Chapter 3 - THE FILE WITH MY NAME ON ITThe shooting changed everything.
Raven doubled security around me.
I hated it.
He didn't care.
“You're moving into the east wing.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I am not living in your mansion.”
“You are until we identify the shooter.”
“I have an apartment.”
“Which anyone can enter.”
“You make everything sound dramatic.”
“You were almost shot.”
“So were you.”
“I'm used to it.”
I stared at him.
“That isn't normal.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Neither are you.”
I smiled despite myself.
That was the first time the tension between us broke.
Only for a moment.
Then my phone rang.
Silas.
I answered.
“Hello?”
“Sarah.”
His voice was different.
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“I need to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because Raven will lie to you.”
I looked at Raven.
He could not hear Silas through the speaker.
“What did you find?”
“Your father's file.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Old Bennett warehouse.”
“What's in it?”
“You.”
The call ended.
Raven immediately asked,
“Who was that?”
“Silas.”
“Why?”
I hesitated.
He noticed.
“Sarah.”
“I'm going to meet him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I said no.”
I stood.
“You're my boss, not my jailer.”
His face tightened.
Then he whispered,
“Fine.”
I expected anger.
Instead, he said,
“I'll come with you.”
The warehouse was empty.
Silas stood beneath a broken light.
He held a folder.
“Your father knew my father.”
“I know.”
“He also knew Raven's.”
“I know.”
Silas opened the folder.
Inside was a birth certificate.
My name.
My mother's name.
And another line.
FATHER: UNKNOWN.
I laughed nervously.
“This isn't a secret.”
Silas shook his head.
“Look at the date.”
I did.
My birth date.
Then another document.
A medical record.
A blood type.
O-negative.
Raven's blood type.
The same.
“That proves nothing.”
Silas reached into another folder.
A letter.
Written by James Ashford.
Dear Victoria,
If anything happens to me, the child cannot remain with the Cavalcante family.
I stared.
The room tilted.
“What child?”
Silas looked at me.
“You.”
My breath stopped.
“No.”
He continued.
“Your father was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“The truth.”
Before he could explain, guns appeared around us.
Men emerged from the shadows.
Silas grabbed my hand.
Raven raised his weapon.
“Everyone down.”
Chaos erupted.
The lights shattered.
Bullets tore through crates.
Raven pulled me behind him.
Silas fired back.
For one strange moment, the two men I had been suspicious of were standing on the same side.
Protecting me.
Then an attacker shouted,
“Take the girl!”
Raven's face changed.
He became the man everyone feared.
He moved through the darkness with brutal precision.
Within seconds, the attackers were down.
Silas dropped his weapon.
Raven looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“Don't lie to me.”
Silas stared.
Then he said,
“She is your sister.”
I froze.
Raven went still.
“What?”
Silas looked at me.
“Sarah is your father's daughter.”
Raven's gun lowered.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“That isn't possible.”
Silas shook his head.
“Your father had another child.”
I couldn't breathe.
Raven's face was completely blank.
Then he whispered,
“Sarah.”
I looked at him.
The world disappeared.
May you like
Because in that instant, the man I loved was looking at me as if I were the answer to a question that had haunted his family for twenty years.
And neither of us knew that the truth was even worse.
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