Chapter 5 - My Father's Last Delivery
Cassian pulled me behind him.
The door opened.
Ezra stepped inside.
He looked at Odette.
Then me.
Then Cassian.
Nobody reached for a weapon.
That made it worse.
"You found the room," Ezra said.
Cassian's voice was quiet.
"You drugged us."
Ezra looked almost offended.
"No."
"We have video."
"You have seventeen seconds."
"Enough."
"No. Enough to make you angry. Not enough to understand."
I stepped forward.
"Then explain."
Ezra looked at me.
"Your father tried the same thing."
My breath stopped.
"What?"
"He found one piece and assumed he understood everything."
Cassian moved faster than I expected.
He slammed Ezra against the wall.
"Say her father's name again."
Ezra didn't resist.
"Daniel Marsh saved your life, Cassian."
Cassian released him slightly.
Ezra continued.
Daniel discovered that someone had been collecting biological samples from powerful families.
Not for medicine.
For leverage.
Fertility records.
Genetic illnesses.
Paternity secrets.
Anything that could destroy inheritances, marriages or alliances.
Bellwether was the center.
Vittorio had financed it.
But Ezra claimed he'd been trying to expose him.
"Then why were you in the room that night?" I demanded.
"Because I saw someone drug your water."
"Who?"
"I couldn't identify her."
"You turned off the camera."
"To protect Cassian."
"From what?"
Ezra looked at him.
"From footage showing what happened afterward."
My heart pounded.
Cassian's face became unreadable.
"What happened?"
Ezra didn't answer.
I did.
"Show us."
The backup wasn't here.
Ezra said he'd hidden it in a storage unit Daniel Marsh had rented four years ago.
Unit 340.
The key Odette had given me opened it.
By dawn, Cassian and I were standing before a rusted storage door.
My father's handwriting was still on the rental tag.
I inserted the key.
Inside were truck logs, medical files, an old laptop and a locked cooler.
The cooler contained no samples.
Only photographs.
One showed my father with Cassian's mother.
Another showed Vittorio entering Bellwether.
A third showed Ezra meeting my father three days before Dad died.
I turned on Ezra.
"You knew him."
"Yes."
"You let me believe his debt killed him."
"I didn't create the debt."
"Who did?"
"Vittorio."
Cassian picked up the old laptop.
Password protected.
I tried Mom's name.
Wrong.
My birthday.
Wrong.
Then I typed the number Dad always wrote inside my birthday cards.
The screen opened.
There was one video file.
DANIEL_FINAL.
My father's face appeared.
Older than I remembered.
Afraid.
"If Elena is watching this, then I didn't make it."
My knees nearly gave out.
Cassian steadied me.
Dad continued.
"The money isn't debt. It's the amount Vittorio paid to purchase access to a genetic archive."
$340,000.
"I copied the archive. He'll come looking."
Dad looked directly into the camera.
"And Elena, if Cassian Raldi is standing beside you, tell him his diagnosis was never about infertility."
The video distorted.
Then returned.
"It was about succession."
Cassian leaned closer.
Dad's final words came through static.
"There are two Raldi heirs."
The video ended.
Cassian stared at the black screen.
"I'm an only child."
Ezra said nothing.
Cassian turned.
"Who is the other heir?"
Before Ezra could answer, the locked cooler behind us rang.
A phone was hidden beneath its false bottom.
The screen lit up.
One name appeared.
May you like
MARYANNE MARSH.
My mother was calling from a phone she couldn't possibly have.
