Chapter 6 - The Doctor Who Disappeared Was Hiding Behind a Borrowed Name
Damon stared at the photograph for a full minute.
"My father died when I was twenty."
His voice sounded distant.
I studied the passport.
It carried the name Adrian Vale.
The birth date matched his father's.
"Someone helped him disappear," I said.
Eleanor sank into a chair.
"I thought the papers were forged."
Damon left the room without answering.
I found him near the terrace doors.
He held the photograph by one corner.
"Everything I built," he said, "started with his money."
"You didn't make his choices."
"I benefited from them."
I understood why he felt responsible.
I also knew responsibility required action.
"Then help me find her."
We traced Vale's last address.
It led to a clinic outside Providence.
A receptionist recognized the photograph.
She said Vale had visited that morning.
He had arrived with an elderly woman.
My mother.
The receptionist led us to a private office.
We found a portable oxygen tank.
Its label carried my mother's initials.
On the desk sat a sealed letter.
It was addressed to Damon.
The letter offered him a choice.
Hand over the original charity records.
Or lose the woman who could expose them.
At the bottom was a handwritten sentence.
SON, YOU ALWAYS WERE TOO SENTIMENTAL.
Damon folded the letter.
"He thinks I still obey him."
May you like
I looked at the empty oxygen tank.
"Then prove him wrong."
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