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She looks at Samuel. “I’m Samantha Northup’s daughter.”
Chapter 17 ~ Put to the Test
Ellis
“Let me get this straight,” Gabriel says. “Rainier Knight’s fiancee is actually a Northup?”
The whole family is gathered in Samuel’s room now, and apart from Rainier, who’s fallen silent, everyone else has been sent away. He would be, too, if I told everyone he’s actually not my fiance, but I don’t feel like doing that right now when there’s already so much going on.
One revelation at a time.
“I am Samantha Northup’s daughter,” I repeat. “I have her name on my birth certificate, which I can get for you if you like.”
“So all this time, you were a Northup and you never told us?” Calvin asks me.
Suzannah holds her hand to her lips. “You mean my own cousin stole the man I loved from me?”
No one pays her any attention.
“I knew I was the daughter of a woman named Samantha Northup before I came here,” I say. “I didn’t know for sure she was part of this family. I actually don’t know anything about her.”
“She was my daughter,” Samuel speaks.
His favorite daughter, it seems.
“She was always full of joy and life. One spring, she was out in the garden. I was watching her play from my office window. She saw a butterfly and she just got up on her feet and started walking for the first time. That’s why I called her ‘my butterfly’.”
And that’s why the pendant of the necklace is shaped like a butterfly.
Samuel points to it on the table, which is where Vivian put it down right before she started hyperventilating. She’s still holding a paper bag now and her cheeks still look a little pale, but she seems to have settled down.
“I gave her that necklace for her second birthday,” Samuel says. “And she’s always had it with her.”
“She must have had it with her when she gave birth to me,” I say. “Then when she was…”
I pause because I’m not sure I want to talk about her death. I didn’t know her, so it’s not that painful to me, just sad. Samuel, Vivian and Gabriel did, though, and I can see the grief in Samuel’s eyes.
“It’s fine,” Vivian finally speaks. “We know she’s gone. We’ve known it a while.”
I let out a breath of relief.
“After she ran away from home, Daddy did everything to look for her.”
“But it was already too late when I found her,” Samuel says, his voice cracking.
I place my hand over his because I’m worried he might start to cry.
“Please try to take it easy.”
“I’m fine, dear,” he tells me. “I actually feel fine right now.”
“Why did… Aunt Samantha run away?” Christine asks.
Gabriel shrugs. “She never was the same after Alex died.”
My eyebrows go up. Alex?
“Alex was my first-born,” Samuel explains to me. “He fell off a horse and died young.”
How tragic. Now I know why Norman said they were the only Northups left.
“She wanted to be free… of everyone,” Vivian says. “At least, that’s what she told me.”
“I don’t blame her,” Gabriel says.
“She wanted to live her own life, to do whatever she wanted,” Vivian goes on. “So she left.”
“Then she fell in love, got pregnant and died in childbirth,” Calvin says.
“And it didn’t occur to you all to look for the child?” Rainier speaks for the first time.
“The nurse I spoke to said the child had died,” Samuel says. “And we believed her.”
“You mean you didn’t ask any questions because you were just so distraught that Samantha died,” Vivian corrects him.
“Why would the nurse lie?” Calvin asks.
“Maybe someone paid her,” Gabriel says. “People lie all the time for money.”
“Except you,” Suzannah tells him. “You do it for free.”
Gabriel frowns.
I keep silent because I’m wondering the same thing as Calvin. Did someone really pay the nurse to lie? If so, who? My father? Was he rich? And why did he do that?
“What if the nurse didn’t lie?” Rainier suggests.
I look at him. Is he saying he doesn’t believe I’m a Northup?
“What proof do you have that you’re Samantha Northup’s daughter?” Gabriel asks me.
“Like I said, I have the birth certificate,” I say.
“Which could be fake,” Gabriel says.
“She has the necklace,” Christine points out. “Unless that’s fake, too.”
“It’s real,” Vivian says.
I believe so, too.
“She has Samantha’s eyes,” Samuel says as he peers into mine. “I do believe she’s Samantha’s daughter.”
He gives me a smile, which I return.
At least someone does.
“Which means she should be included in my will,” Samuel adds.
My jaw drops.
Suzannah stands up. “No way. She can’t have any of your money. She’s… she’s…”
Suzannah searches for the word as she looks at me.
“She… doesn’t know how to pluck her eyebrows.”
What? I touch my arched eyebrows. True, I don’t pluck them and I’ve never learned how, but what does that have to do with me inheriting anything?
I’m not saying I should. I’m not here for the Northups’ money. I can’t say I don’t need it, though, or want it. If I had just a portion of the Northup fortune, I could buy my parents – the couple who raised me – their old house back. I could give them everything they want. I could put up my own hospital. I could change the world.
