Forgotten Secrets

by Robin Perini

  “We’re the ones who should be thanking you. Running away took a lot of courage. You saved so many.”

  “Not enough.” He looked away. “Is Adelaide gone?”

  “She’s going to be locked up for a long time.”

  “That’s good. She hurt a lot of people.” His eyes glistened. “I wanted to tell you about a girl we named Hannah. Adelaide punished her. I think she’s dead. She didn’t like to eat, so she was very thin. She had long red hair. I didn’t want anyone to forget about her. Adelaide didn’t put her in the cemetery behind the house. I don’t know where she is.”

  Riley flashed on the painfully slight body of the girl they’d discovered near the waterfall. “We found Hannah, I think. I’m sorry. She didn’t make it.”

  Brian fisted the sheets. “I knew. I just kinda hoped I was wrong.”

  With a nod, Riley pulled out her notebook. “We’ve been trying to find all of you for a long time. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

  He nodded. “I don’t know how many I can answer, though.”

  “What do you know about Father?”

  “He insisted he was our dad.” He snorted and rolled his eyes. “I didn’t believe him.”

  She inhaled, working out a way to break the truth. “Brian, did your parents tell you anything unusual about you when you were small?”

  “I was loud, and from an early age I talked a lot. Like weirdly talked a lot. Full sentences and big words kind of thing. I took apart the television when I was about four, I think. Why?”

  “But they didn’t say anything about your birth?”

  “Like what? I guess it was normal. I don’t exactly remember it.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “What are you not telling me?”

  “David McIlroy . . . Father . . . when he was younger, he donated his sperm to several clinics to help women get pregnant.”

  His expression grew guarded. “Sperm banks?”

  She nodded, and he threw back his head onto the pillow and closed his eyes. “He is my biological father. Oh my God. He’s my real dad. That . . . It explains a lot.”

  Riley wanted desperately to leave Brian to his thoughts, but she needed a clearer picture, especially since they might never be able to investigate the crime scene any further. “When you arrived, how many of you were there besides Father?”

  “Four.”

  “Was someone named Bethany one of them?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What do you know about her?”

  He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, unblinking. “She’s the only reason any of us are normal . . . and alive. She tried to make life bearable. When Father or Adelaide got mad, she’d intervene. Father loved her more than any of us. He would tell Adelaide that, and she’d get really angry. I think he liked it when she got jealous. That felt wrong, but I never saw anything . . . if you know what I mean.”

  “I do.” He squirmed and glanced away, so she changed the subject. “Bethany took care of you all? She protected you?”

  “Yeah. Is she OK?”

  “We don’t know,” Riley said. “There’s a woman down the hall being interviewed.”

  “It has to be Bethany,” Brian said, his voice rising to a panicked level. “We need her.”

  “I promise I’ll let you know who we found as soon as I do. For now, can you help us with the other kids? I recognize some of them from their missing children’s reports, but others I don’t.”

  “You need their real names?”

  “If you remember any.”

  He held out his hand for her notebook. “I know them all. First names mostly, but some I know their real last names.”

  Riley smiled. “I knew you would. You’re clever.”

  “Thanks to Father, I guess.” He shivered and peeked over at her, his face wreathed in disgust. “He’s really my dad?”

  “Biologically only,” she reassured him. “You were taken from a family who really wanted you to be born.”

  He grew thoughtful, and she kept silent, giving him time to digest what she’d told him.

  Finally, he raised his head. “They didn’t show it. Father gave me a family who loves me.” He stared at the notebook and pen she’d given him. “If I tell you who everyone really is, they won’t be my family anymore.”

  She didn’t know how to respond, but in the end, she didn’t have to say anything. He turned his attention to the notebook and started to write down all the names he could remember.

  Brian’s memory was supernatural. He recalled dates, names, and places. It was better than anything they could have come up with on their own. Matching the kids to their families would take no time at all thanks to him.

