Chapter 8 - My Mother’s Second Name
My mother’s grave was real.
Roman verified it.
Unlike the Callahans, my family apparently buried actual bodies.
But Laura Parker had another identity.
Laura Bellini.
That surname opened doors Roman wished had stayed closed.
The Bellinis had once been one of Chicago’s most powerful criminal families.
Laura disappeared from them at twenty-three.
Changed her name.
Became a nurse.
Raised me alone.
She never told me.
Roman found an old photograph.
My mother beside a younger Vincent.
They were holding hands.
Caleb stared at it.
“No.”
I understood before anyone spoke.
“Vincent was involved with my mother.”
Roman nodded.
Years before I was born.
Before Caleb was born.
Then Caleb whispered:
“Could Vincent be my father?”
The dates worked.
That explained Vincent’s obsession with Caleb.
His protection.
His control.
His panic when he saw Lily.
But something didn’t fit.
“If Vincent is Caleb’s father, why kidnap his granddaughter?”
Roman looked at me.
“Because men like Vincent don’t see children.”
“What do they see?”
“Leverage.”
We searched my mother’s belongings.
Most were still stored in a rented unit I could barely afford.
Inside an old nursing textbook, Caleb found a key.
Bank deposit box.
Roman arranged access before sunrise.
Inside were three items.
A cassette tape.
A sealed letter addressed to me.
And a DNA report.
Caleb reached for it.
Roman stopped him.
“Emily decides.”
For the first time, Roman was giving me control over something.
I opened the letter.
Emily,
If you are reading this because a Callahan found you, I failed to keep you outside their war.
I stopped.
Their war.
Not our.
Then:
Caleb Callahan is not Vincent’s son.
Caleb exhaled.
But the next sentence was worse.
Vincent believes he is.
Roman looked at me.
“So Vincent built everything around a lie.”
I continued.
The real identity of Caleb’s father was intentionally omitted.
Instead, my mother warned me never to let Vincent obtain the DNA report.
I looked at the sealed test.
“What’s in this?”
Roman said nothing.
I opened it.
The laboratory comparison wasn’t between Caleb and Vincent.
It was between me and Caleb.
Probability of sibling relationship:
0%.
I almost laughed from relief.
Then I saw another comparison.
Emily Parker and Roman Callahan.
Roman took the page from my hand.
His face emptied.
Probability of half-sibling relationship:
99.8%.
Nobody spoke.
Roman looked at me.
I looked at him.
My mother’s affair with someone connected to the Callahans had produced me.
But not Vincent.
Roman whispered:
“Sebastian.”
The room seemed to collapse.
If the test was genuine, Sebastian Callahan was my father.
Roman and I shared him.
Which meant I wasn’t merely the cleaner who had wandered into Roman’s office.
I was his sister.
And Lily was his niece by blood through me regardless of Caleb.
Then Roman’s phone rang.
Vincent.
He answered.
Lily cried faintly in the background.
I lunged for the phone.
Vincent spoke calmly.
“Now you understand why Laura Parker had to disappear.”
My blood froze.
My mother had supposedly died from cancer.
May you like
Vincent laughed softly.
“She didn’t.”
