Chapter 8 - Six Doctors and One Impossible Lie
The remaining four physicians were alive.
Cassian made certain they stayed that way.
Within hours, each was placed under independent protection.
No Raldi personnel connected to Ezra.
No family doctors.
No predictable locations.
The first physician broke before Cassian asked a second question.
Dr. Lewis Grant had spent nine years convincing himself that signing a false report was merely paperwork.
He cried while explaining it.
“Ezra Cain paid us.”
Cassian sat across from him.
“On whose instructions?”
“His father.”
“Ezra Cain Sr. was officially dead.”
Grant looked confused.
“We never met him directly.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Ezra said the instructions came from his father.”
Cassian glanced toward the one-way glass.
Adeline stood on the other side.
She watched.
Grant continued.
“We were told the diagnosis protected Mr. Raldi.”
“From what?”
“A hereditary condition.”
“What condition?”
“We were never given one.”
“So six physicians signed false documents.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand each.”
Cassian leaned back.
“Cheap.”
Grant stared.
“For ruining a man’s understanding of his own future.”
Grant started crying harder.
Cassian felt nothing.
The second doctor gave a different story.
He claimed the medical results they received already showed infertility.
He signed because he believed the laboratory data.
The third said someone had substituted blood samples.
The fourth provided the piece that changed everything.
“There were two samples,” Dr. Voss said.
Cassian leaned forward.
“What?”
“Your sample and another.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
Voss swallowed.
“They had nearly identical genetic markers.”
Cassian went still.
Brothers.
“Twins?”
“Possibly.”
Cassian had never been told whether Gabriel was identical or fraternal.
He asked Rosalind later.
She closed her eyes.
“Identical.”
That meant the false medical diagnosis could have been created using Gabriel’s blood.
But why?
Adeline saw the answer first.
“What if Gabriel really was infertile?”
Cassian looked at her.
“And they substituted his results for yours.”
“Exactly.”
Cassian’s mind raced.
A stolen child.
A second heir.
Raised as insurance.
But if Gabriel himself could not father children, whoever controlled him needed Cassian childless too.
Otherwise succession would always favor Cassian’s descendants.
Adeline placed a hand over her stomach.
“Our baby breaks the plan.”
“Yes.”
She looked frightened.
Cassian hated it.
He crouched beside her.
“I will not let anyone touch you.”
Adeline met his eyes.
“You can’t promise that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“No. You can promise you’ll try.”
He looked irritated.
She touched his bare hand.
“Cassian, you are not God.”
“I have been informed.”
“Frequently?”
“Mostly by you.”
She smiled.
He squeezed her fingers.
For a man who once wore gloves to avoid questions, touching her had become strangely necessary.
That afternoon, they traveled to the address Maryanne remembered.
The abandoned church had been closed for fifteen years.
Behind it stood a smaller rectory.
Inside were signs of recent occupation.
Fresh food.
A laptop charger.
Coffee.
A newspaper from that morning.
Cassian searched the upstairs.
Adeline noticed a photograph on a desk.
Cassian.
At twenty.
Then twenty-five.
Then thirty.
Someone had been following his life.
Another photograph showed Adeline leaving St. Brendan.
Another showed their civil wedding.
And finally one taken through the mansion gates.
Adeline and Cassian walking together.
Someone had drawn a circle around Adeline’s stomach.
Cassian’s face darkened.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
He turned.
A man stood at the end of the hallway.
Cassian froze.
It was like looking into a distorted mirror.
Same dark hair.
Same height.
Same eyes.
Slightly leaner.
A scar across one cheek.
The stranger looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Adeline emerged behind Cassian and stopped.
The resemblance was undeniable.
“Gabriel,” Cassian said.
The man smiled faintly.
“So they finally told you.”
Cassian stepped closer.
“Did you kill the doctors?”
“No.”
“Did you drug Adeline?”
“No.”
“Did you take her blood vial?”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Yes.”
Adeline stiffened.
“Why?”
“To prove something.”
“What?”
“That Ezra lied.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel continued.
“The blood sample you gave that night and the vial she drew were not the same.”
Adeline stared.
“Someone switched Cassian’s blood?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked directly at Cassian.
“Your grandmother.”
Cassian’s face hardened.
“No.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You still think the villain is going to be convenient.”
He walked toward a desk.
Cassian did not stop him.
Gabriel opened a folder.
“Rosalind knew I survived.”
“That contradicts everything she said.”
“Yes.”
“She looked for you.”
“No. She hid me.”
Cassian stared.
Gabriel handed him a photograph.
Rosalind, thirty years younger, standing beside two infants.
“Why?”
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“Because your father wanted us both.”
Cassian did not understand.
Gabriel continued.
“Your grandmother believed two heirs would eventually destroy each other.”
“That is absurd.”
“Is it?”
Gabriel looked around the room.
“One became king. One became a ghost.”
Adeline stepped forward.
“Who raised you?”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened.
“Ezra Cain Sr.”
“And he wanted revenge.”
“Yes.”
“Against Cassian?”
“Against the entire family.”
Gabriel looked toward Adeline’s stomach.
Cassian moved slightly.
Gabriel noticed.
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Then why did someone write that my child must not be born?”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“I didn’t.”
“Ezra said—”
“Ezra lies when he’s afraid.”
Cassian almost smiled without humor.
“So do you.”
“Maybe.”
Gabriel reached into a drawer.
He removed a small laboratory envelope.
Inside was a blood vial.
Adeline recognized her handwriting.
The sample from Lake Forest.
Her breath caught.
Gabriel handed it to her.
“I kept this because it proves Cassian’s diagnosis was false.”
“How?”
“The sample tested fertile markers.”
Cassian stared.
Gabriel continued.
“And it proves something else.”
He looked toward Cassian.
“The man who collapsed at St. Brendan that night wasn’t poisoned by an enemy.”
Cassian’s expression sharpened.
“He was poisoned by someone inside his own house.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked at the photograph of Rosalind.
Before he could answer, a shot cracked through the window.
Glass exploded.
Cassian pulled Adeline down.
Gabriel dropped behind the desk.
Another shot struck the wall.
Cassian looked toward the churchyard.
A vehicle sped away.
Gabriel rose slowly.
“Still think I’m the one trying to kill you?”
Cassian said nothing.
Gabriel looked toward the road.
“Good.”
Then he turned.
May you like
“Because whoever just fired that shot knows we’ve finally met.”
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