Chapter 5 - THE SON VINCENT NEVER CLAIMED
Dwayne expected criminal secrets.
Nathan gave him blood.
“Vincent Cross wasn’t your biological father.”
Dwayne stared.
“Say that again.”
Nathan looked toward Addison.
“Celeste found DNA records.”
Dwayne laughed.
“My father raised me.”
“I didn’t say he didn’t.”
The distinction landed.
Nathan explained that while hiding with Celeste, he helped organize documents she stole from Vincent’s private archives.
One file contained adoption records.
Sealed.
Altered.
Dwayne had been born under another name.
Daniel Vale.
Mother:
Margaret Vale.
Father:
Unknown.
At six months old, Vincent Cross adopted him privately.
No public filing.
New birth certificate.
New identity.
Dwayne’s hands went cold.
“Who was Margaret Vale?”
Nathan looked toward the window.
“Celeste’s mother.”
Everything stopped.
Dwayne’s dead wife’s mother.
Which meant—
“No.”
Nathan nodded grimly.
“You and Celeste were raised believing you were unrelated.”
Dwayne’s stomach turned.
“Were we?”
“No.”
Relief hit so fast he almost showed it.
Nathan continued.
“Margaret wasn’t Celeste’s biological mother. She was her adoptive mother too.”
Dwayne closed his eyes.
This family had apparently outsourced honesty.
“Then what mattered?”
“Margaret knew who your biological father was.”
“Who?”
Nathan handed him a photocopied letter.
Name:
Elias Rourke.
Dwayne knew that name.
Everyone in organized crime did.
Elias had built the Rourke syndicate before disappearing twenty-five years earlier.
A rival empire.
One Vincent Cross had spent decades fighting.
“My father was Rourke?”
“Yes.”
“Why would Vincent raise me?”
Nathan’s expression became complicated.
“Because he killed Elias.”
Addison turned toward Dwayne.
Dwayne barely moved.
Nathan explained.
Vincent Cross and Elias Rourke had once been partners.
Then rivals.
Margaret became pregnant.
Elias planned to leave organized crime with her.
Vincent killed him first.
Then took the baby.
Not from compassion.
From strategy.
Raise your enemy’s son as your own.
Erase the rival bloodline.
Dwayne felt physically ill.
“Celeste found this?”
“Yes.”
“And thought what?”
“That if Vincent’s old loyalists learned you were Rourke’s son, they would kill you.”
Dwayne sat.
“So she disappeared to protect me.”
“Partly.”
There was always another part.
“What else?”
Nathan hesitated.
“She discovered Elias Rourke wasn’t dead either.”
Dwayne looked up.
Nathan shook his head.
“Vincent staged his death, imprisoned him, and used him for financial signatures for years.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Celeste found him.”
Dwayne stood.
“Where is Elias Rourke?”
Nathan’s voice dropped.
“He was alive three years ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know now.”
Then Addison noticed something.
Nathan’s bedside photograph.
Celeste stood beside Nathan.
Alive.
Date printed ten months earlier.
Dwayne stared.
“Celeste is alive.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
He looked at Addison.
Then Dwayne.
“She told me not to say unless Addison came.”
Addison frowned.
“Why me?”
May you like
Nathan answered:
“Because Celeste believes Addison is the only person Dwayne will listen to.”
