Chapter 4 - Caroline Had Another Fierce Protector
The other man was Samuel Bennett.
Robert’s older brother.
Alicia remembered him only through photographs because he died when she was four.
Samuel knew about Caroline and David. He already despised David over aggressive redevelopment projects that displaced families Samuel represented through legal aid.
When Samuel learned David might be Alicia’s biological father, he became fiercely protective.
Too protective.
He threatened David and nearly triggered the custody fight Caroline feared.
Later Samuel regretted it.
Then he began investigating David’s businesses.
Four years later, Samuel died in a boating accident.
Robert immediately rejected any suggestion that the death was suspicious.
Evelyn said she hoped he was right.
Alicia noticed that word.
Hoped.
Samuel had mailed Evelyn a package shortly before his death.
She never opened it.
Robert stared at his mother in disbelief.
“You kept a sealed package from my dead brother for twenty-three years?”
“I was afraid of what it would do to us.”
Alicia removed her veil.
“The ceremony is canceled.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Not because I know what we are,” Alicia said. “Because we don’t.”
Then she looked at Evelyn.
“Show me the package.”
It was hidden in a cedar chest in the attic.
Inside were property records, photographs, a cassette tape, and Samuel’s letter.
He had discovered shell companies buying condemned properties shortly before public redevelopment announcements.
David’s companies profited.
But Samuel’s notes revealed an unexpected development.
David had begun cooperating with him.
He wanted to repair some of the damage.
Samuel wrote that another person had been moving money through David’s companies.
Initials: L.M.
Laura Mercer.
Nathan stared at the page.
Then Robert found a smaller envelope stuck inside the package seam.
It was addressed to Caroline.
Samuel wrote:
ROBERT IS ALICIA’S FATHER. DAVID HAS THE TEST.
Relief struck the room.
But Daniel warned them that a letter was not a laboratory report.
Then Samuel’s final paragraph created a new mystery.
David wanted Alicia removed from the trust after learning she was not his child.
May you like
Someone stopped him.
Someone who needed the paternity uncertainty to remain alive.
