"Victoria would never have told Carter anything, would never confirm or reveal anything about your grandfather's will." Jack said with certainty, though he too was obviously trying to figure out the relevance of the continued lie about Nate's age.
Grace could see their frustration and began to regret asking the question in the first place.
Mimi had taken a seat at the table and was typing furiously on her laptop, as though on a mission. From where she stood, Grace could just about see the screen, recognizing at once the logo of Theodore Roosevelt High School.
"Mimi are you hacking the school?" There was a mix of awe and curiosity in her voice.
"Is it hacking when I already have the password to the system?" No one could miss the mischief in Mimi's reply. Turning slightly so that she was now facing Nate she continued,
"You're not the only one who can find their way around a computer." Then she turned back to her laptop, and whatever she read wiped the smile from her face.
"How is that even possible?" Mimi sounded stunned, "Victoria assured me everything had been triple checked, especially once we found the forged adoption papers."
At Mimi's words, Grace knew that Nate wanted to start searching for answers, and could tell it was taking a lot of willpower not to grab the laptop away from her grandmother.
"Just a minute youngster," Mimi as always was aware of the mood in the room. "We should be thankful, that as usual, the minions have done a sub-par job of hiding their tracks. They've used a local county clerk and it's just for your school records. They completely forgot about the historical society records or the local papers, which as Grace said earlier, have announcements still available in on-line archives. See right here?"
She pushed the laptop to Nate and Grace. "What's more I'm sure you can trace the I.P. address of whoever doctored your birth certificate. It's not beyond my skill set, but you type faster than I do."
Grace half listened as Nate and Mimi debated what they should do next, she heard Jack say he would get a list of the county employees who would have access to the records so that they could begin to narrow down the suspects.
As she went to minimize the website for the local paper, a thought struck her and she began to search the archives for the year that Nate escaped Silver Glade and his stepfather. Trying a few keywords proved unsuccessful and she was about to give up when a headline caught her attention "Local Students win trip to Europe."
There was a photo accompanying the article, featuring six local students at the airport, being waved off by their proud parents. There were no names listed for the girls, but that wasn't what interested Grace, rather it was a face in the background of the image.
It was a face that for as long as Grace could remember wore a scowl whenever she was around. It was the same cold eyes that she had looked into when she had been slammed into a locker a few weeks prior.
Zooming in as much as possible without distorting the image, she found her gaze drawn to the hand holding the girl she knew as Maddie McKenzie. The person was aware enough to hide themselves from anyone who might be able to recognize them.
Dressed down for the most part, Grace could tell that an effort was being made to blend into the background. Yet in spite of that, and probably because they could never have guessed that someone who not only understood the importance of their being at the airport that day, but would also spot the one thing that would give away their identity, they ultimately failed in their effort to remain invisible.
Grace should have been beyond happy to have made this discovery, that they were one step closer to revealing the truth, yet she knew that if she spoke out it would mean that Nate would never look at her the same way, and their burgeoning courtship would be over.
The one person who might have been able to explain their presence at the airport that day, who could give answers that Nate deserved to have, and Grace had to believe that for her those answers would have been given, was no longer in a position to speak.
Yes the dead can't speak, not to clear their names, or bring comfort to a boy who had suffered more than anyone should ever have to, nor to to reassure their only daughter that she had not been mistaken in who she thought her father was.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
For the first time in years, Nate felt in real danger of losing his temper, and over something that was, in the grand scheme of things, quite minor. It was just another petty attempt by his stepfather to control him, his money and his life.
He knew that Ms Riley was trying to distract him so that he had a chance to regain his control and he really appreciated her efforts. When everything was over, when his stepfather was finally out of his life, Nate would treat her to a much deserved holiday, wherever she wanted to go.
Even though she had cut back on her hours at the Riley Building, he knew that she had been working behind the scenes to help him. He also knew that she had to be feeling a certain amount of powerlessness at the current situation, knowing the truth but being unable to speak out.
It was something that his grandfather had experienced right up to his death. In the letters that his Gramps had written, the older man's guilt was there in every word, on every page.
Nate, like his grandfather, was just glad that his beloved grandmother had not lived to see the nightmare that had ended his childhood.
He also knew how much it had pained his grandfather to not have been in a position to publicly expose the man who had married his only child or for that matter, make his only daughter understand the evil that she had allowed into her life, and that of her son.
Still he would take all the tools, all the weapons and the team his grandfather had gathered for him and together they would finally put an end to Charles Sinclair.
The sound of a chair hitting the tiles of the kitchen floor was so abrupt that Nate couldn't stop himself from jumping from his seat. He, along with Ms Riley and Jack could only watch as Grace, whose chair had made the noise tried to speak, her eyes wild and unseeing.
