Chapter 10 - CASSIE’S UNCLE KILLED MY FATHER
Cassie left the room.
I followed only as far as the hallway.
She needed space.
Five minutes later, she returned.
Her face was pale but controlled.
“Tell me everything.”
Walter could barely look at her.
Martin Doyle had been a cardiologist.
Brilliant.
Addicted to gambling.
Thomas paid his debts.
Then owned him.
Martin helped falsify patient records after the biologics theft.
Later, when Vincent prepared to expose the scheme, Thomas ordered Martin to stop him.
The official heart attack was induced using a medication difficult to detect without a specific toxicology screen.
There had been no autopsy.
Martin died three years later.
Supposedly suicide.
Now every “death” connected to the case looked suspicious.
Cassie turned toward Walter.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Ever suspect?”
Walter nodded.
“When Martin died.”
Cassie closed her eyes.
“So you knew enough to hide evidence for eighteen years but never told me.”
“I wanted you away from all of it.”
She looked exhausted.
“Everybody keeps deciding ignorance is protection.”
The sentence landed on me too.
My fake identity.
My test.
My silence about Thomas.
Different scale.
Same arrogance.
I said quietly,
“She’s right.”
Walter looked confused.
Cassie looked at me.
I continued.
“I decided Vanessa needed to be tested instead of simply being told the truth and watched for what she did with it.”
Cassie said nothing.
“I decided not to tell you who I was because I wanted your reaction uncorrupted.”
Still nothing.
“That was manipulation.”
Her face softened.
“Thank you.”
Not forgiveness.
But again, movement.
Then Marco entered.
“Thomas contacted us.”
My uncle wanted the drive.
In exchange, he would return the physical ledger and surrender.
I laughed.
“No.”
“He specifically wants you.”
“Of course.”
The meeting location was an abandoned private clinic in Westchester.
Federal agents controlled the perimeter.
Thomas walked into the lobby carrying a leather ledger.
He had aged since I last saw him.
Or perhaps I had finally learned how to look at him.
“Adrian.”
“Thomas.”
His eyes moved to Cassie.
“Doyle’s girl.”
She stiffened.
I stepped slightly between them.
Cassie touched my arm.
Not needed.
She walked around me.
“My name is Cassie.”
Thomas smiled faintly.
“You have your uncle’s eyes.”
She did not flinch.
“You killed six patients.”
His smile disappeared.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“I know enough.”
Thomas looked at me.
“She’s brave.”
“Yes.”
“Dangerous quality.”
“Only to men who need silence.”
He placed the ledger on a table.
Then said something that caught everyone off guard.
“I didn’t kill Vincent.”
I stared.
“We have his video.”
“You have what he believed.”
“Martin poisoned him.”
“Yes.”
“On your order.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“Then whose?”
His eyes moved toward Marco.
Not at Marco.
Past him.
Toward the federal agents.
“Your father was working with someone else.”
“Who?”
Thomas smiled bitterly.
“The person who inherited everything when Vincent died.”
I froze.
“I inherited Bellacort.”
“No.”
Thomas’s voice dropped.
“You inherited the company.”
“Someone else inherited the criminal network.”
May you like
Then he revealed the secret.
“Your mother.”
