PART 4 — THE DOCTOR WHO SIGNED THE LIE
Dr. Price stood in the doorway as if he had been dragged there by guilt.
Rainwater dripped from his coat onto the marble floor. His hands shook around the leather medical bag. He looked older than Alexander remembered, smaller too, as if the secret he carried had been eating him from the inside for ten years.
Victoria stepped back.
“You should not have come.”
The doctor looked at her.
“No. I should have come a decade ago.”
Alexander crossed the room so quickly several guests moved out of his way.
“You signed my daughter’s death certificate.”
Dr. Price lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Alexander’s voice shook.
“Was she dead?”
The doctor did not answer.
Sophia’s face crumpled.
Ruth whispered, “Tell him.”
Dr. Price opened his medical bag and pulled out a sealed envelope.
“I kept the original file.”
Victoria lunged forward, but Alexander caught the envelope first.
“Don’t,” Victoria hissed.
Alexander opened it with trembling hands.
Inside were hospital records, a newborn bracelet, and a second birth certificate.
Not a death certificate.
A birth certificate.
Sophia Amelia Whitmore.
Born alive.
Healthy.
Daughter of Alexander Whitmore and Amelia Whitmore.
Alexander’s knees nearly gave way.
Sophia covered her mouth and sobbed.
Dr. Price’s voice cracked.
“Mrs. Amelia Whitmore died six days after childbirth. Not the same night. She kept asking for her baby. She kept asking why no one would bring you to her.”
Alexander stared at him in horror.
“I was told she refused to see me.”
The doctor looked at Victoria.
“She controlled every call. Every visitor. Every record.”
Victoria whispered, “I did what had to be done.”
Alexander turned slowly.
“For whom?”
“For this family!” she screamed. “Amelia was weak. She was going to hand everything to a child and leave you with nothing.”
Alexander’s voice was deadly calm.
“She was leaving it to our daughter.”
Victoria pointed at Sophia.
“That child was the key to everything. Do you think I wanted to raise another woman’s baby? I did it because without her, the trust would have gone into court for years.”
Sophia stepped back as if Victoria had slapped her.
“You never loved me.”
Victoria looked at her.
For one second, something almost like regret appeared on her face.
Then it vanished.
“I gave you a life most children dream of.”
Sophia’s tears fell harder.
“You gave me a room. You didn’t give me love.”
The words broke something inside Alexander.
He turned to the security guards.
“Call the police.”
Victoria laughed, but her voice shook.
“You won’t do that. You need me.”
Alexander held up the birth certificate.
“I needed the truth.”
Dr. Price closed his eyes.
“There is more.”
Alexander froze.
The room held its breath.
The doctor looked toward Sophia.
“Your mother left one final recording.”
Victoria whispered, “No.”
Dr. Price pulled a small old cassette tape from his bag.
Alexander stared at it.
May you like
His dead wife’s voice was inside that tape.
And Victoria looked as if she would rather burn the whole mansion down than let him hear it.
