Chapter 7 - The Child Dominic Never Claimed
Nathan stared at Isabella.
“What does that mean?”
His mother remained seated beside the grandfather clock.
The silver rosary trembled in Rachel's hands.
Alexander looked from the cassette player to Isabella.
“My father said Nathan wasn't the only child born that night.”
Isabella's eyes filled.
“Because he wasn't.”
Nathan stepped backward.
“No.”
“Nathan—”
“No. You don't get to appear after twenty-five years and tell me my entire life was a lie.”
Alexander moved toward his brother.
Nathan raised a hand.
“Don't.”
His voice broke.
“Just let her speak.”
Isabella drew a shaking breath.
“I gave birth to twins.”
Silence settled over the room.
Even the clock seemed louder.
Alexander stared at her.
“A second child?”
“A daughter.”
Nathan sat down heavily.
For years, he had believed his mother was dead.
Then he learned she had survived.
Now he was discovering he had a twin sister.
“What happened to her?” he asked.
Isabella looked toward the floor.
“Dominic told me she died before we left the hospital.”
Rachel closed her fingers around the rosary.
“And you believed him?”
Isabella nodded.
“I was very ill. There had been complications during delivery. Nathan was brought to me, but my daughter wasn't.”
Alexander felt anger rising.
“My father lied to you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Isabella looked at the financial records on the table.
“I believe Mercer discovered the child survived. And Dominic paid him to keep her identity hidden.”
Nathan stood.
“Who is she?”
Isabella shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Thomas examined the old envelope.
“There may be something here.”
He unfolded a second sheet of paper.
A hospital registration record.
Most of the details were ordinary.
Date.
Time.
Weight.
But the section marked Second Infant had been crossed out.
Beneath it, written in different ink, was a single surname.
Moore.
Alexander looked up.
“Catherine.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“Catherine Moore was born in 1986.”
Vanessa stared at them.
“She could be Nathan's twin.”
Nathan covered his mouth.
For six years, Catherine had managed his brother's household.
She had served him coffee.
Scheduled his appointments.
Helped arrange the family's Christmas dinners.
And all that time, she might have been his sister.
Alexander remembered Catherine watching the family from the doorway during birthdays and holidays.
She never joined the celebrations.
He had always assumed it was professional distance.
Now the memory made him uncomfortable.
“Where is she?” he asked.
Thomas checked his phone.
“She hasn't answered since the party.”
“Find her.”
Before anyone moved, Rachel spoke.
“Wait.”
Alexander turned.
Rachel was staring at the hospital record.
“My mother told me something when I was little.”
“What?”
“She said sometimes people keep secrets because they're ashamed of what they did. But sometimes they keep them because they're ashamed of what they allowed.”
Isabella looked toward her.
Rachel continued.
“If Catherine is the child your father abandoned, why would she work for Mercer?”
Thomas answered.
“Because he may have raised her.”
Nathan's expression changed.
Alexander felt a chill.
A child separated from her family.
Raised by a man who wanted revenge.
Placed inside the DeLuca household.
Given access to every room, every account, and every secret.
Mercer hadn't simply infiltrated the mansion.
He had spent decades preparing someone who had a reason to hate the family.
Vanessa stood.
“I met Catherine through Mercer.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She swallowed.
“He told me she understood what it meant to lose family because of the DeLucas.”
Alexander stared.
“And you never questioned that?”
“I believed him.”
“You believed everything he said.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“Not everything.”
She reached into her handbag.
From an inner pocket, she removed a folded receipt.
“Three months ago, he asked me to transfer money from my personal account to a special contractor. He said it would pay for private investigators.”
Thomas examined the receipt.
The recipient's name was abbreviated.
C.M.
Alexander frowned.
“Catherine Moore.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I realized later she wasn't investigating you. She was investigating Nathan.”
Nathan looked up sharply.
“What did she find?”
Vanessa's voice trembled.
“She found your location.”
Nathan stared.
“And gave it to Mercer?”
“I don't know.”
Rachel watched her carefully.
“Why are you telling us now?”
Vanessa looked at the diamond necklace lying on the table.
“Because I thought revenge would make my father's death hurt less.”
She swallowed.
“It didn't.”
Alexander didn't soften.
“You helped threaten an innocent woman and her child.”
“I know.”
“You don't get forgiveness because you've decided to regret it.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I'm not asking for it.”
For the first time, Rachel believed her.
Not because Vanessa appeared kind.
Because she had stopped defending herself.
Thomas received a message from one of his security officers.
“Catherine's apartment is empty.”
Alexander's expression darkened.
“Anything useful?”
“She left in a hurry. Clothes missing. Computer gone. But there's something strange.”
“What?”
“Her dining table was set for two.”
Thomas displayed a photograph.
Two plates.
Two glasses.
A small birthday cake.
And a single unlit candle.
Nathan leaned closer.
“She's waiting for someone.”
Isabella stared at the cake.
“September seventeenth was three weeks ago.”
Alexander frowned.
“Why would she still have it?”
Rachel spoke quietly.
“Maybe she didn't celebrate.”
They looked at her.
“My son spent his seventh birthday in the hospital. We couldn't have a party because he was recovering from surgery.”
She touched the rosary.
“We saved the cake. He wanted to celebrate when he could stand beside the table again.”
Nathan's expression softened.
Rachel continued.
“Maybe Catherine bought that cake for a birthday she never got to have.”
Alexander looked at the photograph again.
For the first time, he saw Catherine not as an employee who had betrayed him, but as a woman whose entire life might have been built around abandonment.
That didn't make her innocent.
But it made her understandable.
“We need to find her before Mercer does,” Alexander said.
Thomas shook his head.
“Mercer may already be with her.”
A sudden realization crossed Nathan's face.
“The clinic.”
“What about it?” Alexander asked.
“Catherine arranged the clinic appointment. Not Vanessa.”
Rachel looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because the confirmation came through the same encrypted scheduling service Catherine used for the foundation.”
Alexander turned toward Thomas.
“Check the appointment.”
Thomas worked rapidly.
Then he stopped.
“The booking wasn't for Rachel.”
“Who was it for?”
Thomas looked up.
“Isabella.”
The room went silent.
Alexander stared at his father's first wife.
“She was bringing you here.”
Isabella nodded slowly.
“Catherine contacted me two days ago. She said she knew who I was.”
Nathan looked stunned.
“You didn't tell me?”
“I was afraid.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
More secrets.
More fear.
More people deciding what he deserved to know.
Thomas continued scrolling.
“The appointment wasn't just a meeting. It included a private transfer authorization.”
“Transfer to where?”
“A long-term care facility in Pennsylvania.”
Isabella stood.
“I never agreed to that.”
Thomas opened the attached document.
A medical consent form.
Signed electronically.
The authorization was for permanent assisted care.
The listed patient was Isabella DeLuca.
But the emergency contact wasn't Mercer.
It wasn't Catherine.
It wasn't Nathan.
Alexander leaned forward.
The name printed on the document was:
ALEXANDER DELUCA.
And directly beneath his forged signature was an instruction.
If the patient refuses transport, administer sedation.
Rachel looked at Isabella.
Then at Alexander.
“Someone isn't just trying to take your company.”
Alexander stared at the authorization.
“They're trying to make me responsible for what happens to her.”
Thomas's phone vibrated again.
The security officer had discovered one final item in Catherine's apartment.
A child's hospital bracelet.
Dated September 17, 1986.
May you like
Beside the name Baby Girl DeLuca, someone had written a sentence in faded blue ink.
SHE WAS NOT THE CHILD WE AGREED TO TAKE.
