Chapter 7 - ADRIEN’S FATHER’S SECRET
Vittorio Viscari had been dead for nine years.
But suddenly he was standing between us.
Not literally.
In every record.
Every photograph.
Every unanswered question.
Adrien shut himself inside his father’s archive for six hours.
I refused to wait outside.
“You’re injured.”
“I’m also involved.”
“Lena.”
“Try again.”
He stared at me.
Then unlocked the door.
Progress.
The archive occupied a hidden floor beneath Viscari Tower.
Old ledgers.
Property deeds.
Letters.
Photographs.
Vittorio had documented sins as carefully as investments.
We searched for Evelyn.
Found seventeen references.
Then one letter.
Adrien opened it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He handed it to me.
Vittorio’s handwriting.
Evelyn,
I cannot acknowledge the child publicly. Reddick watches everything. If he learns who the father is, he will use her against both of us.
I stopped breathing.
“Both of us.”
Adrien’s face had gone pale.
“No.”
“Adrien.”
“My father would have recorded it.”
“Maybe he did.”
We searched deeper.
A locked box.
No key.
Adrien broke it.
Inside was a birth certificate draft.
ELENA EVELYN VISCARI.
Father:
Vittorio Alessandro Viscari.
The room disappeared.
I stared at the paper.
Adrien did not move.
I was Vittorio’s daughter.
Adrien’s half-sister.
“No.”
The word came from both of us.
Then I noticed the document.
Draft.
Not filed.
No seal.
No signature from Evelyn.
Adrien grabbed another paper.
DNA testing request.
Never completed.
A note beneath it:
Evelyn insists the child is not mine. Reddick insists she is. Until proven otherwise, I will protect her as if she were.
Relief came so violently I felt dizzy.
Adrien sat.
“So we still don’t know.”
“No.”
Then we found another letter.
From Evelyn.
Vittorio, stop asking. Elena’s father cannot be named while Calvin Reddick is alive.
My skin chilled.
Reddick.
Again.
Adrien read silently.
Then whispered:
“Reddick is your father.”
I wanted to reject it.
But pieces aligned.
Why Reddick watched me.
Why he cared whether I survived.
Why Evelyn hid me.
Why Vittorio protected me.
Then Nora called.
Her voice shook.
“I found Teresa.”
My heart stopped.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A private nursing home in Connecticut.”
We left immediately.
Teresa Cole was seventy-three.
Thin.
Confused.
But when Nora entered her room, Teresa began crying.
“My baby.”
Nora collapsed beside her.
I stood near the door.
Then Teresa saw me.
Her expression changed.
“Evelyn.”
“No. Lena.”
She stared.
Then reached for me.
“You lived.”
I took her hand.
“Who is my father?”
Teresa closed her eyes.
“Calvin.”
My stomach dropped.
“Reddick?”
“Yes.”
Adrien’s jaw tightened.
Teresa whispered:
“Evelyn loved him once.”
That was harder to hear than hatred.
“What happened?”
“He chose power.”
Of course.
Teresa explained.
Evelyn became pregnant before she fully understood Reddick’s corruption.
When she discovered the network, she threatened to expose him.
Reddick threatened to take the baby.
Vittorio helped her disappear.
He gave me his surname on forged papers to create confusion.
Then Evelyn built the ledger.
My mother had not been hiding me from the Viscari family.
She had been hiding me from my own father.
Teresa gripped my wrist.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Calvin knows the archive can destroy him.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“He doesn’t want to destroy it anymore.”
“Why?”
“He wants you to unlock it.”
“For what?”
Teresa whispered:
“Because Evelyn also recorded every secret Vittorio Viscari ever kept.”
Adrien went still.
May you like
If I unlocked the archive, I might destroy Reddick.
But I might also destroy Adrien’s entire family.