  After he wrote the last name, he nodded off. She didn’t blame him. His life had completely unraveled. Information in hand, she crossed the hall and opened the door to the new patient’s room, sliding inside toward the back.

  Thayne stood beside the bed. He looked over his shoulder and quirked a brow at Riley, but she leaned back against the wall and shook her head. After Adelaide, she wanted to observe the woman, focus on any possibility of lies or deceit.

  He nodded his understanding and refocused his attention on the patient.

  The nurse stood over the woman. “Can you open your eyes, please? We need for you to wake up.”

  The woman struggled to follow directions but finally managed to crack open her eyelids. She licked her lips. “Where am I?”

  “In the hospital. You had an operation. Do you remember? Doctor Blackwood told me about your ordeal. The incision is healing well. We’ll be running some tests to see what caused your abdominal pain, but if Doctor Blackwood’s recovery is any indication, you’ll be well soon.”

  “She made it out alive?” the woman whispered. “The doctor?”

  “She did, and she’s fine,” Thayne said as he moved to where the nurse had stood. “Hi.” He flashed his badge and introduced himself. “I need to ask you some questions. Can we start with your name?”

  “Bethany.” She grimaced and closed her eyes. “As long as I don’t have to open my eyes or sit up.”

  The wince could be from the light, but it could also be an involuntary reaction to seeing a law enforcement officer in her room eager to question her.

  Although Brian had insisted Bethany was the real deal, Riley had her doubts. Bethany had lived with McIlroy for a long time. As far as Brian knew, she hadn’t tried to escape. That made Riley suspicious.

  Bethany pressed her hand against her head and winced. “The last thing I remember was an explosion and rocks raining down on me. I wasn’t fast enough to get out. I thought I was dead.”

  Thayne asked the nurse to dim the light. “That better?”

  Bethany nodded.

  “You’re a miracle around here,” he said.

  She groaned as if in pain. “The children? Are they safe?”

  “We’re fairly certain we got them all. They’re staying here until we find their parents.”

  “And Adelaide?”

  Riley noted a touch of fear in the question.

  “She’s in jail.”

  A ragged sigh escaped her. “You figured her out.”

  “Our FBI behavioral analyst noticed something wasn’t quite right in the relationship between her and the children.”

  “Poor Adelaide.”

  That sentiment caught Riley’s attention. Why would Bethany pity the woman who’d so obviously terrorized them?

  “She wanted a family so badly . . . relished the role of mother hen, but she didn’t know how to be a mother.” She cracked her eyes open. “Be careful. There’s something wrong with her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. Adelaide kept begging for a real family, so Father tracked down his biological children from a series of sperm donations he made to put himself through school at Cal Tech. I believed her act for a long, long time, but then she slowly started to lose her grip on reality and our punishments became severe. And then deadly. Even
Father disapproved, wondering if she’d become too unstable. Your FBI agent must be very good at her job to see past Adelaide’s pretense.”

  “You’re not the only one who was fooled. Most of us fell for Adelaide’s act. Even Doctor Blackwood. She didn’t realize until it was almost too late that someone was poisoning you both. Based on what our team found, it appears Adelaide had become adept at causing copper toxicity. Do you know anything about a local ranch owner she may have had a problem with? Their name is—”

  “Riverton,” Bethany finished. “She had her reasons, twisted though they were.”

  “Really? We saw the grave, but we don’t understand the connection. Can you help us?”

  “Father was a Riverton. The black sheep, I guess. He was cut out of the will. I don’t know why. He resented the entire family and believed he deserved to own the ranch. That’s why he settled in those mountains. I can’t tell you how many times he tried to buy the ranch. They weren’t selling, so he was biding his time until he could arrange to claim or buy the land. Adelaide believed they would never sell, so she took matters into her own hands. She hated Calvin Riverton Senior. I tried to talk her out of doing anything rash, but she insisted he had to disappear. She thought she’d fixed Father’s problem, but then one of the sons—Brett, I think—came home from college to run the business, and the cycle started all over. She made friends with one of the ranch hands, but he got suspicious, so she killed him. That was six months ago. Then she forced Ian to hack into the Rivertons’ cameras so she could find pictures that could be used against them. I told Father she’d gone too far, and he was starting to agree with me. Finally.”

