Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER SHE NEVER KNEW
Ethan Bennett was eight years older than Claire.
Different mothers.
Same father.
Daniel had hidden both children separately after threats against the family intensified.
Ethan remembered him.
Claire did not.
That difference hurt.
They sat together in the clinic garden.
Cold Wisconsin sunlight.
No guards close enough to hear.
“My father loved me?”
Claire asked.
Ethan’s eyes softened.
“Our father.”
She corrected herself.
“Our father.”
“Yes.”
“Then why foster care?”
“He thought the family protecting you was safe.”
“They weren’t.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I found you when you were twenty-two.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
“I watched from a distance.”
Her expression hardened.
“No.”
“I wanted to approach.”
“But?”
“Anthony stopped me.”
Of course.
“Why?”
“He said Carlo’s people still watched Bennett relatives.”
“So he separated us for safety.”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps protecting me into loneliness.”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“I should have ignored him.”
“Yes.”
No easy absolution.
Good.
“What do you do?”
“I’m a cardiologist.”
She almost smiled.
“Convenient.”
“Apparently our family likes paperwork and blood pressure.”
Then he became serious.
“There’s something about the pills.”
“What?”
“You had symptoms last year.”
Claire frowned.
Fatigue.
Dizziness.
Headaches.
She had blamed stress.
Ethan had obtained older lab results through legal authorization.
Liver enzymes elevated.
Hormonal irregularities.
“Your doctor should have stopped the medication.”
“He didn’t.”
“Someone wanted you continuing it.”
“Vincent.”
“Maybe initially.”
She looked at him.
There it was.
Maybe.
Again.
Ethan explained that Salvatore’s dosage changes did not align with Vincent’s standing request.
Someone else had intervened.
Who?
The answer emerged from pharmacy billing.
Orders were authorized through a Moretti family medical account.
Approver ID:
Marco DeLuca.
Vincent’s consigliere.
Claire went still.
“Marco?”
Sebastian frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Marco had been the one who discovered the dangerous bottle.
The one who warned Vincent.
Why would he increase Claire’s long-term medication?
They pulled authorization logs.
The ID was Marco’s.
But timestamps placed him in Europe during one approval.
Stolen credentials.
The system had been compromised.
By whom?
One access terminal.
Moretti Trust Office.
Claire’s stomach tightened.
Who worked there?
Lucia Moretti.
Anthony’s niece.
Carlo’s daughter.
Vincent’s cousin.
The branch that would have inherited if Vincent did not marry Claire.
Everything circled back.
Lucia had spent years smiling at Claire during holidays.
Calling her “sweetheart.”
Telling Vincent privately that his arranged wife was beneath him.
Claire remembered.
A thousand small cuts suddenly gained context.
Then Ethan showed her one more document.
Lucia had contacted Vanessa twelve times in the month before the bottle switch.
Claire felt cold.
“They worked together.”
“Possibly.”
“What did Lucia want?”
“Control.”
Of course.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
Vincent.
She almost ignored it.
Answered.
“What?”
His voice sounded different.
“Tomas Moretti was attacked.”
Carlo’s grandson.
Lucia’s son.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because he said your name before he lost consciousness.”
Claire’s skin prickled.
“What did he say?”
Vincent paused.
“He said, ‘Claire was never supposed to marry Vincent.’”
Claire stared toward Ethan.
Vincent continued.
“And then he said Anthony changed the bride.”
Her heart stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know.”
But in Anthony’s original succession papers, they found a crossed-out name above Claire Bennett.
The woman Vincent was initially supposed to marry was not Claire.
It was Vanessa Hale.
May you like
Anthony changed the arrangement eleven days before his death.
Whatever he discovered in those final eleven days had rewritten the Moretti future.
