Chapter 7 - The Forgotten Daughter
Adrien stepped in front of his mother.
“You don’t need the child.”
Celeste’s smile sharpened.
“No. I needed you to come willingly.”
Lucia stared at Adrien with wide, terrified eyes. Maria was conscious but weak, one guard supporting most of her weight.
Lydia kept her hands raised.
“Celeste, this was not our agreement.”
“You promised me justice,” Celeste said. “Instead, you hid Mother in a basement and protected the sons who replaced me.”
Elena struggled to stand.
“No one replaced you.”
Celeste’s expression cracked.
“You gave me away.”
“I was nineteen. My father forced me.”
“You never came back.”
“I searched for you.”
“For three years. Then you married Antonio Romano and built another family.”
Elena’s face crumpled.
“I was told you had died.”
Celeste laughed without humor.
“Everyone in this family is always told someone died.”
Adrien studied her.
The anger was real, but so was the pain beneath it. She did not hold herself like a criminal seeking money. She held herself like a child who had spent decades waiting for someone to admit she mattered.
“Who raised you?” he asked.
Celeste looked at him.
“A couple in Rockford. They were paid to keep me quiet. When I was fourteen, my adoptive father drank too much and told me the truth. He showed me letters from Lydia.”
All eyes shifted to Lydia.
Lydia lowered her gaze.
“I arranged the adoption.”
“You knew she was alive?” Elena asked.
“I knew where she had been placed. Your father threatened to destroy both of you if I interfered.”
“And later?” Adrien asked. “After my grandfather died?”
Lydia hesitated.
Celeste answered.
“She decided the truth was inconvenient.”
“That is not fair.”
“Fair?” Celeste pressed the gun harder against Lydia’s back. “You built a political career by trading Romano secrets while I spent my childhood wondering why my mother threw me away.”
Lydia’s composure finally broke.
“I protected you from Antonio.”
Adrien’s father.
Elena stared at her oldest friend.
“What did Antonio know?”
“He learned about Celeste shortly before your wedding. He believed an unknown daughter could be used against the family. He wanted the records erased.”
Celeste’s eyes burned.
“So Lydia erased me instead.”
“No,” Lydia insisted. “I kept you hidden.”
“You kept me useful.”
Adrien understood.
“The Cardinal was a network.”
Lydia said nothing.
“You supplied political protection. Samuel moved money. Bell controlled the house. Celeste accessed medical and personal records.”
Celeste tilted her head.
“Very good.”
“But who commanded the network?”
A slow clap echoed from the hallway.
Uncle Samuel emerged with four armed men.
He wore a charcoal suit and the same silver Romano ring Adrien’s father had once worn.
“Antonio always said you were the intelligent one,” Samuel said.
Celeste turned, startled.
“You were supposed to wait upstairs.”
Samuel shot the guard beside Maria.
The man fell instantly.
Chaos erupted.
Adrien lunged toward Lucia as Julian pulled Elena behind the bed. Lydia threw herself sideways. Celeste fired at Samuel, but one of his men struck her wrist, sending the gun across the floor.
Maria collapsed beside the dead guard.
Lucia screamed and ran toward Adrien.
He caught her, shielding her with his body as bullets tore through the room.
Julian overturned a medical cart. Elena and Maria crawled behind it.
Adrien reached the fallen guard’s weapon and fired twice. One attacker dropped. Lydia shot another from the floor.
Samuel retreated into the corridor.
“Bring the girl!” he shouted.
One of his men seized Lucia’s coat.
Adrien caught the attacker by the throat and slammed him into the doorframe. The man released her. Adrien struck him until he stopped moving.
When the gunfire ended, Samuel was gone.
So was Celeste.
A wall monitor flickered to life.
Samuel appeared on-screen inside what looked like the facility’s chapel.
Celeste sat tied to a chair beside him.
“You have fifteen minutes,” Samuel said. “Bring Elena and the ledger to the chapel, or your sister dies.”
Elena rose unsteadily.
“I’ll go.”
“No,” Adrien said.
“He wants me.”
“He wants the ledger.”
“He wants both.”
Lydia picked up Celeste’s dropped weapon.
“Samuel has spent his entire life believing Antonio stole the Romano empire from him.”
Julian looked at her.
“Samuel was the younger brother. He had no claim.”
“In his mind, he did. He created the Cardinal network to destroy Antonio’s sons and reclaim what he believed belonged to him.”
“Then why keep our mother alive?” Adrien asked.
Elena answered.
“Because I memorized the account codes.”
Everyone turned to her.
“I found Samuel’s ledger before the crash. It contained names of judges, senators, agents, and businessmen. I destroyed the original.”
Adrien held up the ledger from the mausoleum.
“My father made a copy.”
Elena shook her head.
“That ledger contains payment records, but not the encryption key. The key is a sequence of names only I know.”
Samuel’s voice came through the monitor again.
“Fourteen minutes.”
Adrien looked at Lucia.
She was pressed against Maria, shaking beneath his oversized coat. Her hands remained stained with black polish.
A child had entered his life because she feared losing her home.
Now his family’s sins had nearly cost her everything.
He crouched before her.
“I’m going to bring you and your mother somewhere safe.”
Lucia caught his hand.
“Are you coming back?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Adrien had avoided promises for years because promises created weaknesses enemies could exploit.
But he looked into her frightened eyes.
“I promise.”
A building alarm began to scream.
Noah’s voice came through the radio.
“Adrien, we have a larger problem. Samuel’s men have planted explosives beneath the east wing.”
“How long?”
“Less than twelve minutes.”
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The chapel was in the east wing.
And according to the blueprints, the explosives were directly beneath the room where Samuel held Celeste.
