Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO GAVE ME AWAY
I wanted the statement to be a lie.
Another manipulation.
Another way to make me unstable.
Then my mother confirmed it.
Ruth Brooks cried when I asked.
“Hazel, I wanted to tell you.”
My throat closed.
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“I'm thirty-four!”
“I know.”
“Who is she?”
Silence.
Then Mom whispered:
“Catherine Castle.”
I stopped breathing.
Across the room, Victor went completely still.
“No,” he said.
Mom continued crying through the phone.
“Hazel was born before Catherine married Marcus.”
Victor stared at me.
My hands went numb.
“Victor?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Mom explained.
Catherine was seventeen.
Pregnant.
Her family forced her to give up the baby.
Nathan and Ruth Brooks were young and unable to have children.
They adopted me privately.
Years later, Catherine married Marcus Castle and had Victor and Elena.
My heart pounded.
Victor wasn't a stranger.
He was my younger half-brother.
The man whose wounded body I'd been pressed against in a hotel bedroom.
I covered my face.
“Oh, God.”
Victor looked equally horrified.
Nothing romantic had happened between us, but the emotional shock was enormous.
Elena stared.
“You’re our sister.”
I laughed once.
Then cried.
My entire identity had changed in thirty seconds.
And Graham Mercer knew.
Dad knew.
Ruth knew.
Catherine knew.
Everyone except me.
Then Mom said:
“Nathan loved you more than anything.”
I wiped my eyes.
“Why did he investigate Catherine?”
“Because she came back.”
“When?”
“Sixteen years ago.”
Before her staged death.
Catherine wanted to know me.
Nathan refused.
He believed her world was too dangerous.
Then she disappeared.
Years later, Nathan discovered she was working with Graham Mercer.
He realized Mercer knew I was Catherine's daughter.
That made me leverage.
So Dad tried to expose him.
My chest tightened.
“He died protecting me.”
Mom whispered:
“Yes.”
Victor turned away.
Then the surveillance feed crackled.
Catherine was speaking.
“I want the ledger before Hazel learns the truth.”
Graham laughed.
“She already has.”
Catherine froze.
“What?”
He lifted his phone.
A message.
Someone had told him.
Someone knew we were listening.
Then the feed died.
A second later, our secure door opened.
Karen stumbled inside.
Untied.
Unhurt.
I stared.
“You escaped?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Then she pulled a gun from beneath her coat.
Victor stepped in front of me.
Karen smiled.
“Catherine sent me.”
My blood turned cold.
May you like
My supervisor hadn't been a hostage.
She had been working for them the entire time.
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