  She closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh. The interview was taking a toll on her, but Thayne pressed on.

  “You became her enemy,” he said.

  She nodded with a small grimace. “Adelaide wanted us to be sisters. And in the beginning, I was so scared, I tried. She was my lifeline . . . and then they took others. Something changed; something inside her went wrong. She insisted on the perfect family. If any of the new members didn’t follow the rules or tried to escape, she just got rid of them.”

  A tear slid down Bethany’s cheek. Her reactions weren’t fake. She cared deeply for the children, just like Brian had said.

  Thayne leaned forward. “We saw sixteen graves in the cemetery behind your house. Were they all children except Riverton?”

  Bethany moved, trying to find a more comfortable position, but winced instead. “Father chose those with talent who he believed weren’t living up to their full potential. Even at sixteen, Ian is a brilliant engineer. He designs security cameras for one of Riverton’s companies. Delilah is a violin prodigy. Edith was a computer wiz. She was punished last summer.”

  Eyes wet with tears, Bethany looked away. “I’ve lost so many of them. You have no idea how many times I wanted to leave, especially when I got older, but I stayed because someone had to protect the children. Adelaide kept getting angrier, and Father lost his ability to control her. I saved as many lives as I could from her anger. Not enough, though. Never enough.”

  They were so alike. Riley would’ve felt exactly the same way. She did feel the same way. But nothing that happened was Bethany’s fault.

  The words rang in Riley’s ears. She’d heard them before. For the first time she might have begun to believe them.

  Bethany yawned, struggling to keep her eyes open. She was clearly getting tired, and the nurse mouthed they had five more minutes before she would kick them all out.

  Thayne cleared his throat. “I have just a few more quick questions and then I’ll leave you to get some rest. Do you know the real identities of the children, especially those who didn’t make it? We’d like to bring closure to their families.”

  “Father knows.”

  “Father died of a gunshot wound about thirty minutes ago. Adelaide shot him.”

  Shock flickered over Bethany’s face, and her eyelids dropped as if they were too heavy to keep open anymore. “Dead?” Her voice sounded incredulous. “He’s dead?”

  “Yes.”

  “I should be happy.” Confusion colored her cheeks. “I am, but . . .”

  “It’ll take time to process.” A smile full of compassion touched his face. “No one here expects you to be doing cartwheels.” He looked down at his notes. “We’re in the process of contacting the families. We can do the same for you. Do you remember your real name?”

  Her eyes downcast, she gripped the sheets. “What does it matter? I’m not who I was supposed to be. How can I be? I was raised by a madman.”

  Riley’s heart hurt for the woman. She’d been cut off from her family for so long, she wasn’t the little girl they remembered. The thought of reconnecting must be terrifying.

  “You are exactly who you’ve always been,” Thayne said. “You’re a survivor. A hero to those kids. I think your family would want to know that.”

  For the longest time Bethany remained silent. Would she tell them? Riley began to doubt, but then the woman swallowed hard and lifted her gaze.

  “Madison,” she whispered. “My name is Madison Lambert.”

  A loud gasp sounded from across the room. “Maddy?”

  A nickname Bethany—no, Madison—hadn’t heard spoken in forever. She forced her eyes to look beyond the glare of the light burning her eyes. In the shadows, a woman hesitantly moved toward her. Her face resembled the memory of a young girl Madison used to know.

  “It’s me.” The woman took Madison’s hand and held it to her chest, shock making her breath ragged.

  “I-I don’t understand . . .”

  Thayne tugged the woman forward. “Madison, let me introduce you to the woman responsible for finding you. This is Riley Lambert. Your sister and the gifted FBI behavior analyst who saw through Adelaide’s facade.”

