Chapter 14 - THE FIRST TRUST
Clarissa returned upstairs and found Evelyn gone.
No one had seen her leave.
Her borrowed car remained in the driveway.
Her coat hung beside the kitchen door.
On the dining table, Clarissa found a sealed envelope.
Inside was a letter.
Clarissa,
Parker is telling the truth about one thing. I have not told you everything.
Your father recruited me to help expose Victor Hale, but I was connected to the Cross family before I met Thomas. My real name is Evelyn Cross.
Adrian was my brother.
Clarissa lowered the letter.
Maya stood beside her.
“Then Evelyn may be your aunt.”
Clarissa continued reading.
The fire that destroyed our family home was not an accident. It occurred after our father attempted to dissolve the First Trust, an organization created by several wealthy families to protect property through secret marriages, false identities, and controlled inheritance.
Adrian survived. I believed he died years later.
Then Thomas contacted me and said Adrian had a daughter.
You.
Clarissa sat down.
Every answer opened a larger question.
Thomas had not only hidden her biological father’s identity. He had hidden an entire family history.
The letter explained that the First Trust placed children into selected families, manipulated marriages, and used private courts and medical professionals to maintain control over valuable bloodlines and estates.
The Cross family’s fortune had vanished after the fire.
Some of it had been absorbed by companies later connected to Victor Hale.
Thomas Vale had rescued Clarissa from that system.
Or perhaps stolen her from it.
The distinction was not yet clear.
Evelyn’s final paragraph contained a warning.
I left because remaining near you makes you easier to find. The person who sent the first recording is not Nathan. Nathan is dead.
The sender is Adrian.
Clarissa read the line again.
Her biological father was alive.
He had watched her.
He had sent evidence.
Yet he had not revealed himself.
Dustin entered the dining room holding the new rabbit.
“Mom, there’s something inside.”
The toy had been purchased that morning.
Maya had removed the store tag herself.
Clarissa took it.
A hard object pressed beneath the fabric.
She cut the seam.
Inside was a memory card.
Someone had placed it there after they returned home.
Jonah arrived with a secure laptop.
The card contained one video.
The image showed Parker tied to a chair in an unfamiliar room.
Blood ran down the side of his face.
A clock behind him displayed the current date and time.
Parker looked at the camera.
“Clarissa, they want the Cross ledger.”
He swallowed.
“I don’t know what that is. They believe your father gave it to Dustin.”
A voice outside the frame asked, “Which father?”
Parker closed his eyes.
“Adrian.”
The unseen person struck him.
The camera shook.
Then a man stepped into view.
He wore a dark coat.
A silver compass ring gleamed on his hand.
Clarissa felt the air leave her lungs.
The man appeared to be in his late fifties. His hair was gray at the temples, and his face carried scars along one side.
He resembled the younger man in Thomas’s photograph.
Adrian Cross looked directly into the camera.
“Hello, daughter.”
Clarissa touched the screen.
Adrian continued.
“Parker is alive because he may still be useful. Thomas is alive because I allowed it. Evelyn is alive because she has not yet chosen a side.”
Maya whispered, “Thomas is alive.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“You have exposed the Mercer branch, but the First Trust has already selected a replacement. In forty-eight hours, a hearing will determine the ownership of every Cross asset, including your son.”
Clarissa stood.
“No one owns my son.”
Although Adrian could not hear her, his next words seemed to answer.
“You believe Dustin is outside the trust because Parker is not his biological father. You are wrong.”
The video ended.
A document appeared on the screen.
It was a DNA report.
The listed names were Dustin Vale and Adrian Cross.
Relationship probability: grandparent, 99.8 percent.
Clarissa stared at the result.
That would be expected if Adrian was her father.
Then Jonah scrolled lower.
A second comparison appeared.
Dustin Vale and Parker Mercer.
Relationship probability: biological parent, 99.9 percent.
Clarissa stopped breathing.
Dustin’s biological father had supposedly died before he was born.
May you like
Parker had met her months later.
Unless their meeting had begun much earlier than she remembered.
