Chapter 5 - The Secret Older Than Clara
The date on Vincent’s file changed Leo’s expression.
Clara noticed immediately.
October 14.
Twenty-one years earlier.
She knew nothing about the date.
Leo knew everything.
“That was the night my father died.”
Nobody spoke.
Officially, Carlo Castillion died in a highway accident during a storm.
Leo had been eighteen.
He inherited pieces of the family business gradually over the following decade.
Anthony had been there through all of it.
Vincent joined three years later.
Daniel placed the encrypted file on a secure system.
It required hours to open.
During that time, Leo questioned Anthony alone.
“What happened the night my father died?”
Anthony looked exhausted.
“You know what happened.”
“I know what I was told.”
Anthony stared at him.
Leo placed Vincent’s phone on the table.
“He had a file.”
Anthony’s face changed.
Tiny.
But enough.
“You know about it.”
“No.”
“Another bad answer.”
Anthony looked toward the window.
“I was twenty-five.”
Leo waited.
“My father was in debt.”
“To whom?”
“Your father.”
Leo frowned.
Anthony continued.
“Uncle Carlo covered it.”
“But he wanted my father out of the company.”
“My father thought it would destroy us.”
“So?”
Anthony’s voice weakened.
“There was an argument.”
“The night of the crash?”
“Yes.”
Leo stood.
“Were you there?”
Anthony nodded.
“Who else?”
Anthony hesitated.
“Vincent’s father.”
Leo went still.
Vincent Marlowe had always claimed his father had no connection to the Castillions.
Another lie.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Tell me what you know.”
Anthony stared down.
“Your father left angry.”
“Vincent’s father followed him.”
“Hours later, the police called.”
Leo’s voice became quiet.
“And nobody told me.”
“My father made me swear.”
“He said the argument had nothing to do with the accident.”
Leo turned away.
For twenty-one years, he had mourned a clean memory.
Now dirt had appeared beneath it.
By 2 A.M., Daniel’s team opened the file.
It contained documents.
Old photographs.
Insurance records.
Phone logs.
A scanned police report.
And a letter written by Vincent’s father.
The letter did not prove murder.
It proved something perhaps more painful.
Carlo Castillion had discovered financial theft inside his organization days before his death.
The same kind of theft Leo had now uncovered.
Inflated contracts.
Hidden companies.
Kickbacks.
Carlo planned to remove several people.
Including Anthony’s father.
Including Vincent’s father.
Then he died.
Whether the crash was accidental remained unclear.
But afterward, the investigation disappeared.
Records changed.
Money moved.
And two families benefited.
Leo read everything silently.
Clara watched from across the room.
Eventually she said, “You should sleep.”
Leo looked up.
“So should you.”
“I’m not the one reading about my father.”
He looked back at the screen.
“My whole life, I thought I inherited his empire.”
Clara waited.
“Maybe I inherited his unfinished investigation.”
That sentence stayed in the room.
By morning, Leo made a decision.
He called federal financial investigators through his attorney.
Daniel looked surprised.
Anthony looked horrified.
“You’re giving outsiders access to everything?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll destroy the family.”
Leo looked at him.
“No.”
“You confused the family with the corruption.”
Anthony lowered his head.
Vincent had built his power on one assumption.
That Leo would protect the Castillion name above everything else.
He was wrong.
Leo protected structure.
Loyalty.
People who worked for him.
The name meant nothing if it became a shield for rot.
At exactly 8 A.M., Vincent’s scheduled message attempted to send.
Daniel’s team intercepted the destination.
It was not a newspaper.
Not law enforcement.
Not a rival family.
It was an email address belonging to a journalist.
But the journalist had died seven months earlier.
Someone else was monitoring the account.
Someone inside the Castillion organization.
Daniel traced the access.
Estate network.
Leo stared at the screen.
“Someone here?”
Daniel nodded.
“Last login was yesterday.”
Clara felt uneasy.
“How many people have that Wi-Fi?”
“Staff.”
“Security.”
“Guests.”
“Dozens.”
Then Marta entered the room.
She carried a small envelope.
“I think I know who.”
Everyone turned.
Marta placed the envelope in front of Leo.
“This was under my office door.”
Inside was a handwritten note.
Three lines.
VINCENT IS NOT THE ONLY ONE.
CHECK THE OLD HOUSE ACCOUNTS.
DO NOT TRUST DANIEL.
Clara looked toward Daniel.
Daniel did not move.
Leo read the note twice.
Then slowly lifted his eyes toward the man who had served as his security chief for eleven years.
May you like
Daniel stared back.
And for the first time since Clara had met him, Leo Castillion looked genuinely uncertain.
