Chapter 5 - The Sister Who Came Back With a Secret
The old courthouse had been abandoned after a flood.
Broken windows.
Collapsed ceilings.
Pigeons in the rafters.
Dante entered first.
Olivia stayed behind him.
“Where is Isabella?”
A voice echoed from above.
“Safe.”
Isabella stepped onto a balcony.
She was pale but standing.
Olivia looked up.
“Isabella!”
“I’m sorry.”
Dante raised his weapon.
“Get down.”
Isabella shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“Who has you?”
“No one.”
Olivia frowned.
“What?”
Isabella looked directly at her.
“I came here because I needed to tell you the truth.”
Dante lowered his weapon slightly.
“What truth?”
Isabella climbed down the stairs.
“I knew about Vivian.”
Olivia stared.
“How long?”
“Since Father found me with the old photographs.”
“You knew Mother had a sister.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Olivia laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Isabella’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was afraid.”
“Of who?”
“Vivian.”
Dante stepped closer.
“What did she do?”
Isabella looked at him.
“She saved me.”
Silence.
Olivia’s face changed.
“What?”
“Three months ago, I discovered Father was planning to transfer the Hart estate.”
“To whom?”
“Vivian.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“She is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how did she save you?”
Isabella took a flash drive from her coat.
“She contacted me.”
“What did she say?”
“She said Mother tried to stop the architect.”
“And failed.”
Isabella nodded.
“She said Charles wasn’t the architect.”
Olivia felt hope for half a second.
“Then who is?”
Isabella looked toward the courthouse doors.
“Someone who has been standing beside our family for years.”
A gunshot cracked from the upper floor.
Dante shoved both sisters behind a concrete pillar.
The attackers opened fire.
Dante’s men returned fire.
The sound thundered through the courthouse.
Olivia grabbed Isabella.
“Run.”
They moved through the rear corridor.
A man blocked their way.
Dante appeared behind him.
The man fell.
“Keep moving.”
They ran until they reached a narrow stairwell.
At the bottom, Dante slammed the door shut.
“Everyone okay?”
Olivia nodded.
Isabella was crying.
“What is the flash drive?”
She handed it to Dante.
“Banking records.”
They returned to Moretti House.
The files showed dozens of shell companies.
Several were connected to Hart Development.
But the final transaction caught Dante’s attention.
A payment had been made to a company owned by Evelyn Hart.
Olivia stared.
“My mother received money.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She may have been buying information.”
“Or paying someone.”
Dante opened the next file.
There was a transaction from Evelyn to a hospital.
The date was six months before her death.
Olivia froze.
“What hospital?”
Grayhaven Memorial.
“Why would she pay a hospital?”
Dante searched the records.
A patient file appeared.
The name was redacted.
But the birthdate was clear.
March 18, 1991.
Olivia’s eyes widened.
“My mother was pregnant.”
Isabella looked shocked.
“What?”
“Three months before she died.”
Olivia stared at the screen.
“I thought I was her only child.”
Dante became very still.
“Maybe you weren’t.”
A horrible possibility formed.
“My mother had another baby.”
“Where is the child?”
Dante searched the hospital archive.
The record ended abruptly.
No discharge.
No death certificate.
No adoption paperwork.
Nothing.
Then they found one note.
Transferred to private care.
No name.
Olivia’s heart raced.
“My mother had a child someone erased.”
Dante took her hand.
“We will find out.”
The investigation led them to a small town four hours away.
There, an elderly woman named Margaret Quinn ran a private nursing home.
When Dante showed her Evelyn’s photograph, she began to cry.
“I wondered when someone would come.”
Olivia stepped forward.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did she have a baby?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Yes.”
Olivia almost stopped breathing.
“Where is the child?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Alive.”
“What is their name?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn asked me to keep the child hidden.”
Dante's expression hardened.
“From whom?”
Margaret looked at Olivia.
“From Charles.”
Olivia felt tears fill her eyes.
“What happened?”
“Your mother gave birth to a little boy.”
“A boy?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“March 18, 1991.”
Olivia stared.
Her birthdate.
She looked at Dante.
“No.”
Margaret spoke gently.
“He was your twin.”
Silence.
Olivia could not move.
A twin.
A brother.
A child she had spent thirty-five years not knowing existed.
“Where is he?”
Margaret finally answered.
“His name is Lucas.”
“Where?”
Margaret hesitated.
“He lives in Grayhaven.”
Dante frowned.
“Who is he?”
May you like
Margaret looked at Olivia.
“You know him.”
