Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Edgar’s words hung in the air.
Fern was trying to absorb what she’d just heard. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her eyes darting between him and Dorothy.
‘I’m not acting on behalf of Nathaniel Loring or Alistair,’ Edgar replied. He gestured towards the two spare chairs across from his desk. ‘Please sit.’
Fern and Daniel exchanged a glance before taking a seat. Edgar looked at Dorothy, then gave a solemn nod.
‘I’m the anonymous buyer,’ Dorothy declared softly, taking Fern and Daniel by surprise.
‘You?’ said Fern.
Daniel sat up straighter. ‘Why would you want the shop?’
‘Because she’s helping Alistair and Nathaniel,’ chipped in Fern.
‘Not because I’m helping Alistair, but because I’m helping Matilda. She was my friend … and whilst I’m confessing, I’m also the one who left the wedding dress outside your shop.’
Fern blew out a breath. ‘You left the wedding dress? What is going on here?’
‘Matilda gave it to me,’ Dorothy replied.
‘She knew its worth, but she also knew its story. She never parted with it, though she’d kept it hidden away in my sewing room for the last few years.
It upset her to look at it, but she couldn’t bear to let go of it either.
All she ever wanted was a family, a husband who would love her unconditionally. ’
‘But why drop it off outside the shop? Why now? Did Nathaniel really steal her song? And if you knew, why buy the shop? Were you trying to cover it up for them?’ Fern fired off the questions in rapid succession, her tone sharp and accusing.
Dorothy looked at Fern, tears brimming in her eyes. ‘He did steal the song, and I was helping Matilda because I promised her I would.’
‘You promised her what?’ Daniel asked. His voice was measured, not confrontational.
Dorothy drew in a shaky breath. ‘You remember, Daniel, that I was with her the night before she passed away?’
He nodded slowly.
‘She was fading fast, but her mind was sharp. She asked me to listen. She said she couldn’t leave this world without telling someone the truth.’
Fern leaned forward, her heart pounding. ‘The truth about the song?’
‘Yes,’ Dorothy whispered. ‘About how Nathaniel stole “Echoes of the Past”. He signed a record deal behind her back, passing it off as his own, and he kept her silent by taking something even more precious than her music.’
Daniel raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’
Dorothy looked directly at Fern now. Her voice broke. ‘Matilda and Nathaniel had a child. At university. A baby boy.’
Fern gasped. ‘A child? They had a baby together?’
‘Yes.’
Fern turned to Daniel. ‘Did you know? Did Matilda ever say anything to you?’
He shook his head. ‘No. This is the first I’m hearing about this.’
‘No one knew,’ Dorothy said. ‘I was shocked when she told me. Only two other people knew the truth at the time.’
‘Who?’ Fern asked.
‘Nathaniel and Alistair. They were both there the night the baby was born, and what I’m going to share with you isn’t going to be very favourable towards my brother or Nathaniel.’
Fern’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why would you tell us something that doesn’t put then in a good light?’
Dorothy held her gaze. ‘Because Matilda and I trusted each other. We came a long way together at the end.’ Her voice faltered. ‘I now have no illusions about who Alistair really is. Just because we share blood doesn’t mean I’m blind to his faults or even like him.’
‘What is he, exactly?’ asked Daniel.
‘A man who has always put himself first,’ Dorothy said bitterly.
‘Even in his twenties, he had this knack for charming people just long enough to get what he wanted. He nearly got our family business repossessed once, trying to “flip” it for a quick profit. Lied to our parents’ faces about it.
He’s clever, calculating, but heartless when it comes to consequences.
’ She exhaled shakily and continued. ‘Matilda told me Nathaniel and Alistair were the only ones there when she gave birth.’ Dorothy closed her eyes briefly, and Fern had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that whatever Dorothy was going to say next could be deeply upsetting.
‘The baby didn’t cry, so Nathaniel took the child in his arms and stepped out of the room.
A moment later he returned without the baby.
He told her it was stillborn. Their son was gone. ’
Fern felt stricken. ‘Matilda’s baby was stillborn?’
Dorothy now looked visibly upset and Edgar reached across and squeezed his friend’s hand. ‘No, the baby wasn’t stillborn.’
‘So what happened to him?’
Dorothy took a deep breath before continuing. ‘Nathaniel and Alistair arranged for an adoption. I doubt it was legal. Matilda had no idea what they’d done, believing what they’d told her – that the baby had died.’
Fern hadn’t known her great-aunt Matilda, but she felt for her. How could anyone be so cruel? This was heartbreaking to hear.
‘How did she find out the truth?’ asked Daniel.
‘I don’t know; I didn’t ask, and she didn’t tell me.
She was sharing so much that night…’ Dorothy said.
‘Anyway, she somehow discovered the truth that the baby had survived, and it was a boy. But by the time Matilda finally tracked him down, which was only a few years ago … she discovered he had passed away many years ago. She never got to tell him she was his mother.’
Fern shook her head in disbelief. It was one tragedy after another. What gave Nathaniel and Alistair the right to do this to her great-aunt?
‘Alistair and Nathaniel do not know I know, that we’—Dorothy gestured between herself and Edgar—‘know.’ She dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
‘I just wish we had been friends at the time. I could have helped her track the baby down sooner. Matilda was never looking for revenge, she just wanted the truth to be known. Nathaniel didn’t just take her music, he took her son and her future, and my brother helped him do it.
I gave you the dress because Matilda wanted someone to find the truth after she was gone, and she thought you might be the one person able to discover it and put the record straight. ’
Fern looked at her, incredulous. ‘But if you knew all this, why not just tell me? Or tell Daniel? Why give me the dress?’
