Chapter 14 - THE BROTHER NO ONE MENTIONED
I thought I had one brother.
Dante.
Marcus's records said otherwise.
Another child had been born before me.
A son.
He had been removed from the family records when my father's second marriage began.
“Where is he now?” I asked.
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Twenty-six years ago.”
I stared at the report.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
The date made my stomach turn.
I was five.
Dante was eleven.
The boy would have been thirteen.
I looked at Clara.
She understood immediately.
“This happened before your father died.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide it?”
That was the question.
We searched the archived records.
The boy's name was Adrian.
Adrian Moretti.
The official story said he died alone.
But one hospital record was missing.
One police report had been altered.
And one photograph had been removed from the family archives.
Adrian's mother had left the family shortly afterward.
Isabella Rossi.
She had been blamed for the accident.
But now the pieces were falling into place.
Vivien's obsession with justice.
My father's fear.
Dante's hatred.
The hidden trust.
There had been a family secret long before I was born.
And someone had spent decades making sure I never learned it.
I looked at Clara.
“We're going back to Ravenwood.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because somebody has been lying to my family for twenty-six years.”
