Page 105 of Once a Hero

“Well, even criminals can have babies.” He shrugged.

Beatrice slid off her chair and stepped away. She drew a deep breath but only choked on the dust. “Is there oxygen here?”

“Recycled. You should be used to it since you fly a lot.”

“Let me get this straight, Ben and I are your real kids.” Beatrice’s palm was on her head.

“No. Just you.”

“I’m your real daughter?” Beatrice’s eyes started to sting.

“It’s not that bad.” Dad knitted his eyebrows together the way Benjamin sometimes did.

“Your mannerisms are like Ben’s—or the other way around. So how could he not be your biological son?”

“Because Imogen and I adopted him when we found out we couldn’t have kids,” Dad said.

“Five years later, you adopted me. Does Molyneux know who my mother is?” She did not want to call her by her old name.

“She didn’t know—at that time anyway.” Dad’s shoulders sagged. “She was gone a lot. We had been doing different things for years. Along the way, I met Philomena, a fellow treasure hunter. We were both looking for the remnants of the Amber Room. We hit it off. Next thing we knew, she was pregnant. I wanted the baby because it meant I wasn’t impotent.”

Beatrice sat down. This was the story of her origins, as bizarre as it might be.

“She had you, gave you up for adoption. I persuaded Imogen that Eugene—your Ben—would be lonely without a sibling. We adopted you. Then I hired Philomena to be your nanny.”

Beatrice felt numb. That was all. She did not feel anything else. She had only known her birth mother as her pretend nanny. How could any mother do that to their own children?

Beatrice assumed that all the time, Molyneux hadn’t realized her then husband had hired the mother of the baby.

“Remember your Bible story? Baby Moses floating down the river, the Pharaoh’s daughter adopting him, and hiring the baby’s real mother to nurse him?”

Beatrice buried her face in her palms. “When did Molyneux find out?”

“You were four years old. She found Philomena and me in bed. She hit the roof. She and Philomena had a big argument and the story came out.”

“And you divorced.”

“The end.”

“Except here you are, working for your ex-wife against your own daughter.”

Dad blinked. Something he wasn’t saying?

Slowly, he answered her. “Business is business.”

Beatrice felt he wasn’t telling the truth. Was he here to take down Molyneux in an undercover assignment or was he one of the unreformed criminals?

If it was the former, it might explain why he had asked for the brooch box. How did he know about the fake box?

“After your divorce, you took us to the States.” Beatrice wanted the rest of her family story. She had no idea how much time they had left.

As soon as Molyneux found out the box was fake, it would be over for them.

“I would’ve stayed in England, even though I still had my American passport. Imogen became Molyneux and put a price on our heads. I had to keep you and your brother safe.”

“Somehow you got us into WITSEC with new names.”

“Unfortunately, Philomena couldn’t come with us. I should have married her.” Dad wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “We worked on it for a few months to get her into the States via the southern border. I picked her up in the deserts of Texas. And we vanished.”

---