Chapter 9 - The Rossi Family War
The lights returned.
Nobody was there.
Cassian ordered every door locked.
Clara stood frozen.
“My father is alive.”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother's letter confirmed it.”
Cassian showed her the final page.
There was an address.
An old church outside Manhattan.
They went there before sunrise.
Inside the abandoned church, a man waited.
He was older.
Gray hair.
Dark eyes.
Clara stopped.
He looked at her like he had been waiting thirty years.
“Clara.”
She couldn't speak.
“Dad?”
He nodded.
“My name is Adrian Hayes.”
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
“You abandoned us.”
“No.”
“You let Mom raise me alone.”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Adrian looked at Cassian.
“From his father.”
Cassian stiffened.
“My father?”
“Your father knew what your mother discovered.”
“What?”
“Your families were connected.”
Adrian explained that years earlier, the Rossi and Volkov organizations had secretly controlled a financial network.
Clara's mother had discovered it.
She wanted out.
Adrian helped her disappear.
But Derek later found the records.
“He wasn't working alone,” Adrian said.
Cassian asked:
“Who helped him?”
Adrian looked at Clara.
“Someone close to you.”
Clara thought of Marina.
Cassian thought of his own men.
Nobody spoke.
Then Adrian pulled out a photograph.
It showed Derek.
And beside him stood Cassian's older brother, Marco.
Cassian's face went blank.
“Marco is dead.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Clara felt the room tilt.
“Your brother has been alive for years.”
Cassian stepped backward.
“My father told me Marco died.”
“Your father lied.”
Cassian's jaw clenched.
For the first time, Clara saw genuine fear in his eyes.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of what his family had become.
They returned to Manhattan.
Cassian locked himself in his office.
Clara waited outside.
Hours passed.
Finally, he emerged.
“I found him.”
“Marco?”
Cassian nodded.
“Where?”
“Inside my organization.”
Clara stared.
“How?”
“He's been using another name.”
“What does he want?”
Cassian looked at her.
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because your inheritance isn't money.”
Clara's breath caught.
“What is it?”
Cassian opened the final file.
Inside was a corporate certificate.
Clara read it.
Then looked up.
“This can't be real.”
“You control forty percent of the company that finances the Rossi shipping network.”
Clara shook her head.
“My mother left me that?”
“Yes.”
“And Marco wants it.”
Cassian nodded.
“He needs your signature.”
Clara looked at him.
“And if I refuse?”
Cassian's expression hardened.
“He'll kill everyone who stands between him and that signature.”
A phone vibrated.
Cassian answered.
Silence.
Then Marco's voice.
“You have until midnight.”
Cassian said nothing.
May you like
Marco continued:
“After that, I start with your future wife...”
