Chapter 6 - The Secret Son
The air in the office suddenly felt too thin to breathe.
"His son," I repeated, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.
Julia crossed her arms, leaning against the mahogany desk that used to be mine. Her initial panic had faded, replaced by the cruel satisfaction of landing a devastating blow.
"His name is Leo," Julia said, her voice steady and deliberate. "He's fourteen. Same age as Grace. He's at a private boarding school in Connecticut. Thomas pays the tuition out of the Silver Creek trust."
My mind raced, struggling to compute the timeline. Grace was fourteen. I was pregnant with her fifteen years ago when Thomas started transferring the money.
He had gotten another woman pregnant at the exact same time.
"You," I breathed, staring at her flat stomach. "You're the mother."
Julia laughed bitterly. "Me? God, no. I didn't want a kid ruining my twenties. I'm just the caretaker of the trust. Thomas put my name on the Silver Creek LLC to shield the assets. The mother was a hostess at the Denver location. She died in a car accident when Leo was two. Thomas didn't want the scandal, so he set up the trust, bought the condo, and hired a private nanny to raise the boy in Chicago until he was old enough for boarding school."
I felt physically ill. My legs threatened to give out, but I forced myself to remain standing. I refused to show weakness in front of this woman.
"Thomas has a fourteen-year-old son," I said, my voice eerily calm despite the hurricane inside me. "And he hid him for his entire life."
"He protected his image," Julia corrected. "And his marriage. You should be thanking him. He kept your perfect family intact."
"By abandoning a child?" I snapped, the rage finally slicing through the shock. "By treating a boy like a dirty secret hidden behind an LLC?"
Julia rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Leo wants for nothing. He has the best education money can buy."
"Money isn't a father, Julia." I stepped toward her, the proximity making her flinch. "You and Thomas deserve each other. You're both completely hollow."
I didn't wait for her response. I unlocked the door and walked out, my heels clicking sharply against the hardwood floors of the executive wing.
When I reached my car in the parking garage, I locked the doors and finally let the shock wash over me.
Thomas had a son. A boy without a mother, whose father only interacted with him through bank transfers and boarding school tuition. While Thomas was playing the devoted family man in Chicago, teaching Grace how to ride a bike and attending her piano recitals, he had another child locked away in a gilded cage.
I started the engine. I wasn't just dealing with a cheating husband anymore. I was dealing with a monster who viewed human beings as liabilities to be managed.
I didn't drive home. I drove to the one person who still knew everything about Thomas's past.
My former mother-in-law, Eleanor Harris.
Eleanor lived in a quiet, upscale retirement community in Evanston. She was a sharp, unforgiving woman who had never entirely approved of me, always believing her son was destined for greatness that I somehow hindered.
When she opened her door, leaning heavily on a silver-handled cane, she didn't look surprised to see me.
"I saw the local news blogs, Claire," Eleanor said dryly, turning and walking back into her impeccably clean living room. "Making a scene at the anniversary dinner. Very dramatic. I assume you're here to complain about Julia?"
I closed the door behind me. "I'm not here about Julia, Eleanor. I'm here about Leo."
Eleanor froze midway to her armchair. Her rigid posture stiffened even further. She didn't turn around for a long time.
When she finally did, her face was devoid of color. "Thomas told you."
"No," I said, my heart sinking. "Julia did. And by your reaction, I can see you've known this entire time."
Eleanor sank into her chair, her trembling hands gripping the cane. For the first time in thirty years, she looked old. She looked ashamed.
"The girl in Denver," Eleanor whispered. "It was a mistake. A momentary lapse in judgment."
"A child is not a lapse in judgment, Eleanor!" I shouted, the restraint I had held all morning finally snapping. "He abandoned a boy! He hid a child from his own family!"
"He protected his empire!" Eleanor fired back, her pride defensive. "If that scandal had broken fifteen years ago, the investors would have pulled out. You would have divorced him. He would have lost everything."
"So you helped him hide your own grandson."
Eleanor looked away, staring at the floral pattern on her rug. "I visit Leo twice a year. I make sure he is well cared for."
"He's an orphan with a living father," I said with disgust. "You're just as bad as he is."
I turned to leave, sickened by the entire family. But as my hand touched the doorknob, Eleanor’s voice stopped me.
"Claire, wait."
I looked back. She was digging into her purse on the side table. She pulled out a heavy, tarnished silver key and held it out to me.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's the key to Thomas's private storage unit in the West Loop," Eleanor said, her voice shaking. "He thinks I lost my copy years ago."
May you like
I didn't move to take it. "I don't care about his storage unit."
"You should," Eleanor said, her eyes meeting mine with a terrifying intensity. "Because Leo isn't the only secret Thomas hid in Denver fifteen years ago. If you really want to destroy him... open the red lockbox."
