Chapter 8 - The Last Name on the List
Khloe sat down.
Victor took the phone.
"Who is this?"
Rebecca repeated her name.
Victor arranged a meeting at her office.
An hour later, they sat across from a gray-haired attorney holding a sealed file.
Rebecca placed it in front of Khloe.
"Your mother retained my firm seventeen years ago."
"Why?"
"To protect you."
Khloe almost laughed.
Everybody had apparently spent her entire life protecting her without telling her anything.
Rebecca opened the file.
"Sarah was involved with Adrian Vale briefly. When she became pregnant, Adrian assumed the child was his."
"But I wasn't."
"No."
"Who was my father?"
Rebecca slid a photograph across the desk.
Khloe stared.
A younger Sarah stood beside a man she recognized.
Not Adrian.
Not Richard.
Vittorio Rossi.
Victor's father.
Khloe stopped breathing.
Victor stood abruptly.
"No."
Rebecca remained calm.
"Vittorio was not Khloe's father."
Victor stared at her.
Khloe nearly screamed.
"Then why show us that?"
"Because Vittorio knew who was."
Rebecca produced another photograph.
Sarah.
Vittorio.
And a third man.
Elliot Crane.
Khloe stared.
"Elliot?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"Not him either."
Khloe closed her eyes.
"Please stop doing that."
Rebecca almost smiled apologetically.
She pointed at someone in the background.
A young man standing beside a car.
Javier.
Khloe looked at Victor.
Then Rebecca.
"No."
"Javier Morales is your biological father."
Silence.
Khloe stood.
"That's impossible."
"He was seventeen."
"My mother was—"
"Nineteen."
Khloe tried to process it.
"Does he know?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"Sarah never told him."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian believed you were his daughter. Sarah realized that belief protected you."
Victor understood.
"If Adrian thought Khloe was his, nobody in his network would harm her."
"Exactly."
Khloe stared at the photograph.
Javier.
The man who had protected Victor for years.
The man who had been standing ten feet away the night she crashed into Victor.
Her father.
Victor called him.
Javier arrived thirty minutes later.
He read the documents twice.
Then sat down.
For perhaps the first time in Victor's life, he saw Javier completely speechless.
Khloe didn't know what to say either.
Finally Javier whispered, "Sarah never told me."
"I know."
"I would have..."
His voice failed.
Khloe waited.
"I would have been there."
She believed him.
That was the hardest part.
He hadn't abandoned her.
He'd been denied the choice.
Javier looked at her.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For twenty-nine years I didn't know I should have been looking for you."
Khloe's eyes filled.
"You couldn't look for someone you didn't know existed."
Victor quietly left the room.
He gave them privacy.
Two hours later Khloe found him outside.
"How'd it go?"
"Awkward."
Victor nodded.
"Javier excels at awkward."
She laughed.
It felt good.
Then she became serious.
"There's something else."
Victor waited.
"My mother left the trust to me."
"The assets?"
"All legitimate assets recovered from Adrian's structure."
"That's substantial."
"I don't want his money."
"Then don't keep it."
Khloe looked at him.
"What would you do?"
"You're asking the wrong man."
"Why?"
"Because I've spent years deciding what other people deserve."
He looked toward the city.
"I'm trying to stop."
Khloe considered that.
Then she knew.
Months passed.
Trials began.
Assets were recovered.
Khloe established the Sarah Bennett Foundation, using recovered money to support families and small businesses harmed by the fraudulent network.
She asked Javier to serve on the board.
He said yes.
Their relationship developed slowly.
Not father and daughter overnight.
Coffee first.
Then dinners.
Stories about Sarah.
Photographs.
Lost years couldn't be returned.
But new ones could still be made.
Victor changed too.
He sold several businesses tied to his father's old network.
Legitimate holdings remained.
The rest went.
He became quieter, somehow.
Less burdened.
And Khloe discovered something surprising.
Victor Rossi could cook.
Badly.
"You burned water," she told him one evening.
"That's scientifically impossible."
"You achieved it."
He stared into the ruined pot.
"I had a phone call."
"You had one job."
"I employ people for this."
"That's the problem."
Victor turned.
Khloe was laughing.
He loved that sound.
He hadn't told her.
Not yet.
Their first kiss after the gala happened six months after the first one.
No danger.
No observers.
No tactical excuse.
They stood outside her apartment after dinner.
Victor looked at her.
"Can I kiss you?"
Khloe smiled.
"Look at you learning normal human behavior."
"Is that a yes?"
"Maybe."
He waited.
She stepped closer.
"Yes."
This kiss was different.
Slow.
Chosen.
When they separated, Victor rested his forehead against hers.
"No one's watching us this time."
Khloe smiled.
"Good."
Her phone buzzed.
Victor sighed.
"If that's another dead relative, I'm throwing it away."
Khloe laughed and checked the screen.
Then stopped.
Javier had sent a photograph.
An old document.
Underneath:
YOU NEED TO SEE THIS.
Khloe enlarged it.
The document contained the names of everyone who had participated in Vittorio Rossi's final investigation.
Most were familiar.
Sarah.
Elena.
Elliot.
Richard.
Vittorio.
But there was one final name neither Khloe nor Victor had ever seen.
Victor took the phone.
His expression changed.
May you like
Because beside the unknown name was a handwritten note from his father:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, FIND HER.
