Chapter 4 - The Mother Behind the Lie
Elena did not move.
Lucia Raldi closed the door behind her.
Dr. Vale lowered his eyes.
That told Elena everything.
Vale feared her.
Not Vittorio.
Lucia.
Cassian’s mother crossed the room.
“You should have left when the first DNA report gave you the opportunity.”
“You ordered it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect what belongs to my son.”
Elena almost laughed.
“You threw his pregnant wife into the street.”
“I separated a complication from the family.”
“You mean me.”
“I mean you.”
Vale whispered, “Lucia, enough.”
She looked at him.
He stopped speaking.
Elena understood the hierarchy.
“What happened the night Cassian collapsed?”
Lucia studied her.
“You saved his life.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
“Was I drugged?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without shame.
Elena’s hands curled into fists.
“Was Cassian?”
“He was already unconscious.”
“What did you do to us?”
Lucia’s expression remained composed.
“Nothing that created your child.”
Elena stopped.
“Then how am I pregnant?”
Lucia smiled faintly.
“Because nature succeeded where six fraudulent reports said it could not.”
Elena’s mind raced.
“You didn’t inseminate me.”
“No.”
“Then Cassian and I—”
“You were both impaired.”
Elena felt sick.
Vale turned away.
Lucia continued.
“I ordered you moved to the same room because I wanted to observe whether Cassian reacted differently after treatment.”
“What treatment?”
Vale finally spoke.
“Cassian’s collapse wasn’t natural.”
Lucia shot him a look.
Too late.
Elena stared.
“You poisoned your own son?”
Lucia said nothing.
Vale looked horrified by what he had admitted.
Elena understood.
Cassian’s collapse had been induced.
But why?
The conference door exploded inward.
Cassian entered.
Two men followed.
His eyes found Elena first.
Then his mother.
“Move away from my wife.”
Lucia sighed.
“You always were dramatic when angry.”
Cassian walked toward her.
“You had her drugged.”
Lucia’s face remained calm.
“I protected you.”
“You poisoned me.”
“I tested a treatment.”
“You used me.”
“I preserved your future.”
Cassian looked at Vale.
The doctor began sweating.
Elena stepped between Cassian and him.
“Alive.”
Cassian’s eyes met hers.
“We need him alive.”
Vale talked.
For years, Lucia had feared that Cassian would produce an heir she could not control.
Her husband Gabriel had planned to restructure the family holdings so that control passed directly to Cassian and eventually to his descendants.
Lucia wanted control retained through a trust she managed.
Cassian’s supposed infertility solved the problem.
Vale falsified the diagnosis.
Then Gabriel discovered it.
He began investigating.
He died before he could expose them.
“Did you kill him?” Cassian asked.
Lucia said nothing.
Vale whispered, “I didn’t.”
Cassian looked at his mother.
Lucia’s silence was answer enough.
But the story had another layer.
Years later, Lucia discovered Cassian had secretly sought treatment for an unrelated hormonal problem.
She feared he might learn the truth.
So she arranged the collapse.
Vale administered a drug at the charity event.
The plan was to obtain new blood, manipulate the results, and reinforce the infertility lie.
Then Elena saved him.
And something unexpected happened.
During the confused hours afterward, Cassian briefly regained consciousness.
So did Elena.
Neither retained clear memories because of the sedatives.
But apparently they had been conscious together.
Long enough.
Elena’s face burned.
“Did anyone touch me?”
Vale shook his head.
“No procedure. No insemination.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
Lucia looked annoyed.
“That was never part of my plan.”
“Then why put us together?”
Lucia answered.
“Because Cassian asked for you.”
Cassian stared.
“What?”
“You woke for several minutes. You kept asking where the nurse was.”
Elena looked at him.
He had no memory of it.
Lucia had ordered Elena brought upstairs.
Not out of kindness.
Observation.
Control.
Then both had disappeared into fragmented memory.
Elena felt violated by the manipulation, even if the pregnancy itself had resulted from something neither could clearly remember.
Cassian looked devastated.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena shook her head.
“You were drugged too.”
Lucia rolled her eyes.
“Spare me.”
Cassian turned toward his mother.
That was when Lucia finally looked afraid.
Not because he threatened her.
Because he didn’t.
He simply said, “You’re finished.”
Cassian handed everything to federal prosecutors through an attorney outside the Raldi network.
Financial records.
Medical fraud.
Illegal research.
Evidence of Gabriel’s death.
Vittorio tried to flee.
He was caught at a private airfield.
Vale agreed to cooperate.
Lucia was arrested.
For forty-eight hours, it looked finished.
Then Elena examined Gabriel’s records again.
One thing bothered her.
Her father.
Thomas Maren had survived four years after Gabriel’s death.
If Lucia knew Thomas possessed evidence, why wait four years to kill him?
Unless she didn’t.
Elena found the original crash report.
Her father’s truck brakes had failed.
But the maintenance authorization came from Raldi Meridian.
Signed electronically by Ezra Cain.
Elena stared at the name.
No.
Cassian entered.
She turned the screen toward him.
His expression hardened.
“Ezra signed the maintenance release.”
“He says he loved my father.”
“He also lied about being my brother.”
“He kept Gabriel’s key.”
“And he knew about V-17.”
Neither wanted to say it.
Ezra had been present at every critical point.
Cassian called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Odette appeared.
“Mr. Raldi?”
She held an envelope.
“Ezra left this for you.”
Cassian opened it.
Inside was the brass key.
And a note.
I’m sorry. Your father made me choose.
Elena’s pulse quickened.
“Choose what?”
Cassian flipped the paper over.
An address was written on the back.
An old Raldi warehouse near the river.
They went immediately.
The building appeared abandoned.
Inside, they found Ezra sitting alone at a table.
A pistol lay in front of him.
Cassian stopped ten feet away.
“Did you kill Thomas Maren?”
Ezra looked at Elena.
“No.”
“Your signature authorized the truck.”
“I was ordered to sign.”
“By Lucia?”
“No.”
“Vittorio?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Ezra’s eyes filled with something Elena had never seen there.
Fear.
“Gabriel.”
Cassian stared.
“My father was dead.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Silence crashed through the warehouse.
Elena felt cold.
Ezra pushed a folder across the table.
“Gabriel survived the boat explosion.”
Cassian did not move.
“He disappeared because he discovered the conspiracy was bigger than Lucia.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve been taking orders from him.”
“For years.”
“Did he order my father’s truck sabotaged?” Elena asked.
Ezra shook his head.
“He ordered me to stop the truck.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas had stolen something from V-17.”
“What?”
“A frozen biological sample.”
Elena instinctively touched her stomach.
Ezra looked at her.
“Not Cassian’s.”
“Whose?”
“Gabriel’s.”
Cassian stepped closer.
“Why would Thomas steal my father’s sample?”
“Because it proved Gabriel wasn’t who everyone believed.”
A sound came from deeper inside the warehouse.
Metal scraping concrete.
Ezra grabbed the pistol.
Cassian turned.
A light switched on behind an interior door.
Then a man’s voice came through the darkness.
Older.
Calm.
Familiar enough to drain the blood from Cassian’s face.
“Put the gun down, Ezra.”
Cassian stared at the closed door.
The voice spoke again.
“Son.”
May you like
The lock clicked.
Someone who had been dead for seven years began opening the door from the other side.
