Chapter 8 - Vivian’s Bargain
Arthur stared at Elena Romano.
Twenty-six years disappeared.
He was eight again.
Standing beside a grave.
Watching his father tell him his mother was dead.
“You’re alive.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“I am.”
Arthur’s gun lowered.
“Why?”
“Because Salvatore tried to kill me.”
Harrison laughed.
Elena looked at him.
“You shouldn’t be laughing.”
Her hand lifted.
Police entered through every ballroom door.
Harrison’s face changed.
Vivian stepped forward.
“You threatened Amelia for the last time.”
Harrison looked at his daughter.
“You betrayed me.”
“You taught me how.”
Officers arrested him.
Arthur barely noticed.
He couldn’t stop staring at Elena.
Chloe remained nearby.
Arthur asked, “Who is my father?”
Elena looked toward the old photograph.
“Thomas Henderson.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Arthur did too.
“No.”
Elena nodded.
“Your father and I loved each other before I was forced to marry Salvatore.”
Arthur looked at Chloe.
Horror crossed both faces.
Elena understood immediately.
“No. Chloe is not Thomas’s biological daughter.”
Chloe gripped a chair.
“What?”
Elena approached.
“Thomas adopted you.”
“My birth certificate—”
“Was altered to protect you.”
“From whom?”
Elena looked toward Harrison being led away.
“Your biological father.”
Harrison stopped.
Chloe stared at him.
“No.”
Vivian whispered, “Dad?”
Harrison smiled.
“Welcome to the family.”
Chloe looked ill.
Arthur moved beside her.
She leaned into him without thinking.
Elena explained.
Harrison had an affair with Chloe’s mother, Rachel, who fled after discovering his criminal operations.
Rachel died shortly after childbirth.
Thomas took Chloe and raised her.
Harrison wanted the child because she could become leverage.
Thomas refused.
Salvatore eventually ordered Thomas killed for Daniel’s evidence.
Two corrupt empires had intersected in one diner owner’s life.
Chloe began crying silently.
“My dad was still my dad.”
Arthur answered immediately.
“Yes.”
“He chose me.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“And he was your father.”
Arthur nodded.
Neither knew what that made them emotionally.
Not siblings by blood.
But connected through the same man who had protected them both.
Elena said, “Thomas never knew Arthur was his son until shortly before he died.”
Arthur turned.
“He knew?”
“He wanted to tell you.”
“He never did.”
“Because Salvatore found out first.”
Arthur looked at the evidence.
His entire identity had been built by a man who wasn’t his father and destroyed by the father he never knew.
Chloe reached for him.
This time Arthur took her hand.
Vivian approached.
“There’s something else.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My father wasn’t the one who ordered the poisoning.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
“He knew about it.”
“Yes. But somebody else supplied the poison.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Vivian gave him a folded note.
“I found this in his safe.”
Arthur opened it.
THE WEDDING ENDS WITH ROMANO DEAD. CROFT TAKES THE BLAME.
Signed:
M.
Marco read over his shoulder.
“M.”
Arthur looked at him.
Marco’s face hardened.
“Not me.”
“I know.”
“Michael Russo?”
“Dead.”
Isabella spoke.
“Maybe not.”
Marco turned.
“My father died fifteen years ago.”
“Did you see the body?”
Marco’s silence answered.
They returned to Arthur’s estate.
Chloe rested upstairs.
Arthur sat beside her.
“Too much?”
“My biological father tried to use me as leverage, my adoptive father secretly fathered Chicago’s most stubborn man, and I almost went into premature labor twice.”
“Three times.”
“Thank you.”
He almost smiled.
Chloe looked at him.
“Arthur?”
“Yes?”
“Whatever happens, I don’t want our baby growing up in this.”
He knew what she meant.
Fear.
Blood.
Secrets.
“I don’t either.”
“Can you leave it?”
Arthur looked toward the city.
“I can change it.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He was silent.
Chloe touched his hand.
“You don’t have to answer tonight.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Arthur stood.
Gunfire followed.
He pushed Chloe into the bathroom.
“Lock it.”
“Arthur—”
“Please.”
She obeyed.
Arthur ran downstairs.
A guard lay wounded.
The front doors were open.
Marco stood in the foyer staring at someone outside.
Arthur approached.
A gray-haired man stepped into the light.
Marco whispered, “Dad?”
Michael Russo smiled.
Then raised a gun toward Arthur.
But he wasn’t aiming at Arthur.
He was aiming upstairs.
May you like
At Chloe’s bedroom.
And his finger tightened on the trigger.
