If you are reading this letter, then I am dead. My name is Edwin Chester, and I am the son of William Chester, Chairman and CEO of the Chester Seed Company. This letter is a confession of sorts. It does, in my death, what I could not bring myself to do while I was alive—finally to tell the truth about my father’s lies and misdeeds.

Darlene gasped. “Lou was right,” she whispered before continuing.

I apologize for all the subterfuge. My reasons for not being more forthcoming were the direct result of my steadfast, unyielding love for William Chester. You can research his most remarkable life, but accounts will paint a very incomplete picture of the caring, loving man whom I have been blessed to call my father. I write this even though I believe he will be found at least partially responsible for my death.

I was born with severe club-foot deformities and was the source of much ridicule even as a young child. My father refused to accept my condition. He took me to the best surgeons in the world and sat beside me for many hours and many procedures as they reshaped my bones. He also pushed me to rise to my potential.

Darlene stopped reading. “I can’t believe he’s dead,” she said, shaking. “And I’m terrified that Martin is somehow involved.”

“Please keep reading,” Kim urged.

Darlene continued.

My father was nurturing. He was also quite forceful in his beliefs and ways. Most important, he was a constant presence in my very chaotic and inconsistent world. When my mother and sister passed away, it was my father who stepped in, fulfilling the role of parent to such a degree as to earn my unyielding devotion.

He was the first to see my potential as a scientist, and encouraged me to study plant genetics, and to continue through to my Ph.D. William Chester is a true visionary. He foresaw the looming food crisis long before it was even a whisper in the halls of the Department of Agriculture. He saw that the corn yield was the lock keeping us from achieving global food security, and he knew that rDNA would be the key.

“What’s rDNA?” Kim asked.

“It says right here,” Darlene said.