Chapter 17 - Confrontation at the Manor
The rain had turned into a torrential downpour by the time Lily and Emma drove up the gravel driveway of Daniel’s ancestral estate in Hudson Valley. The stately brick mansion, flanked by centuries-old weeping willows, had always been Lily’s sanctuary. Tonight, it looked like a mausoleum.
Inside the grand parlor, a fire crackled in the massive stone hearth. Sitting on the leather sofa were Daniel, Beth, and Eleanor. They were sipping Scotch, talking in hushed, tense tones until the double doors swung open with a violent slam.
Lily stepped into the room, drenched in rain, holding the leather journal and the birth certificate in her fist.
Daniel stood up immediately, putting his glass down. "Lily! Thank God. We were worried sick. Where have you been?"
"Don't take another step toward me," Lily said, her voice shaking with a lethal, icy calm.
Beth rose from her chair, her face a mask of motherly concern. "Sweetheart, what’s wrong? You’re trembling."
Lily tossed the plastic sleeve containing the birth certificate onto the coffee table. It landed with a soft slap against the polished mahogany, right between the crystal decanters.
Eleanor glanced at it first. Her face drained of all color, and she dropped her glass. It shattered on the Persian rug, amber liquor soaking into the silk fibers.
Beth froze, her painted lips parting in silent horror.
"Lillian Claire Vance," Lily read aloud, her gaze cutting into Daniel like a scalpel. "Born to Claire Vance. Surrogacy coerced through debt. Kept silent through extortion and federal framing. Isn't that right, Dad?"
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Daniel closed his eyes. The regal, confident patriarch seemed to shrink ten inches in his bespoke suit. "Lily... you don't understand the circumstances. We wanted a family. Beth couldn't conceive. Victor Vance offered—"
"You bought me!" Lily screamed, the sound tearing from her throat with the ferocity of a wounded animal. "You bought me from an eighteen-year-old girl whose father was in debt to you! And when she changed her mind, when she loved me too much to let go, you threw her into a federal penitentiary for twenty-three years!"