‘It was my way of coming clean without betraying my brother directly in words. If I confronted Alistair and Nathaniel, or told the story, I feared no one would believe me, that they would pass it off as me being deluded. I know they would have found a way to destroy me. Giving you the dress allowed the evidence to start speaking for itself. If the truth came from someone outside the inner circle, he wouldn’t see it coming, and with your journalistic background, you had more of a chance of discovering everything than I did.
That was the only way I could see to help expose the truth about Matilda’s stolen legacy. ’
Fern sat in silence, her mind racing. The threads were tangled, but they were slowly coming together.
‘Why would Nathaniel get rid of his own baby?’ Fern asked. ‘Why didn’t he want to keep the baby, be a family? After all, he was ready to marry Matilda. They got engaged when they were at music college and were meant to marry the Christmas after they graduated. He loved her, didn’t he?’
Dorothy looked at her with sadness. ‘No, Fern, I don’t believe he did,’ she said gently.
‘He was in love with her talent. Matilda had the spark. She was the talented one and he knew it. That’s why he took the song, along with her notebook filled with all of her ideas. He used it to map out his career.’
‘His songs were all Matilda’s songs?’
‘Every last one of them. She only discovered he’d signed a record deal the morning of the wedding. Alistair went to visit her and told her that the wedding was off and that Nathaniel had no more need of her.’
‘But the baby?’
‘He didn’t want a baby. He wanted fame more than anything, and he thought being a father would tie him down, limit his image, distract from the brilliance he was ready to claim as his own. And marriage?’ Dorothy gave a hollow laugh. ‘Matilda was sadly just a pawn in his game.’
‘Why pretend he wanted to marry her?’
‘Because he’s a cruel man and strung her along to the very last second. He didn’t want her finding out about his record deal until it was signed.’
Fern shook her head in disbelief. ‘Still. Why didn’t Matilda fight him? Why not blow the whole thing wide open?’
‘Because she was still grieving. The baby was born in the February of their last year of college, ten months before the wedding. After Nathaniel called the wedding off, they planted rumours about Matilda being unstable, unfaithful. If she had gone public, if she’d tried to accuse him of stealing her songs, she would’ve been painted as a bitter woman trying to bring down a rising star. ’
‘And the song?’
‘She confronted him privately,’ Dorothy said. ‘He couldn’t deny it as they both knew the truth.’
‘All this just for fame?’ Fern couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘“Echoes of the Past” was written by Matilda about the child she lost. She never got over it. As a cruel and mocking gesture he sent her the first pressing, told her it would be worth something one day.’
‘What sort of monster is he? This is just heartbreaking.’
‘As Nathaniel made more money and built his own legal team it quickly became impossible for Matilda to expose the truth.’
‘But we could expose the truth.’ Fern looked at Daniel. ‘We have the evidence.’
‘We have,’ confirmed Daniel. ‘Not only have we discovered Matilda’s original manuscript, but we’ve also uncovered a film of her at the piano composing it.’
Dorothy looked towards Edgar and smiled.
‘Thank God. We knew it was there somewhere, but didn’t know where to start looking.
That’s why I put in an offer on the shop, to buy time to protect any evidence, just in case Alistair and Nathaniel had thought of that – my guess is that the burglary was not a coincidence – and to nudge you two into searching the shop for clues. ’
‘Did Matilda give you any more details about her son?’ asked Daniel.
Dorothy shook her head. ‘No. There’s only two men who will have those details.’
Just then, Dorothy’s phone buzzed, and she rummaged in her bag. When she found it and looked at the screen, the colour drained from her face.
‘It’s Alistair,’ she said, answering hesitantly. The call didn’t take long and as soon as she hung up, she filled them in. ‘Nathaniel Loring’s health has deteriorated further. The doctors have given him a week, maybe less.’
Daniel exhaled hard. ‘Time is running out. What do you want to do about this?’
‘Is it right to confront a dying man?’ Fern was battling with her conscience. ‘Or do we let things lie?’
‘It might be your only chance, especially if you want the truth about the baby and to discover the identity of Matilda’s son. I can’t see Alistair ever divulging that information, as he will want to keep all of Nathaniel’s money,’ said Dorothy.
Fern was thinking fast. ‘I’m going to give it a go. I want him to take accountability for what he did to Matilda. I’m going to go back and see him again. I’ve got to give it one last try.’
‘And if he won’t, or can’t, see you?’ Edgar asked.
‘Then I’ll tell Alistair I have the original manuscript and the fact that I’m the new editor of Sound & Fury.
This story will go global if he doesn’t come clean.
I’ll tell the world that Matilda wrote all the songs that spanned Nathaniel’s career, and his wealth and success don’t actually belong to him.
This will be the biggest music scandal of the decade, and I’ll make sure the whole world knows he was a fraud. ’
‘Where are the manuscript and the tape?’ asked Edgar.
‘In the safe along with the vinyl, which has had a huge valuation.’
‘When are you going to go?’ asked Dorothy.
‘As time is ticking, there’s no time like the present. Back to London we go.’
‘Come on, I’ll be right by your side.’ Daniel took her hand as they stood up.
‘Do we even know if he’s at home?’ asked Fern, looking towards Dorothy.
‘Yes, he is,’ replied Dorothy, standing up and giving Fern a hug.
‘Thank you for looking out for great-aunt Matilda.’
‘It’s what friends do.’
‘Good luck,’ said Edgar as they left his office.