Chapter 5 - Everyone Wanted Me—But No One Would Tell Me Why
For the first time in my life, I became a target.
My apartment was searched.
My phone was replaced.
My bank accounts were monitored.
Adrian assigned security to follow me.
I hated every second of it.
“I can protect myself.”
“You are not trained for this.”
“I save people.”
“You save people in ambulances.”
“I have survived Chicago this long.”
“Without people hunting you.”
That shut me up.
He was right.
I hated that more.
Then Adrian told me the truth.
Margaret had not merely hidden me.
She had hidden me because my birth was connected to the largest power struggle in the Hargrove organization.
Daniel Callahan had discovered something that could destroy several powerful men.
Before he disappeared, he created a record.
A ledger.
Names.
Payments.
Bribes.
Political contacts.
Judges.
Police officers.
Executives.
Everyone who had ever helped the Hargrove family survive.
The ledger was never found.
Until someone realized I existed.
Because Daniel had hidden the final clue inside the one thing he knew Margaret would protect.
Me.
That was why someone tried to poison Margaret.
That was why my identity had suddenly surfaced.
That was why the bracelet mattered.
And that was why Adrian was terrified.
“Where is the ledger?” I asked.
“We don't know.”
“Then who does?”
“Someone named Victor Kane.”
I remembered Celeste mentioning him.
“Who is he?”
“My uncle.”
I stared.
“Your uncle?”
“My father's younger brother.”
“What does he want?”
“Everything.”
Two days later, Victor contacted me.
He did not threaten me.
He invited me to meet.
I showed Adrian the message.
“You're not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“He knows something.”
“He wants you.”
“Then I need to know why.”
Adrian shook his head.
“You don't understand what he is.”
“Then explain.”
“He believes my family stole everything from him.”
“Did they?”
He looked away.
“I don't know.”
That answer surprised me.
“You don't know?”
“There are things even I haven't been told.”
We met Victor in a crowded restaurant.
Adrian came with me.
Victor looked older than Margaret, with silver hair and a tired face.
He studied me.
Then he smiled.
“You look like her.”
“Who?”
“Your grandmother.”
My heart stopped.
“I thought Margaret was my grandmother.”
“She is your mother.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
A woman I had never seen.
“You resemble her.”
“Who is she?”
“Daniel's mother.”
I stared at the photograph.
There was something familiar in her eyes.
Victor leaned closer.
“Your father didn't die in an accident.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
“He was murdered.”
Adrian's hand clenched.
“Enough.”
Victor looked at him.
“You deserve to know too, Adrian.”
I turned.
“What is he talking about?”
Adrian stood.
Victor laughed softly.
“Your brother killed your father.”
Silence.
Adrian's face went blank.
“That is impossible.”
Victor continued.
“Daniel discovered that your grandfather had ordered Margaret's child hidden permanently.”
“Why?”
“Because you were proof of a secret marriage.”
I looked at Margaret's bracelet.
Victor's voice lowered.
“Your birth threatened a succession agreement.”
“What agreement?”
“That Adrian would inherit everything.”
My hands went cold.
“Why would my existence matter?”
“Because legally, you were entitled to part of it.”
Adrian stared at Victor.
“You're lying.”
Victor's expression changed.
“Then ask your mother about the night Daniel disappeared.”
He stood.
Before leaving, he looked at me.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
Then he walked away.
Outside, Adrian grabbed my arm.
“What did Victor mean?”
“I don't know.”
“He's manipulating you.”
“Maybe.”
“But?”
“But he knew things you didn't.”
Adrian stared at me.
Then he said quietly:
“My father always told me I was an only child.”
The next morning, Margaret confessed.
She had been married before Adrian's father.
Secretly.
To Daniel.
They had a daughter.
Me.
Adrian was not my brother.
He was my half-brother.
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The Hargrove family had built its legacy on a lie.
And now the lie was collapsing.
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