Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER I NEVER KNEW I HAD
I had spent two days wondering whether Adrien Mancini was dangerous.
Now I was wondering whether he was family.
The birth certificate lay beneath the archive room's fluorescent lights.
My name.
My birthday.
My mother's name.
And Antonio Mancini listed as my biological father.
I looked at Adrien.
"Say something."
He stared at the document.
For the first time since I'd met him, the man who commanded armed guards and owned half the transportation companies in Montana seemed incapable of speaking.
Lucia recovered first.
"We need to verify this."
I turned toward her.
"Verify what? It's right there."
"An archived document isn't automatically authentic."
Adrien finally looked at me.
"She's right."
I laughed bitterly.
"Of course you would say that."
He didn't argue.
Instead, he pulled out a chair.
"Madison, sit down. You've had a concussion, and this is too much to process standing up."
"I'm not going to faint."
"Good. Then sit because I'm asking, not ordering."
That almost made me smile.
Almost.
I sat.
The investigator photographed the document and placed it in an evidence sleeve.
Lucia examined the attached declaration.
"Antonio was married to our mother when Madison was born."
Adrien closed his eyes.
"Our father had affairs."
The words hung between us.
Lucia looked toward me.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-six."
Adrien was thirty-six.
Lucia was twenty-nine.
The dates were possible.
Horribly possible.
I touched my stomach.
Eight weeks pregnant.
A child whose father had rejected us.
And now another father, one I'd believed was dead, might never have been my biological parent.
My eyes filled.
"Robert Bennett raised me."
Adrien nodded.
"Then he's your father in every way that matters."
I looked at him.
Something softened inside me.
He wasn't trying to claim me.
He wasn't asking me to call him brother.
He was simply allowing me to breathe.
That afternoon, I called Camila.
My best friend answered immediately.
"Madison! Where have you been?"
I swallowed.
"Camila, I'm okay, but something happened."
Her voice sharpened.
"Connor?"
"Partly."
I told her about the accident.
The pregnancy.
The Mancini estate.
And the birth certificate.
When I finished, she was silent.
Then she said, "Madison, do you remember the blue envelope your mother gave you before she died?"
I frowned.
"What envelope?"
"The one she told you to open when you got married."
My stomach tightened.
I'd forgotten.
Mom had given me an envelope during my first year of college.
She told me it contained family information.
I'd put it in a box with my childhood photographs.
Then Connor and I moved in together.
The box ended up in his apartment.
I slowly closed my eyes.
"Camila, I need that envelope."
She hesitated.
"Madison..."
"What?"
"Connor called me yesterday."
My blood ran cold.
"What did he want?"
"He asked whether your mother ever left you anything from the Mancini family."
I stopped breathing.
Camila continued.
"And when I told him I didn't know, he said something strange."
"What?"
May you like
Her voice trembled.
"He said, 'Then the wrong girl survived the crash.'"
