Chapter 9 - BLOOD DOESN'T MEAN FAMILY
Isa had spent twenty-seven years believing she had no uncle.
Now she discovered Gideon Shaw shared her mother’s blood.
Her mother had erased him so completely that not one photograph remained in their home.
Daniel explained why.
Gideon and Evelyn grew up poor on Chicago’s South Side.
Gideon became obsessed with power.
Evelyn wanted nothing to do with him.
When she married Samuel, Gideon considered it betrayal.
“Samuel spent years investigating his own brother-in-law,” Daniel said.
“And my mother knew?”
“Eventually.”
Isa sat in stunned silence.
Rhett watched her carefully.
“She hid the ledger.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked toward Isa.
“And I think she hid it for you.”
Isa remembered something.
Her mother’s jewelry box.
After Evelyn died, Isa had sold most of the furniture.
But she kept the jewelry box.
It was still inside her apartment.
Rhett immediately refused.
“You’re not going back.”
“Mason won’t expect me to.”
“He absolutely will.”
“Then we make sure he sees me.”
Rhett stared.
Isa surprised herself.
“I’m tired of running.”
That night, they created a trap.
Valin security surrounded the block.
Isa entered her apartment alone while Rhett watched from the building across the alley.
She opened the closet.
The jewelry box sat beneath old blankets.
Inside were cheap earrings, her mother’s wedding ring, and a false wooden bottom.
Isa pressed one corner.
Click.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a memory card.
She smiled despite everything.
“Found you.”
Then the apartment lights died.
Rhett’s voice came through her earpiece.
“Isa, leave. Now.”
A man stepped from the bedroom.
Mason.
She froze.
He looked exactly as he had before.
Handsome enough that strangers trusted him.
Cold enough that she should have known better.
“You always were terrible at following instructions.”
Isa backed toward the door.
“You married me because of my father.”
“Yes.”
The casual answer hurt more than denial.
“You never loved me.”
Mason smiled.
“I enjoyed owning you.”
Something inside Isa became perfectly calm.
He reached for her.
She slammed the jewelry box into his hand and ran.
Mason cursed.
The front door burst open.
Rhett entered.
Mason stopped.
For one second, the two men faced each other.
Then Mason laughed.
“She’s going to ruin you.”
Rhett moved between them.
“No.”
Mason’s smile widened.
“She already has.”
Security men surrounded him.
Mason finally raised his hands.
As Cole cuffed him, Mason looked at Isa.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No.”
Isa held up the memory card.
“I think it begins with this.”
Mason’s confidence disappeared.
Rhett noticed.
Back at Valin House, they opened the files.
The card contained the original financial ledger.
And one video.
Evelyn Ward appeared on-screen.
Isa covered her mouth.
Her mother looked directly into the camera.
“If Isa is watching this, then Gideon found her.”
A pause.
“And there is something my daughter deserves to know.”
Evelyn took a breath.
“Mason Voss did not kill Samuel Ward.”
“He was there.”
“But the man who ordered Mason to run Samuel off the road was not Gideon.”
Isa stared at the screen.
May you like
Her mother whispered the name.
“Victor Valin.”