Recognizing some of the signs of panic attacks he was used to having, he moved closer to her, hoping that he might be able to offer her some comfort. However as soon as she realized his intent, she moved further away from the table, from him, so that Nate had no choice but to stay where he was.
"Lovely?" He heard Ms Riley speak, her voice quiet and nonthreatening, yet with more than a hint of concern.
"I need, I have to, I'm so sorry. I had no idea that he." Grace was making no sense, yet he knew that she was trying to tell him something.
A glance at Jack and Ms Riley showed that neither adult had any idea of what was causing her panic, and Nate hating thinking it, but her fear. Somehow in the last ten minutes something had scared Grace to the point that she was trying to escape the room. Trying to escape them.
He tried to remember what it was that had been on the laptop screen last, but that gave him no further clues, as to the best of his recollection it was the notice of his birth in one of the local papers.
"You're safe here, I promise you kiddo." Jack was talking now, but his words had the opposite effect, instead of calming Grace, they seemed to anger her.
"Did you know? How could you not tell me? Or Nate?" The words made no sense to him, and with the situation deteriorating rapidly, he needed Ms Riley to work some kind of miracle.
"Grace, I know that you are afraid, but I need you to please just tell me what is wrong. I want to help you, to protect you, and Nate so please talk to me."
Keeping her voice low, the older woman reassured Grace that whatever the information she had found that had upset her, it was something that she not only could share, but that she must tell them.
"Please lovely," something in those last two words seemed to get past the haze of fear that she had been lost in.
With tears rolling down her face, she began to speak, and her words were like a dagger to his heart. Nate had thought that there was nothing that could hurt him anymore, but he had be
en wrong.
"There's a picture. At the airport. It's when I think the switch happened."
"What switch?" Ms Riley asked, and even knowing that she was impatient for answers, Nate admired how the older woman kept her voice soothing, encouraging Grace to keep talking.
"When the real Maddie disappeared and they changed her for whoever that girl is who is pretending to be her."
"That was clever of you to figure out lovely. You know how important it is that we have proof."
"You won't be so happy when I tell you the rest of it," she paused, her voice shaking, looking as if she wanted to be anywhere else in the world, before turning her eyes towards Jack.
It was like they were watching a changeling with how she addressed her guardian. Gone was all the warmth and melody that was normally found in her voice.
"You were friends with my dad for years, he trusted you with me, so that means you have to have known all his secrets. Did you really think you could keep this hidden."
Jack paled at her words, but Nate felt it was more to do with the coldness in her voice, as her words had obviously confused him.
"Grace," Jack said her name softly, but fell silent as she began to speak again.
"I guess it's possible that he didn't tell you, but once you saw Nate's scar you should have put the pieces together."
"I'm sorry if you feel that I've failed you Grace."
"Not just me, but Nate. And when he hears the truth; and we have to tell him it, then he will hate us all, and he'll be alone. Again."
He heard the increased panic in her voice again, and knew that she was so caught up in whatever she had found that she needed a shock to help her focus. He just wasn't sure how that could happen without hurting her.
"Belle," he whispered, knowing that she heard him even with the distance that she had put between them. "Is there something on the laptop that I need to know? That you can explain to me?"
"You'll hate me," her words tore at him. "But you deserve to know the truth." He watched as she wiped away some of the tears from her face.
"Jack could you please get my jewelry box from the safe so I can show Nate the proof of my family's role in his suffering." Not surprisingly the older man look stunned by Grace's request, but he didn't delay in leaving the room.
"We'll also need the laptop." The air in kitchen was thick with tension and an overwhelming sense of sadness that was being projected by Grace.
She walked towards the table as if she was about to face a firing squad, and he felt his grip on his temper begin to fray. Whatever it was that she had seen, that had made her act as she had, it was all due to the actions of his stepfather.
The shadows of the past actions of Charles Sinclair were becoming even more difficult to push back, and there was a very real danger that they would fully corrupt and destroy the people that Nate cared about the most.
That was something that he refused to let happen, and he knew that the time to act was almost upon him. There was no longer anything to be gained for waiting. They had enough evidence to put Charles and the majority of his minions away, and in the course of their prosecution they would be able to discover the rest of his secrets.
But if they didn't act soon, in the next forty eight hours, then he didn't know if the damage would be reversible, if the tipping point had already been reached. If rather than being on the edge of a precipice; they were already falling with no safety net to save them.
"May I sit here beside you?" He asked quietly, not wanting to assume anything. Her body language was all closed off, but he wanted to show her that in spite of her worries, he wasn't going to automatically cut her out of his life, no matter what she had discovered.
From what she had been saying it was apparent that someone she knew had done something wrong, not Grace herself, and so there was no way he would hold her responsible.
