Chapter 10 - THE UNCLE WHO DIED PROTECTING A SECRET
Daniel Caruso was my father.
The truth arrived without warning.
I sat beside Leo while Rebecca explained the corrected records.
Daniel had been Salvatore's younger brother.
Leo's uncle.
My mother's husband, Michael Hayes, had adopted me when I was a baby.
Anna Caruso was not my biological mother.
She was my aunt.
Daniel's sister-in-law.
The woman who had raised me after my birth mother disappeared.
My entire childhood had been built around people protecting a secret.
I stared at the photographs Rebecca placed on the table.
Daniel was handsome.
Dark-haired.
Smiling.
His eyes looked like mine.
My throat tightened.
"What happened to my birth mother?"
Rebecca opened another file.
"Her name was Elizabeth Grant."
I frowned.
"Is she alive?"
"We don't know yet."
The familiar words hurt more than I expected.
Leo reached for my hand.
I let him take it.
For the first time, I understood why he'd come to my apartment after the blood donation.
Why Graham had been instructed to monitor me.
Why Voss had manipulated Evan's treatment.
Someone had known I was Daniel's daughter.
Someone had wanted to control me.
And someone had used Leo's ambush to bring us together.
But why?
Rebecca answered the next question before I asked it.
"Daniel owned a substantial legal interest in the original Caruso shipping company."
Leo looked up.
"What?"
"His shares were placed in trust after his disappearance."
My heart pounded.
"And?"
"The trust names his surviving child as beneficiary."
I stared.
"Me?"
Rebecca nodded.
"If the records are authenticated, yes."
Leo leaned back slowly.
For years, he'd believed the shipping company belonged entirely to his branch of the family.
Now the documents suggested another heir had been deliberately hidden.
I looked toward him.
"Are you angry?"
He shook his head.
"At whoever hid this from us."
Rebecca continued.
"Rourke may have wanted to use your identity to challenge Leo's control over the company."
I felt sick.
"So the kidnapping..."
"May have been designed to expose the family relationship under circumstances he could manipulate."
Leo's expression hardened.
"He wanted Clara desperate, dependent, and frightened."
I looked at him.
"And then?"
"He could pressure her into signing away whatever she inherited."
I closed my eyes.
The loan.
The medication.
The hospital.
The blood test.
Every piece of the puzzle finally connected.
Then Frank entered the room.
His face was pale.
"Leo, we've got a problem."
Leo stood.
"What?"
Frank looked toward me.
"Vincent Rourke has filed a court petition."
My stomach tightened.
"For what?"
Frank swallowed.
"To establish a financial conservatorship over Clara Hayes."
I stared.
"What?"
"He claims she's medically vulnerable and unable to manage the inheritance."
The room went silent.
May you like
Leo's voice became dangerously quiet.
"He's trying to take legal control of her life."
