Chapter 13 - THE DAY I WALKED AWAY FROM THE CASTLE EMPIRE
Victor offered me money once.
Only once.
“Hazel, there are assets connected to Catherine that may legally belong to you.”
I looked at him.
“I want my attorney to handle it.”
“Of course.”
“And I don't want a penthouse.”
He smiled.
“I wasn't offering one.”
“You were thinking it.”
He laughed.
“Maybe.”
I kept my apartment.
Kept my job for another month.
Then resigned from Luminara Events.
The company was under investigation.
Too many memories lived inside its offices.
I needed something that belonged to me.
For years, I'd dreamed of opening an independent event studio.
Smaller weddings.
Nonprofit events.
Community fundraisers.
Celebrations that didn't require fifteen layers of corporate politics.
So I built one.
I called it Brooks House Events.
Not Castle.
Brooks.
Because Nathan and Ruth were the people who taught me who I was.
I used my savings.
A legitimate inheritance distribution reviewed by independent counsel.
And a small business loan.
Victor offered investment.
I said no.
He pretended not to be offended.
Elena laughed at him for a week.
Mara helped me review contracts.
Slowly, awkwardly, we became siblings.
Sunday dinners started.
Nobody knew how to behave.
Victor brought expensive wine.
Mom told him it tasted like “fancy vinegar.”
Elena nearly fell out of her chair laughing.
Mara argued about politics.
I burned lasagna.
For the first time, family felt less like a secret.
Victor changed too.
He attended therapy.
I teased him.
He threatened to tell everyone about my burned lasagna.
We declared a truce.
He moved out of the penthouse where half his old criminal meetings occurred.
Bought a quieter house near the lake.
Started restoring boats.
Apparently the most feared man on Chicago's waterfront had always wanted to build something with his hands.
One evening, we sat on his dock.
He looked toward me.
“Hazel?”
“Yes?”
“Do you hate Catherine?”
I thought about it.
“No.”
He looked surprised.
“I don't forgive everything.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
“I know.”
I watched the lake.
“I think hating her would make her choices the center of my life.”
Victor nodded.
“I understand.”
Then he said:
“I hated Dad for years.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“For Nathan's death?”
“Among other things.”
“And now?”
“I still think he did terrible things.”
He looked toward the water.
“But I was wrong about that one.”
I understood.
Families were complicated enough without turning people into saints or monsters.
Then my phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
I answered.
“Hazel Brooks?”
“Yes.”
A man spoke.
“My name is Daniel Reed. I was Nathan’s attorney.”
My heart tightened.
“I thought his attorney died years ago.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I disappeared.”
I stood.
“Why?”
“Because Graham Mercer threatened my children.”
My stomach dropped.
Then he said:
“I have something your father left with me.”
“What?”
“A second will.”
I looked toward Victor.
Then Daniel said:
“And Hazel, it changes who owns Castle Maritime.”
May you like
I stopped breathing.
Because according to Nathan’s final legal instructions, part of the company had never belonged to the Castle family at all.