She had offered him so much support, had stood by him even with how he had treated her during their first meeting, not once holding it against him, when she would have been perfectly entitled to.
He watched as she ran an image through some software, focused on how the pixels became clearer, recognizing the young girl who now called herself Maddie McKenzie. There was nothing in the image that gave any clue to who her real identity was, nor was the person holding her hand recognizable in anyway.
In fact all that could be seen on the screen was the hand of an adult, and a dress watch. He noted that she was working to clean up the image of the watch face, her face growing even paler.
"Grace?" Jack approach her cautiously, his attention focused on her rather than the laptop screen. He placed an ornate box on the table, and Nate held his breath, suddenly knowing what she was looking for.
Still he kept his gaze on her, watching as her hand curled around an individual box, one that was clearly old, with a well known designer name embossed on it.
"I need you to know, that whatever it is that you show me, no matter what Jack is able to confirm for us, it won't make any difference to how I feel about you." Nate spoke without thinking, hating the way her breath hitched.
"I've always told you the truth Grace, and I always will." He believed the promise that Jack made, and it seemed that she did too. There was a beeping noise, as the program finished running, followed by a crack as she opened the box.
"You see?" And Nate did see, there was no doubt that the watch in the box had the same decorative design on the face as the one in the now enhanced image.
"This was my father's watch, it's the only thing he had from his birth family, and he told me it was a one of a kind heirloom. It was never lost or stolen, and always kept in the safe when he wasn't wearing it."
She was speaking almost robotically, reciting the facts. Meanwhile Jack kept looking from the screen to the watch and then back again.
"If you look a little closer you will see that the design is almost identical to the one that your stepfather uses, from what you have told me about him, it wouldn't surprise me if he based his own signet ring on this watch." Again there was truth to what Grace was saying, and yet Nate wasn't convinced, not entirely.
"So it seems to me as if there was a lot that my father kept to himself, like his association with an evil man, and how he helped to kidnap a child." These last words were whispered, Grace's voice filled with despair and so much pain.
Nate looked to Jack and Ms Riley, hoping that they might be able to offer some arguments against her statement. Mother and son seemed to be having one of their wordless conversations, and then she spoke.
"I can understand why you might think that this is conclusive proof of guilt, and why you are so upset. Your father was many things Grace, but I can assure you that he could not have taken part in any of Sinclair's nefarious schemes. The watch is suspicious I grant you, however if you look a little closer you'll see that the strap is slightly thinner, so it is more likely that there is a second watch."
"There should be a serial number, especially for a watch so old," Nate remembered how when his grandfather had some items appraised for insurance, the company had used that method to confirm their worth.
"Really?" Unable to stop himself, he pulled Grace closer to him, wanting to offer her some comfort, and was relieved when she didn't resist, rather she got as close as she could.
As she seemed to soak up as much comfort from him, Nate watched Jack, a little worried about how uncertain his mentor looked, and how he had so far not spoken in support of his friend.
"I'll start a search shortly for any information about the history of the watch, the craftsman who made it and it will help us to unravel the truth."
"Before you do that, you both need to hear this," Jack paused, and Nate could see the conflict on his face.
"Your father Grace, was one of the best people I've ever known. He always knew that he was adopted, and was always grateful to your grandparents for giving him a home. When he was older, in university and before he started work, h
e wanted to look into his biological family a bit more. Mostly for medical reasons."
"Was he sick?" Grace asked quietly
"No, nothing like that. He and your mom's relationship was getting serious, they wanted a family and I guess he wanted to make sure there were no concerns. You know I can still remember him showing up here; I was home for some reason, and he was devastated. He had found out that he had another sibling, that he had been separated from when they were placed in the foster system. He tried everything, and I mean everything to find his baby sister, but she was gone."
"Gone how?"
"Somehow she disappeared in the system, never to be seen again."
"Did he, was my dad able to find out her name even?"
"Sadly not, and believe me he tried."
"And what about his birth parents?"
"Again there was very little information to be had, one social worker thought that maybe they were missionary workers who worked overseas and found it unsuitable for small children, but who didn't want to give up their calling."
"We've still been running searches Grace, but it's been more difficult since your father's passing." Ms Riley had joined the conversation, her voice gentle. "It's a lot to take in, especially when you've already had a shock. You'll need time to come to terms with everything."
"That's something we don't have." Grace replied.
"How about Nate here does some of his cyber searching while you go and freshen up a bit. Hopefully by the time you're feeling a little brighter we will have more information and can figure out where to go next."
Ms Riley might have sounded as if she was making a suggestion but everyone in the room knew that it was more like an order, one that she expected to be obeyed.
"I'll escort Grace to her room, and then get to work." Nate needed a few minutes with his girl.
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