Chapter 12 - THE TRUTH ABOUT MARCUS
I stopped everyone before they could decide my life for me.
“No.”
Thomas looked at me.
“No what?”
“No secret plan where you tell me to stay home.”
He opened his mouth.
“No.”
He closed it.
Lucinda smiled.
“I really like her.”
Thomas looked irritated.
“Wonderful.”
We met Aaron Vale at a federal building after officers recovered him from one of Carlo's apartments.
He was forty-two.
Quiet.
Dark hair.
And when he looked at me, guilt appeared immediately.
I knew.
Before he said anything.
“You remember me.”
“Yes.”
“You were my doctor.”
“For two appointments.”
“Why?”
He looked at Thomas.
Then at Gabriel, who had recovered enough to sit in a wheelchair nearby.
“I was watching her.”
I stared.
“Why?”
Gabriel answered.
“Because I asked him to.”
Of course.
Aaron was Gabriel's son.
My half-brother.
Another relative I'd never known.
My life had become a family tree written by criminals.
“What about Marcus?”
Aaron looked confused.
“What about him?”
“Elena thinks you might be his father.”
His face went white.
“No.”
Richard sat nearby under guard.
He looked toward Aaron.
“You were around Jean during her pregnancy.”
“As a doctor.”
I crossed my arms.
“Did we ever sleep together?”
Aaron looked horrified.
“No.”
“Good. One normal answer today.”
Lucinda laughed.
Thomas almost smiled.
Aaron continued.
“I took blood samples.”
My stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“Gabriel wanted confirmation that you were his daughter.”
I turned toward Gabriel.
“You tested me without permission?”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
I exhaled slowly.
“I'm adding that to the list.”
Aaron continued.
“Marcus is Richard's son.”
Richard's eyes closed.
The relief on his face surprised me.
I hadn't realized how much he wanted that to be true.
Elena frowned.
“Then why did Carlo mark the lineage as uncertain?”
Aaron looked toward Gabriel.
“Because Carlo didn't know Gabriel had another son.”
Silence.
Thomas frowned.
“What other son?”
Aaron swallowed.
“Me.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Thomas looked at him.
“You have a son and never told me.”
“I didn't know until ten years ago.”
Aaron looked at me.
“We share a father.”
I nodded slowly.
That was manageable compared with everything else.
Then Aaron looked toward Marcus's file.
“Carlo probably thought I might have fathered Marcus because he knew I was monitoring Jean.”
Thomas exhaled.
“So Marcus is Richard's son.”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
For some reason, that answer mattered.
Not because Richard deserved fatherhood.
Because Marcus deserved truth.
Aaron continued.
“There is something else.”
I laughed.
“Of course.”
He looked almost apologetic.
“Your mother didn't just hide evidence.”
Elena's expression changed.
“What?”
Aaron looked at her.
“She hid money.”
Elena went still.
“How much?”
“Hundreds of millions.”
Thomas frowned.
“Where?”
“Converted through trusts.”
Gabriel looked shocked.
“She never told me.”
Elena stared at Aaron.
“Because I didn't.”
Silence.
Aaron blinked.
“What?”
Elena slowly sat.
“I moved Carlo's money thirty years ago.”
Thomas stared.
“Where?”
She looked at me.
“To Jean.”
I nearly laughed.
“I have forty-three dollars in checking.”
“Not directly.”
Elena explained.
The money had been placed into layered trusts, inaccessible until specific legal triggers occurred.
“What triggers?”
“Carlo's conviction.”
Thomas understood first.
“You built an incentive.”
Elena nodded.
“If Jean survived long enough to expose him, everything he built would fund the people he hurt.”
My chest tightened.
Victims.
Families.
Children.
Marcus looked at me.
“So we're rich?”
I stared at him.
“No.”
Thomas coughed.
Lucinda laughed.
Elena smiled faintly.
“The money isn't Jean's personally.”
“Good.”
Marcus looked disappointed.
“There goes the gaming PC.”
Then Detective Monroe entered.
Her expression was serious.
“We found Carlo.”
Thomas stood.
“Where?”
She looked at me.
“Your apartment.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“He's inside.”
“Why?”
Detective Monroe held up a photograph taken through a neighboring building's camera.
Carlo sat at my kitchen table.
May you like
In front of him was Marcus's school picture.
And beside it was a bomb.
