Chapter 8 - THE CHILDREN WHO HAD NOT BEEN BORN
The empty carrier was not a threat against the unborn twins.
It was a message about another child.
Vincent found a photograph taped beneath the handle.
It showed a ten-year-old boy leaving a private school.
Dominic recognized him immediately.
“Julian.”
Layla looked at him.
“Who is he?”
“My brother’s son.”
Dominic’s older brother, Adrian, had died in a boating accident eight years earlier.
The public believed his son lived overseas with his mother.
In reality, Dominic had hidden Julian after discovering that Charles Cross wanted the boy eliminated.
Under Gallow rules, Adrian’s son held a future claim to the organization.
“They found him,” Dominic said.
Dominic ordered Julian moved, but the team guarding the school never responded.
An hour later, Vivienne called.
Her voice came through the speaker.
“Julian is comfortable.”
“If you touch him, I will burn everything your father owns.”
“That is exactly why he is useful.”
“What do you want?”
“The evidence from Samuel Bennett.”
Dominic looked at Layla.
Vivienne continued.
“Bring it to the wedding.”
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
She ended the call.
Layla watched Dominic struggle between rage and calculation.
“Give them copies,” she said.
“They will verify the originals.”
“Then we change what the originals lead to.”
The documents named judges, police officers, politicians, and business owners connected to both families.
Layla noticed several account numbers repeated throughout the files.
Samuel had circled certain digits.
They formed coordinates.
The coordinates led to an abandoned chapel outside Milwaukee.
Inside, Dominic and Layla found a buried metal box.
It contained Eleanor’s recorded testimony.
She described Marcus Gallow and Charles Cross arranging murders, bribing officials, and stealing millions from pension funds.
The final tape had been recorded the night before her death.
“If anything happens to me, protect Dominic from his father.”
Dominic turned away when his mother’s voice broke.
Layla placed a hand against his back.
The tape ended with another revelation.
Eleanor had been pregnant when she died.
The medical report claimed the child did not survive.
But Samuel’s notes suggested otherwise.
A baby girl had been removed from the hospital records.
Layla stared at the bird-shaped locket in her hand.
Her birth certificate listed no hospital.
Samuel had always refused to discuss her mother.
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
Neither of them wanted to say it.
They ordered emergency DNA testing.
The results arrived the night before the wedding.
Dominic opened the envelope.
His face went white.
Layla was not Eleanor’s daughter.
But she was related to the Gallow family.
The test showed she and Dominic shared a paternal connection.
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Samuel Bennett was not Layla’s biological father.
Marcus Gallow was.
