Chapter 9 - PATRICIA KNEW MORE THAN JULIANPatricia Whitmore asked to speak.
I expected denial.
Instead, she admitted knowing Rachel’s name for years.
Charles told her:
“A difficult inventor tried to extort the company.”
That was the family story.
Then after I married Julian, Patricia recognized my surname from old files.
She investigated privately.
Discovered I was Rachel’s daughter.
Why say nothing?
Because she feared I had married Julian deliberately.
That insulted me.
Then she admitted:
“I tested you.”
“What?”
Not DNA.
Socially.
Questions about childhood.
Money.
Whether I knew medical-device engineering.
Whether I contacted old lawyers.
She concluded I genuinely did not know.
Then decided silence was safer.
For whom?
The company.
Always the company.
Patricia said:
“I didn’t know Charles had influenced the custody case.”
Maybe true.
Then:
“But I knew there had been pressure.”
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That was enough.
She chose silence too.
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