  Tears streamed down the woman’s cheeks. It was hard to believe the one person Madison had wanted to see was standing in front of her. It had to be a dream. “Riley? My little sister, Riley?”

  She nodded, and the most beautiful smile Madison had ever seen greeted her.

  With a shaking finger, Madison swept a tear off her sister’s face. “Oh my God. You’re so grown up. So pretty. Is it really you? What are you doing here?”

  “I never stopped looking for you,” Riley said through the tears and that amazing smile. “And when I got old enough, I promised myself I’d work at the best place to find you. Easy answer. The FBI.”

  “She didn’t give them a choice,” Thayne said. “From what I hear, she aced all her tests and dazzled them with her skills. They’re lucky to have her.”

  Madison laughed. “You were always clever. But somehow I thought you’d end up an artist.”

  “In a way, I did.”

  Madison cupped her sister’s cheek. “I thought about you every day.”

  Riley closed her fingers over her sister’s. “So did I.” Fresh tears started to fall. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I let him take you.”

  “What? Why would you say that? It wasn’t your fault. Look at me,” Madison said and forced Riley’s eyes to meet hers. “Not for one moment did I ever blame you for what he did. I’m glad he took me and not you. Do you hear me? You were the sweetest, most joyous part of my life, and I would have done anything to protect you. Even when I was a pain those last few months, I would have done anything for you. I always needed a sister like you. I hope you know that.”

  She pulled Riley to her and felt the sobs shake her body. “Don’t cry,” Madison said through her own tears. “I love you so much. Thank you for finding me.” She tightened her arms around her sister. “Thank you.”

  She kissed Riley’s temple and held her until the sobs subsided. When they separated, the room was empty of everyone but them. Thayne stood guard at the open door, his big body blocking anyone from disturbing them.

  “Are Mom and Dad—”

  “They’re okay. They’ll be so happy to see you.”

  Madison’s gaze move
d between her sister and the very protective, and now scowling, deputy. There was a story there.

  “I get the feeling he’s more than just a local cop you work with.”

  Riley blushed, and her gaze slid to him. “He’s my best friend.”

  “And then some?”

  “And then some.”

  The nurse stuck her head in, clearing her throat. “Time’s up.”

  As if the words signaled her, Madison’s body began to feel heavy, and she could barely keep her eyes open. “I’m so tired.” Yet she couldn’t seem to let go of her sister’s hand.

  “I’ll be here as soon as you wake up. I promise.”

  She squeezed Riley’s fingers and smiled. “We have all the time in the world, Riley. I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”

  Madison raised their hands. A half-heart bracelet on Riley’s wrist swung against her skin. She stared at it and grinned, reaching beneath her hospital gown. She pulled out a necklace. A small bracelet swung on the chain.

  “I thought it was lost,” Riley said. “You’d taken it off.”

  “I put it back on that night,” Madison said. “You were with me the whole time. You helped me remember who I was, deep inside.”

  Madison fit the two hearts together. Tears ran down her sister’s face.

  Riley placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. “And I’m going to make it my life’s mission to be that annoying little sister you remember.”

  Madison’s lips twitched, and her heart felt like it would explode with happiness. “I look forward to it. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Darkness had fallen over Singing River, the stars twinkling rays of light in a sea of velvet, when Thayne pulled his vehicle in front of Fannie’s B&B. He turned in his seat and faced Riley. She still appeared to be in shock.

  “I should’ve stayed,” she said before he could speak. “Maddy needs me.”

  “They weren’t going to let us see her again until morning,” he said. “I had Ironcloud call your parents, and they’re on their way. There’s nothing more to do for her. Or anyone. Not tonight.” He rounded the SUV, opening the door for her. He reached out a hand. “Come on. After the last seventy-two hours, you need some rest, then you and your sister can spend all day getting to know each other again.”