Chapter 5 - The Maid Saw What Everyone Else Missed

I locked myself inside the laundry room.

Julian tried the handle once.

Then stopped.

No shouting.

No threats.

Just silence.

That was worse.

I stayed on the phone with Damian.

“Rachel, security is coming.”

I whispered:

“He has the hospital folder.”

“Can you see him?”

“No.”

A shadow moved beneath the door.

Then disappeared.

Thirty seconds later, Damian’s security team arrived.

Julian was gone.

The service exit alarm had been disabled.

Claire’s purse was still in the coatroom.

Bianca’s coat was still upstairs.

The yellow folder was gone.

When Damian returned to the estate, he found me sitting in the kitchen.

He crouched in front of me.

“Did he touch you?”

“No.”

“Threaten you?”

“No.”

I looked at him.

“He knew exactly what Bianca told me earlier.”

Bianca went pale.

Damian turned to her.

“What exactly?”

Bianca answered:

“At the ballroom entrance, I told Rachel to escort Dr. Lang out.”

I nodded.

“Mr. Cross repeated it word for word.”

Marco frowned.

“He was close enough to hear?”

“No.”

Bianca looked toward the ceiling.

“My father’s house has security microphones.”

Charles stared at her.

“Only in the public rooms.”

Damian looked at him.

“You record guests?”

“For security.”

Marco laughed.

“You really like that word.”

Bianca shook her head.

“Julian manages the system.”

Claire looked at Charles.

“So he heard everything tonight.”

Charles’s face tightened.

“Yes.”

Damian turned to me.

“What did you see in the folder?”

“Nothing.”

Then I remembered.

“Wait.”

Everyone looked at me.

“When he turned, one page slipped out.”

“Where?”

“Near the service stairs.”

We went back.

Security searched the corridor.

Nothing.

Then I saw the corner of white paper beneath a radiator.

I pulled it free.

Not a hospital record.

A photocopy of a trust.

Damian read the heading.

ROMANO FAMILY SETTLEMENT.

Marco looked surprised.

“I’ve never seen this.”

Claire frowned.

“Why would Julian have a Romano trust?”

Charles closed his eyes.

Damian saw.

“You know.”

Charles sat down.

“Your mother’s father created it.”

Damian’s face hardened.

“My grandfather?”

“Yes.”

“For who?”

Charles looked at the twins.

“His grandchildren.”

Claire stared.

“Both?”

“Yes.”

Marco took the paper.

The trust was established before the twins were born.

Equal shares to every biological child of Elena Romano.

Damian read the amount.

Then read it again.

“Forty-eight million?”

Charles corrected him.

“In 1992.”

Bianca whispered:

“What is it worth now?”

Charles looked down.

“More.”

Damian stared at him.

“How much more?”

“Approximately one hundred and sixty million.”

Claire sat down.

Nobody spoke.

Damian looked at Charles.

“You didn’t just steal my sister.”

Charles’s face tightened.

“You stole her inheritance.”

“No.”

“Then where is it?”

Charles looked at Julian’s name on the copy.

“I never took it.”

Marco stepped closer.

“Who did?”

Charles whispered:

“The trust could only release Claire’s share if she was legally identified as Elena’s daughter.”

Damian understood.

“She was declared dead.”

“Yes.”

“So her share stayed in trust.”

“For years.”

“And then?”

Charles looked at Bianca.

Not Claire.

Bianca saw it.

“Dad.”

He closed his eyes.

“When Claire turned twenty-one, Julian told me the dormant share would revert to the surviving Romano child unless we amended the supporting records.”

Damian stared.

“What did you do?”

“I refused.”

Marco frowned.

“Then why does Julian have the trust?”

Charles’s answer was barely audible.

“Because he forged my signature.”

Silence.

Damian asked:

“How much did he take?”

Charles looked sick.

“Nearly all of Claire’s share.”

Claire stared.

“You knew?”

“I discovered it six months ago.”

Bianca began crying.

“That’s when you told me.”

Charles nodded.

Damian looked at Bianca.

Now he understood.

Six months.

The exact time she had known Claire was his twin.

Bianca whispered:

“My father found the fraud.”

Damian’s voice was flat.

“And instead of calling Claire or me, you both hid it.”

Charles said:

“We needed proof.”

Damian held up the trust copy.

“You had enough proof to tell me I had a sister.”

Bianca looked away.

Marco turned toward Charles.

“Julian took Vincent because Vincent brought the original hospital ledger.”

Charles nodded slowly.

“And if the ledger proves Claire was alive—”

Damian finished:

“Then every transfer from her trust becomes theft.”

Claire stood.

“So where would Julian take him?”

Charles thought.

Then his face changed.

Bianca saw it too.

“The old Morel clinic.”

Damian looked at her.

“What clinic?”

“Our family owned a private medical center outside the city.”

Dr. Lang went pale.

“It closed twenty years ago.”

Charles whispered:

“No.”

Everyone looked at him.

“The public wing closed.”

Marco stared.

“What does that mean?”

Charles answered:

“The records archive is still maintained underground.”

Dr. Lang stood.

“The original adoption files.”

Charles nodded.

“And every payment my father made to the hospital.”

Damian reached for his coat.

Claire did too.

He looked at her.

“You stay.”

She stared back.

“No.”

“This may be dangerous.”

“So was being born into this family.”

For the first time, Damian smiled.

Just slightly.

“Fine.”

Claire looked at him.

“Fine?”

“Twin rule.”

“What twin rule?”

“I just made it up.”

Then Marco’s phone vibrated.

A photograph arrived.

Vincent Morel.

Tied to a chair.

Alive.

A handwritten sign rested against his chest.

BRING DR. LANG.

The old doctor stared at it.

Then whispered:

“He doesn’t want Charles.”

Damian looked at him.

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“No.”

“He wants the last man who can identify the original ledger.”