Chapter 13 - THE DAUGHTER CHARLES NEVER KNEW
I thought there had to be a mistake.
There wasn’t.
My mother had become pregnant at twenty-three.
The father was Charles Crowe’s eldest son.
Jonathan.
Vanessa’s older brother.
My biological father.
He died before I was born.
Officially, an overdose.
According to my mother’s letter, Charles had arranged his death after Jonathan threatened to expose the business.
That made Vanessa my aunt.
Charles Crowe my grandfather.
And me another blood heir to an empire I wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
“This family is exhausting,” Ethan said.
I looked at him.
“You’re technically my cousin.”
“Still calling you my sister.”
“Good.”
Adrian stood near the window, unusually quiet.
I knew why.
The inheritance politics had changed.
If Charles cared about bloodlines, Ethan was not his only possible successor.
Neither was Vanessa.
There was me.
“I don’t want any of it,” I said.
Adrian looked at me.
“I know.”
“But Charles won’t believe that.”
“No.”
Which made me useful.
Again.
We went to Union Station at noon.
Not alone.
Daniel had investigators positioned nearby.
Sofia had trusted security in the surrounding blocks.
Rebecca stayed with Ethan.
Adrian stayed beside me.
Charles Crowe sat beneath the enormous station clock.
Seventy-two.
Elegant.
Composed.
Alive.
He smiled when he saw me.
“You have Margaret’s eyes.”
My stomach turned.
“You killed my father.”
“No.”
“You ordered it.”
His smile faded.
“Jonathan made choices.”
“People like you always say that after making choices for everyone else.”
Adrian glanced at me.
I could almost hear him thinking that I should stop provoking the dangerous old criminal.
Too late.
Charles offered me everything.
Money.
Companies.
Property.
Protection.
A seat beside him.
I laughed.
“You think I spent eighteen months collecting evidence because I wanted a promotion?”
His eyes hardened.
“You have no idea what you are.”
“Yes, I do.”
I stepped closer.
“I’m the woman who balanced your books.”
Daniel’s people moved into position.
“And they don’t balance.”
Charles finally understood.
The meeting had never been about negotiating.
It was about recording him.
His confession.
His threats.
His knowledge.
He stood.
Then Vanessa appeared from behind a pillar.
Gunfire never came.
No dramatic war.
Vanessa simply looked at her father and said:
“It’s over.”
Charles stared at her.
She handed Daniel a second drive.
Her own evidence.
She had betrayed him.
But not from kindness.
From survival.
Charles Crowe was arrested twenty minutes later.
I thought the nightmare had ended.
Then Vanessa came to me before officers took her away.
“You think Adrian saved you?”
I said nothing.
She smiled.
“Ask him why he was investigating you six months before you found the first false manifest.”
My blood went cold.
May you like
Because according to everything Adrian had told me…
He had only learned my name eighteen months ago.
