Chapter 7 - The Wife Who Asked Too Many Questions
Cassian did not sleep.
At dawn he sat in his office surrounded by files.
Adeline entered carrying coffee.
He looked at the cup.
“No nausea?”
“Tea.”
“For me?”
“Coffee.”
“You remembered.”
“I remember everything.”
She used his own phrase deliberately.
Cassian accepted the cup.
The silence between them was no longer uncomfortable.
Something had changed after the ultrasound.
Neither knew what to call it.
Adeline sat opposite him.
“Gabriel.”
Cassian’s face tightened.
“Rosalind says the records were altered within hours of his birth.”
“And your father knew?”
“He suspected.”
“My father knew too.”
Cassian opened Henry’s file.
“They were investigating together.”
“Then your father died.”
“Twelve years ago.”
“And mine died four years ago.”
Cassian nodded.
Adeline looked toward the window.
“Both accidents?”
“Yes.”
“Both convenient?”
“Yes.”
She turned back.
“And Ezra’s family medical company appears on your false infertility reports.”
“Yes.”
“You still haven’t confronted him.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if he’s guilty, confronting him tells him exactly how much I know.”
“And if he isn’t?”
“It tells whoever is guilty exactly how much I know through him.”
Adeline studied him.
“You trust no one.”
“I trust you.”
The answer came too quickly.
Both noticed.
Cassian looked away first.
Adeline’s chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Because when you lie, your left eyebrow moves.”
“It does not.”
“It just did.”
She stared.
He almost smiled.
Then the office telephone rang.
Odette answered downstairs.
Seconds later she entered.
“Mrs. Whitmore’s nursing home.”
Adeline stood immediately.
Her mother had wandered from her room.
By the time they arrived at Elmrove, Maryanne had been found in a closed stairwell.
She was sitting on the bottom step clutching a photograph.
Adeline crouched.
“Mom.”
Maryanne looked at her.
For once recognition appeared instantly.
“Addie.”
Adeline froze.
Her mother had not called her that in nearly a year.
“Yes.”
Maryanne held out the photograph.
Henry.
Vittorio.
And a third young man.
Ezra Cain Sr.
On the back were three words.
Protect Gabriel together.
Cassian crouched beside Adeline.
Maryanne saw him.
Fear crossed her face.
“Vittorio?”
“No,” Cassian said quietly. “I’m Cassian.”
She touched his cheek.
“You look like him.”
Then she looked behind Cassian.
At Ezra.
He had arrived moments earlier.
Maryanne screamed.
Everyone froze.
She pointed at his ring.
“No!”
Ezra stopped.
“Maryanne?”
“Black stone!”
Adeline stood protectively.
Ezra’s expression changed.
Maryanne began shaking.
“He came to the house.”
“Who?” Adeline asked.
“Him.”
She pointed directly at Ezra.
“He wanted Henry’s papers.”
Ezra went pale.
Cassian slowly stood.
“Explain.”
Ezra looked around.
Nurses were approaching.
“Not here.”
Cassian’s voice dropped.
“Now.”
Ezra removed the ring.
He placed it in Cassian’s palm.
“This belonged to my father.”
Cassian stared.
“I started wearing it after he died.”
Maryanne whispered, “Same stone.”
Ezra looked at her.
“You saw my father.”
The words stopped everyone.
Adeline shook her head.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“Officially.”
Cassian stared.
“What are you saying?”
Ezra swallowed.
“My father survived another eight years.”
Rosalind’s secret.
Henry’s death.
The manipulated medical reports.
Everything expanded.
“Where?”
Ezra looked at Cassian.
“Lake Forest.”
Adeline’s skin went cold.
“The house.”
“Yes.”
Ezra continued.
“My father was hidden there after Vittorio died.”
“By whom?”
“My mother.”
Cassian’s voice became lethal.
“You knew?”
“I discovered it at twenty-four.”
“And said nothing?”
“My father told me he would kill my mother if I spoke.”
Cassian stared at the man he had trusted for decades.
Ezra’s eyes filled with something rare.
Shame.
“He was not the man you remember.”
“What did he do?”
“He believed the Raldi family belonged to him.”
Cassian said nothing.
Ezra continued.
“He helped your father build the organization. He believed Vittorio stole the future from him.”
“And Gabriel?”
Ezra’s face changed.
“My father arranged the infant switch.”
Adeline covered her mouth.
Cassian’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Where is my brother?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Cassian took one step forward.
Ezra did not move.
“My father hid him. He said Gabriel was insurance.”
“For what?”
“Succession.”
Cassian understood.
If Cassian had no children, the appearance of a second Raldi son could destabilize everything.
A hidden heir.
A weapon waiting decades to be used.
Adeline looked at Ezra.
“Why falsify Cassian’s infertility?”
“My father ordered it.”
“You helped?”
Silence.
“Ezra.”
“Yes.”
Cassian turned away.
That single word wounded more deeply than betrayal in business ever could.
Ezra continued.
“I was twenty-seven. My mother was still alive. My father had people watching her. I paid the doctors.”
“And later?”
“I tried to undo it.”
“How?”
“I began tracing Gabriel.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
Adeline looked at him.
“The night at Lake Forest. Did you drug me?”
“No.”
“Did your father?”
“He was already dead.”
“Then who?”
Ezra hesitated.
“I think Gabriel.”
Cassian turned.
“You think my brother was in that house?”
“I think he has been watching you for years.”
“And the doctors?”
“I told whoever contacted me to stop.”
Cassian’s eyes sharpened.
“You’ve been communicating with him.”
Ezra closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Six months.”
The room seemed to contract.
Cassian stepped closer.
“What does he want?”
Ezra looked toward Adeline.
Then toward her stomach.
Cassian saw it.
He moved between them.
“What does he want?”
Ezra whispered, “He wants your child not to be born.”
Adeline stopped breathing.
Cassian’s expression changed completely.
Not anger.
Something colder.
Final.
“Why?”
“Because the moment you have a legitimate heir,” Ezra said, “Gabriel loses the only leverage he has left.”
Cassian stared at him.
Then Maryanne spoke from the stairwell.
“He knows.”
Everyone turned.
She was staring at Adeline.
“Henry found him.”
Adeline knelt.
“Found who?”
Maryanne’s eyes became suddenly clear.
“Gabriel.”
“Where?”
Her mother whispered an address.
Cassian recognized it.
An abandoned church property near the old freight district.
Maryanne tightened her grip.
“And Henry said something else.”
“What?”
“The boy isn’t your enemy.”
She looked directly at Cassian.
May you like
“The man who raised him is.”
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