Chapter 5 - MY MOTHER AND THE MAFIA BOSS
Mom had been Daniel's accountant.
Then adviser.
Then conscience.
His word.
Not mine.
She helped separate legitimate Carter companies from the criminal side.
She created scholarships using money Daniel's father had hidden.
She helped families harmed by Carter operations without letting them know where the money came from.
And when Daniel was twenty-six and prepared to murder three men over a betrayal, Claire stopped him.
“How?”
I asked.
Daniel almost smiled.
“She took my car keys.”
I stared.
“That's it?”
“I was twenty-six.”
“And apparently twelve.”
“She told me if I wanted to kill people, I could walk there.”
Despite myself, I laughed.
Then cried harder.
Mom had lived an entire life I never knew.
“Why did she leave?”
“Because she became pregnant.”
With Noah.
“She wanted out.”
Daniel let her.
No threats.
No debt.
No strings.
He paid her final salary.
She returned it.
That sounded like Mom.
“Who was Noah's father?”
Daniel looked away.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
“Not me.”
Relief came so fast I almost laughed.
“Then who?”
“I don't know.”
Mom had refused to say.
She raised Noah alone.
The man listed on his birth certificate, James Bennett, was my father.
He had died when I was eleven.
But Noah was born three years later.
Mom never discussed it.
I had assumed donor conception.
Apparently, I had never asked hard enough.
Then the phone rang.
Noah.
I answered.
“NOAH?”
A man's voice.
“Bring the ledger to Pier 31.”
Thomas Ashford.
“Let me speak to him.”
A pause.
Then:
“Emma?”
Noah.
My knees weakened.
“I'm here.”
“Don't come.”
He sounded terrified.
“I'm coming.”
“No! Emma, Mom said—”
A blow.
Noah cried out.
I screamed his name.
Thomas returned.
“Thirty minutes.”
The line went dead.
Daniel took the ledger.
“You're not going alone.”
“They'll see you.”
“Yes.”
“Then they'll kill Noah.”
Daniel looked at me.
“No.”
That quiet certainty again.
“Why are you so sure?”
“Because Thomas Ashford wants something more than the ledger.”
“What?”
Daniel's eyes were on the final page.
A handwritten note from my mother.
One sentence.
If Thomas ever comes back, tell him Noah belongs to Claire—not to him.
I read it.
Then again.
My body went cold.
Thomas Ashford wasn't merely hunting my brother.
May you like
He was Noah's father.
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