Chapter 9 - THE LAST SECRET OF THE ROMANO FAMILY
Michael survived the surgery.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder and narrowly missed a major artery. Doctors expected him to recover, though the injuries and the criminal investigation ahead would change his life permanently.
Victor Vale was charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, fraud, and multiple counts connected to the old Romano crimes. The district attorney's office announced that the case would remain active as investigators reviewed newly recovered evidence.
Daniel was taken to a secure hospital.
Antonio refused to leave his side.
For the first time in twenty years, the two brothers could sit together without a locked door between them.
Sebastian visited every evening.
He brought Daniel coffee, listened to stories about their mother, and asked questions he had once been too young to understand.
Daniel answered what he could.
But he avoided one subject.
The other child.
Three days after the warehouse confrontation, Sebastian found Clara in the mansion's conservatory.
She was standing beneath the glass roof, holding the silver pendant her adoptive mother had given her.
"I keep thinking about my mother," she said. "The woman who raised me. Evelyn."
Sebastian stood beside her.
"She was your mother."
"She didn't give birth to me."
"She gave you a home. She loved you. Those things aren't erased by biology."
Clara's eyes filled.
"I wish I could tell her what happened."
Sebastian placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe she knew more than we think."
He gave her a sealed envelope recovered from Margaret Bell's records.
It had been written by Evelyn Hayes shortly before her death.
Clara opened it with shaking fingers.
My darling Clara,
If you are reading this, someone has finally found the truth about where you came from. I wanted to tell you when you were older, but every time I tried, I remembered the frightened woman who placed you in my arms.
She told me your life depended on keeping your name secret.
I promised I would protect you.
I never knew whether she was your birth mother or someone acting on her behalf. I only knew that she was terrified, and that a man had threatened to take you away.
I did not raise you because I pitied you. I raised you because I loved you before you could even open your eyes.
Never believe that being adopted means you were unwanted.
You were wanted so desperately that someone risked everything to keep you alive.
Clara pressed the letter to her chest.
For several minutes, she couldn't speak.
Then Sebastian quietly stepped away, giving her room to grieve.
That evening, Daniel finally revealed the rest of the story.
The second child had been born six months after Clara.
A boy.
He had been placed with a family in the Midwest under a false identity. Unlike Clara, he had never been listed in the Romano trust.
"Why was he hidden?" Sebastian asked.
"Because your mother discovered that Victor had another son. A child he believed could inherit a fortune from a family outside the Romanos."
"Was the boy Michael's brother?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Half-brother. Same father, different mother."
Clara sat at the foot of Daniel's bed.
"Does he know who he is?"
"I don't know."
"Then how can we find him?"
Daniel looked at Sebastian.
"Your father kept the only original record."
Antonio had been waiting in the doorway.
He wheeled himself into the room, his right hand trembling.
Clara took his hand.
"Grandfather, where is the record?"
Antonio pointed toward his chest, then made a writing motion.
Sebastian retrieved a notebook.
Antonio struggled to form the letters.
BANK. BOX. 604.
"The family bank?" Sebastian asked.
Antonio nodded.
The next morning, Sebastian and Clara traveled to the old Romano bank under legal supervision. The safe-deposit box was still active, though the account had not been accessed in seventeen years.
Inside lay a birth certificate, a photograph, and a handwritten letter from Sebastian's mother.
The birth certificate named the child as Gabriel Vale.
The photograph showed a newborn boy wrapped in a hospital blanket.
On the back was a date and a location.
The letter was addressed to Antonio.
If anything happens to me, Gabriel must never be given to Victor. He has already taken one child from us. I will not let him take another.
Clara stared at the photograph.
"She knew."
Sebastian nodded.
"And she tried to protect him."
The letter contained one final instruction.
If Lily ever returns, tell her the truth. Gabriel is not the danger. The danger is the person who knows where he lives.
Sebastian read the sentence aloud.
Then his phone rang.
It was Dominic.
"Boss, we've identified the person who accessed the family bank account seventeen years ago."
"Who?"
Dominic hesitated.
"Your father."
Sebastian looked at Antonio's signature on the document.
"That's impossible. He couldn't have accessed the box without leaving the estate."
"He didn't," Dominic replied. "Someone used his credentials."
"Who?"
A long silence followed.
Then Dominic answered.
"Michael Romano."
Sebastian stared at Clara.
His brother had known about the box for years.
He had known about Gabriel.
And he had known that the family had another heir.
But the most disturbing discovery came when Clara turned the photograph over again.
Beneath the date, in faded ink, were three words.
HE LIVES HERE.
Below them was an address.
May you like
An address in the same Pennsylvania town where Clara had grown up.
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