Chapter 16 - THE REED RECORDS .
That made Adrian suspicious.
Birth certificates.
Marriage licenses.
Old newspaper announcements.
Property deeds.
Everything looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
Rebecca Sloan spread the documents across the long table in Adrian's library.
Elena stood opposite her.
Roman Pierce remained near the door.
Nora sat in the next room with the white cat and a children's movie loud enough that she could not hear the adults.
Adrian looked at the first certificate.
Margaret Anne Reed.
Born forty-nine years before Nora.
Then another.
Helena Marie Reed.
Three years older.
Sisters.
Elena stared.
“My mother never mentioned a sister.”
Rebecca slid the next document forward.
Helena Reed married Thomas Hart.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Hart.
Evelyn's maiden name.
Rebecca said nothing.
She did not need to.
The next certificate completed it.
Child:
Evelyn Grace Hart.
Mother:
Helena Marie Reed Hart.
Elena lowered herself into a chair.
“No.”
Adrian read it again.
Evelyn and Elena were cousins.
Margaret Castillo had not simply protected a frightened pregnant woman.
She had protected her own niece.
Nora had not been handed to a stranger.
She had been handed to family.
Elena covered her mouth.
“My mother knew.”
“Yes,” Adrian said.
“All three years.”
“Yes.”
“She let me believe Nora came from some woman I'd never met.”
Adrian understood that anger.
Secrets presented as protection.
He had become intimately familiar with them.
Roman placed another file on the table.
The Reed family once owned a medical research company.
Not Kane Biologic Systems.
Something older.
Reed Biomedical Institute.
Founded forty-four years earlier by Helena and Margaret's father.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
Adrian looked up.
“What happened to it?”
Roman answered.
“Bankruptcy.”
Rebecca corrected him.
“Officially.”
There it was again.
Officially.
The word Adrian had learned to hate.
Samuel Reed died unexpectedly.
The company entered receivership.
Its assets were purchased through three shell corporations.
Those corporations eventually became part of Kane Biologic Systems.
Buyer behind the shells:
Antonio Kane.
Adrian's father.
Elena stared at him.
“Your father stole Evelyn's family company?”
“We don't know that.”
“Your family always says that right before we discover something terrible.”
Fair.
Rebecca found the original bankruptcy order.
Then frowned.
“There should be a transfer of intellectual property.”
“There isn't?” Adrian asked.
“There is.”
She pointed.
“But this signature isn't Samuel Reed's.”
Adrian leaned closer.
Samuel had supposedly authorized the transfer eleven days after his death.
Silence.
Roman muttered:
“Well.”
Adrian's face hardened.
Forgery.
Again.
Then Rebecca found something worse.
Before his death, Samuel Reed had established a maternal inheritance covenant.
Ownership of certain patents and voting rights could pass only through his daughters and their descendants.
Helena.
Margaret.
Their children.
Their grandchildren.
Adrian looked toward Nora.
Three years old.
Purple dress today.
White socks.
Laughing because the cat had attacked a stuffed rabbit.
She had no idea that corporations had been lying about her bloodline since before she existed.
Elena whispered:
“So Nora owns Kane Biologic?”
“Not exactly,” Rebecca said.
“Who does?”
Rebecca examined the covenant.
“Two family branches must authorize control together.”
She pointed.
Helena's descendants.
Evelyn.
Then Nora.
Margaret's descendants.
Elena.
Elena stared.
“No.”
Rebecca nodded.
“You and Evelyn.”
Adrian finally understood Grace's design.
Margaret as guardian.
Evelyn as Nora's mother.
Elena raising Nora.
It had never been random.
It was a lock.
Two family branches.
Neither could control the company alone.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
He answered.
“Evelyn?”
Silence.
Then her voice.
Weak.
“Did you find Helena?”
“Yes.”
A breath.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know why Margaret took Nora.”
“Because Elena is family.”
Evelyn began crying.
“Yes.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Are you being held?”
Silence.
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
That answer came carefully.
Not exactly.
Adrian heard it.
“Who are 'they'?”
Evelyn whispered:
“The people who took my mother's company.”
“Antonio?”
“No.”
Adrian froze.
“My father bought it.”
“Yes.”
“Then who?”
Evelyn's breathing became uneven.
“Your father was not the beginning, Adrian.”
A sound behind her.
Footsteps.
She spoke faster.
“Samuel Reed didn't die from a heart attack.”
Adrian stood.
Evelyn continued:
“My mother discovered who killed him.”
“Who?”
The line crackled.
Then Evelyn whispered:
“Ask Celeste why she was at my grandfather's laboratory the night he died.”
The call ended.
Nobody spoke.
Adrian slowly looked toward the photograph of his aunt on the table.
Celeste Kane.
Elegant.
Educated.
Removed from criminal operations.
May you like
The woman who claimed she had only helped Evelyn.
And for the first time, Adrian wondered whether Celeste hated Victor because Victor knew exactly what she had done.
