Chapter 10 – THE WOMAN AT THE GATE

My blood ran cold.

“My mother didn’t have a sister,” I said, stepping back. “She was an only child. She grew up in foster care.”

Adrian’s jaw tightened.

He gently squeezed my hand.

“Stay here with my dad.”

“No,” I said firmly. “If she’s claiming to be my family, I’m going with you.”

Standing on the other side of the bars was a woman in her late fifties.

She wore a faded trench coat. Her hair was grey and unkempt, but when she looked up, my breath caught in my throat.

She had my mother’s eyes.

“Ellie?” the woman choked out, grabbing the iron bars.

“Who are you?” I demanded, staying close to Adrian’s side.

The woman began to weep.

“I’m Sarah. I’m your mother’s twin sister.”

The world tilted on its axis.

“You’re lying,” I said, my voice shaking. “My mother never mentioned a sister.”

Sarah pressed her face against the cold metal.

“She couldn’t, Ellie. We were separated in the foster system when we were five. I spent my whole life looking for her. I only found out where she was twenty-four years ago.”

Adrian stepped forward, his presence immediately intimidating.

“If you found her twenty-four years ago, why didn’t you ever reach out?”

Sarah looked terrified of Adrian, but she didn’t back down.

“Because the day I finally tracked Eleanor down… was the day Marcus Whitmore murdered her.”

A heavy silence fell over the driveway.

“I saw it happen,” Sarah whispered, tears streaming down her face. “I was parked across the street from the precinct. I saw Marcus’s men run her car off the road. I knew if I came forward, they would kill me too. So I ran.”

She looked at me, her eyes filled with shame.

“And I left you with that monster, Arthur.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

She had known the truth all along, and she had abandoned me to a man who had sold my mother’s life.

“Why are you here now?” I asked coldly.

Sarah reached into the pocket of her trench coat.

She pulled out a sealed, yellowed envelope.

“Because I saw the news this morning. I saw that Marcus Whitmore was arrested. It’s finally safe.”

She pushed the envelope through the iron bars.

“Eleanor mailed this to me the day she died. She said if anything ever happened to her, I was to give this to you when you were old enough.”

I hesitated.

Adrian took the envelope first, inspecting it to make sure it was safe, then gently handed it to me.

My hands shook as I broke the old wax seal.

Inside was a letter written in my mother’s beautiful, cursive handwriting.

“My dearest Ellie,If you are reading this, I am gone. I am so sorry I couldn’t be there to watch you grow up. But I had to do what was right. Marcus Whitmore is a dangerous man, and I couldn’t let his crimes go unpunished.But there is one more secret, Ellie. One that Marcus doesn’t even know.The micro-film in the watch is a copy.The original ledger—the real proof that the Caruso family rightfully owns half of Chicago—is hidden where no one would ever think to look.”

I stopped reading.

I looked at Adrian.

“It’s a copy?” he whispered in disbelief.

I read the final line of the letter aloud.

“I hid the original ledger inside the silver bracelet with my name on it.”

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