Chapter 3 - The Child Who Was Erased From the Family
“Other baby?”
Victor looked from Isabella to Martha.
“What other baby?”
Martha stared at the scorched photograph as though it were something dangerous.
“There were two children,” she whispered.
Victor felt the floor shift beneath him.
“Twins?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
Martha touched the photograph with her uninjured hand.
“Evelyn already had a little boy when she became pregnant with you.”
Victor examined the picture again.
The toddler in Evelyn's arms had dark hair and round cheeks.
He had assumed the child was himself.
“That's not me?”
“No.”
“Who is he?”
“His name was Thomas.”
Victor looked down at the inscription.
My beautiful boys.
Martha had known both of them.
“Was he my brother?”
“Yes. Your older half brother.”
Isabella lowered herself onto the sofa.
Victor remained standing.
He had spent his entire life believing he was Lorenzo Marino's only son.
His father had called him his greatest achievement.
His only heir.
Now Victor was learning that somewhere in Philadelphia, a boy had existed before him.
A boy whose name had been kept out of every family conversation.
“What happened to Thomas?”
Martha hesitated.
“I don't know what became of him.”
Victor studied her face.
He had known Martha through family funerals, business disasters, and Isabella's childhood illnesses.
He knew when she was hiding pain.
And when she was hiding facts.
“You know something.”
“I know your father was afraid of him.”
“A child?”
“Of what he might remember.”
Victor turned toward Benjamin.
“Find Thomas Bennett.”
Benjamin nodded but remained near the doorway.
“There's something else, Boss.”
He placed an old ledger on the desk.
“Your father's financial records. We've kept them in off-site storage since he died.”
Lorenzo had died six years earlier.
Victor had inherited his criminal organization, legitimate businesses, and a reputation built over decades of fear.
He had also inherited thousands of documents he had never bothered to read.
Benjamin opened the ledger.
“Every November, beginning in 1988, your father made a payment to the same private institution.”
Victor leaned closer.
St. Agnes Residential Care.
The payments continued until 2014.
“Who received the money?”
“The account was listed under an initials-only beneficiary.”
Benjamin turned the page.
T.B.
Victor looked at Martha.
“Thomas Bennett.”
She shut her eyes.
“I never knew where Lorenzo sent him.”
“Sent him?”
Martha covered her face.
Victor waited.
When she finally spoke, her voice was barely audible.
“Thomas was with Evelyn when she came to the gates in 1988.”
Victor remembered the rain.
The woman beyond the iron bars.
Then another memory surfaced.
A boy sitting inside a blue station wagon.
His forehead against the passenger window.
Victor had forgotten him.
Or perhaps his father had taught him to forget.
“What happened after the guards took me inside?”
Martha twisted her fingers together.
“Lorenzo told Evelyn she could see you if she signed away every claim to you.”
“Did she?”
“She refused.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“Of course she refused.”
“She said you were both her sons. She wouldn't choose between you.”
Isabella looked up.
“What did Grandpa do?”
Martha swallowed.
“He had Evelyn and Thomas taken away.”
“Where?”
“I was told they were sent out of Pennsylvania.”
Victor turned to Benjamin.
“Find St. Agnes.”
“Already working on it.”
“And find the missing tape.”
Isabella stood.
“Daddy, there's something you need to understand.”
He looked at her.
“I didn't start looking because I wanted to hurt Martha.”
“That doesn't excuse what you did.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“Three weeks ago, I found Grandpa's old photograph inside a locked cabinet. Martha saw me holding it.”
Victor waited.
“She told me to put it back. She looked terrified. When I asked who the woman was, she said it wasn't my business.”
“So you decided to punish her?”
“I decided she was protecting the person who stole your life.”
Isabella wiped her eyes.
“I grew up hearing how Grandpa built this family from nothing. How he protected us. How every terrible thing he did was for us.”
She glanced toward the photograph.
“Then I heard the first recording.”
Victor went still.
“You played the tapes?”
“Part of one.”
“Which one?”
“The one marked October 1978.”
Victor picked up the corresponding cassette.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Grandpa said something about you.”
“What?”
Isabella's voice lowered.
“He said he didn't choose you because you were his son.”
Silence.
Victor looked at the tape.
“What exactly did he say?”
She answered quietly.
“He said he chose you because Margaret wanted a child who looked like a Marino.”
Victor felt something tighten in his chest.
For forty-seven years, Lorenzo's image had dominated his life.
The stern father.
The ruthless teacher.
The man whose approval Victor had spent his youth trying to earn.
And now Isabella was suggesting that even their blood relationship might be another carefully constructed lie.
Victor inserted the cassette.
This time nobody moved to stop him.
Lorenzo's recorded voice emerged.
“October seventeenth. Evelyn Bennett delivered the boy tonight.”
A chair scraped in the recording.
Then another man's voice asked, “Does Margaret know?”
“She knows enough.”
“And the child's father?”
Lorenzo paused.
“That will no longer concern anyone.”
The second man lowered his voice.
“Lorenzo, you can't just put your name on another man's son.”
Victor stopped the tape.
His hands were shaking.
Isabella whispered, “Daddy?”
He ignored her.
“Martha. Was Lorenzo my biological father?”
Martha looked exhausted.
“I never knew for certain.”
“Who did Evelyn say my father was?”
“She wouldn't tell Lorenzo.”
Victor stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because she was protecting him.”
Benjamin's phone vibrated.
He stepped aside, spoke briefly, then returned.
“Boss, St. Agnes closed twelve years ago. The property became a rehabilitation center.”
“And Thomas?”
“There's a former staff directory. One employee remembers someone named Bennett.”
Victor leaned forward.
Benjamin continued.
“A quiet man. Good with repairs. Stayed on after the original institution closed.”
“Where is he now?”
“Maintenance supervisor at a community center in Chester.”
Victor reached for his coat.
Martha rose immediately.
“Please don't go there alone.”
Victor stopped.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas may remember things about Lorenzo that you don't.”
“That's exactly why I'm going.”
Martha stepped closer.
“He was only a child when they took him.”
“So was I.”
Victor looked at Isabella.
“You're coming with me.”
She blinked.
“Why?”
“Because you've spent your life judging people without knowing their stories. You're going to meet someone whose story this family buried.”
Isabella looked ashamed.
But she nodded.
An hour later, their black SUV stopped outside a modest brick community center.
Inside, children were playing basketball.
A silver-haired man in work clothes was fixing a broken bench near the entrance.
He looked up when Victor approached.
The man's expression changed.
His eyes moved from Victor's face to the tattoos on his hands.
Then to Isabella.
“You're Lorenzo's people.”
Victor stopped.
“My name is Victor Marino.”
The man stood slowly.
“I know who you are.”
“Are you Thomas Bennett?”
“Yes.”
Victor swallowed.
“I believe we're brothers.”
Thomas gave a bitter smile.
“No, Mr. Marino.”
He reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a silver necklace.
Hanging from it was an old hospital identification tag.
“Your mother told me one thing before they separated us.”
Victor stared.
Thomas closed his fingers around the tag.
“She said Lorenzo Marino wasn't the man who stole her youngest son.”
Victor felt his heart pound.
May you like
Thomas stepped closer.
“He was the man who bought him.”
