property. The boy was upset at first. He cried a lot. He didn’t sleep. He missed his mother and…and David. But kids adapt. We named him Theo. We came up with the cover story about the Italian actress. Eventually I took him overseas. I put him in the most exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. And I waited for that damn birthmark to fade away. The doctor said it would. But it didn’t. It stayed there, stubbornly. And yes, no one was looking for Matthew. He was dead, not missing. But the resemblance between him now and the boy taken…”

“Hayden?”

“What?”

“We can still make this work.”

“How?”

“Give Matthew back.”

“Just like that?”

“No one has to know where he was or who had him.”

“Oh, come on. Of course they will. And you can’t prove any of this, Rachel. You know that. You’ll never get your hands on the boy, and if you do, do you really think you’ll be able to compel a Payne to take a DNA test? Besides, the DNA test will show what? That I’m the father and Cheryl is the mother. I’ll say Cheryl and I had an affair.”

It was then that David stepped out from behind the shrub. The two men just stared at one another.

Then David said, “Where’s my son?”





Chapter

38



Where’s my son?” I say.

I stare at this man who destroyed my life. My whole body is quaking.

Rachel says, “David.”

“Call the police, Rachel.”

“She can’t,” Hayden says. “I have her phone. It wouldn’t matter anyway. The police wouldn’t be allowed on this property without a warrant.” He steps toward me. “But David, I think we can make this work.”

I glance at Rachel, then back at him. “Where is Matthew?”

“There is no Matthew. You killed him. If you mean Theo—”

I don’t need to hear this. I start toward the house. I’ll tear it apart if I have to. I don’t care anymore. I’m going to see my son again.

They both follow me. “Don’t you want to hear my proposal?” Hayden asks.

I make a fist. He’s too far away for me to hit him with it. “No.”

“He’s not your son. I’m sure you know that by now. But you were wronged. I always felt bad about that—about you taking the fall, about you ending up in prison. So let me help. Listen to me, David. The Paynes have means. We can get you out of the country, set you up with a new identity—”