Chapter 24
The warm atmosphere in the grand dining room vanished instantly, replaced by a sudden, heavy wave of dread.
“Custody claim?” my mother gasped, standing up from her leather chair so fast her napkin fell to the floor.
“On what possible grounds? I’m their biological mother!”
William held the parchment paper up under the chandelier light, reading the secondary legal clause aloud.
“According to this document, your father signed a secret guardianship trust in Rome thirty years ago, Clara.”
“A trust that automatically awards legal custody of your children to the senior European branch of the family if you ever disappear.”
I looked at my mother, then at Maya, my chest tightening as the shadow of a new, global threat appeared.
We thought we had defeated the monster in Boston, only to discover that our family secrets stretched far across the ocean.
William stood up from the table, his steel-gray eyes flashing with that familiar, dangerous fire I had seen on the plane.
“Vance,” William commanded into his lapel radio without taking his eyes off the legal parchment.
“Prepare the Gulfstream jet for departure.”
“We’re flying to Rome tomorrow morning.”
I looked out the grand arched window at the dark ocean waves crashing against the Newport cliffs below.
My journey hadn’t ended when I stepped off that airplane in Switzerland.
It was merely moving to an international stage where ancient family secrets were waiting in the shadows of Europe.
May you like
I reached into my sweater pocket, clutching my mother’s brass locket tightly in my hand, ready for the next storm.
Because no matter what secrets lay waiting for us in Rome, I was never going to let anyone break my family again.
