Chapter 4 - BIANCA'S SECRET
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For the first time since waking from surgery, fear overwhelmed my anger.
“Bianca has Noah?”
Marcus nodded.
My mother stood abruptly.
“No. That's impossible.”
“Why?” I asked.
She looked at me as if she had just realized something.
“Because Bianca is not Bianca Caldwell.”
The name hit the room like a gunshot.
Marcus immediately locked the door.
“What are you saying?”
My mother looked toward the hallway.
“She was born under another name.”
“Which name?”
“Bianca Blackwood.”
I stared at her.
My mother's face collapsed.
“She is your cousin.”
I couldn't speak.
Marcus began connecting the pieces.
“The junior creative director who worked for Damian…”
“She wasn't hired by Damian,” my mother whispered.
“She was placed there.”
“By whom?”
My mother looked at me.
“By me.”
Silence.
The woman I had personally recruited.
The woman I had mentored.
The woman who had stood beside my husband while I nearly died.
My mother shook her head.
“I sent Bianca to protect you.”
“Protect me?”
“She was supposed to watch Damian.”
“Then why did she marry him?”
“She didn't.”
My mother looked terrified.
“That ceremony was never legally valid.”
Marcus suddenly reached for his laptop.
“Wait.”
He opened a database.
“There was no marriage license filed.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Damian and Bianca held a public ceremony, but legally…”
Marcus looked at me.
“He is still married to you.”
A strange calm settled over me.
Then another thought appeared.
“Where is Noah?”
My mother looked away.
“Bianca took him because she believed Damian was about to kill him.”
“Why?”
“Because Noah has the original Blackwood Trust ledger.”
Marcus frowned.
“What ledger?”
My mother answered.
“The one containing every payment Victor Thorne made to judges, politicians, police officers, doctors…”
She paused.
“And one payment made twenty-nine years ago.”
My skin prickled.
“To whom?”
My mother stared at me.
“To the hospital where you were born.”
The room went silent.
Marcus slowly sat down.
“What was purchased?”
My mother whispered:
“Your birth certificate.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“My birth certificate?”
“They changed your identity.”
“Why?”
She looked at the photograph of Noah.
“Because you were never supposed to inherit the company.”
I swallowed.
“Then who was?”
My mother’s eyes filled with tears.
“Noah.”
A violent pounding suddenly shook the hospital door.
Security shouted from the hallway.
Then a voice came through the door.
“Clara!”
Damian.
My husband.
The man who had abandoned me while I was dying.
Marcus stepped between us.
Damian shouted again.
“You don't understand what you've activated!”
I looked at my mother.
She whispered:
“He knows the truth.”
May you like
I turned toward the door.
And for the first time, I wanted him to come inside.
