Chapter 11 - THE FATHER WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD|
Graham stood in the entrance hall, staring at the security monitor.
The man outside looked older, but there was no mistaking his face.
Victor Costa.
His father.
The man whose funeral Graham had attended seven years earlier.
"Open the gate," Graham ordered.
Tabitha caught his arm.
"Are you sure?"
He looked at her.
"No."
Nevertheless, he walked outside.
Victor entered the mansion without waiting for an invitation. His expensive overcoat was immaculate, and his silver hair was neatly combed.
He looked around the foyer.
"Nothing has changed."
Graham raised his weapon.
"You're supposed to be dead."
Victor smiled.
"Apparently, death is a little more complicated than your accountants told you."
"Why are you here?"
"To collect what belongs to me."
His gaze moved toward Tabitha.
For several seconds, he studied her face.
Then he smiled.
"Elizabeth's daughter."
Tabitha felt Graham move slightly in front of her.
"Don't look at her."
Victor chuckled.
"Still protecting people who don't belong in our family."
"She's my sister."
Victor's smile disappeared.
"That's what they told you?"
He removed a document from his coat and placed it on the table.
The paper contained a different medical report.
According to the document, Catherine Costa had died shortly after birth.
Tabitha had been adopted by Elizabeth Hayes.
The two children were not related.
Graham looked at the report.
"Who signed this?"
"Your mother."
"She was dead."
"She signed it before she died."
Victor sat down.
He explained that Isabella had discovered her daughter was seriously ill. Rather than allow the family to exploit the child's condition, she had arranged for Elizabeth to raise her.
Victor claimed that Tabitha had been told a false story by Margaret.
But Graham noticed something.
The signature on the report was not Isabella's.
He had seen his mother's handwriting hundreds of times.
"You're lying."
Victor's expression hardened.
"Careful."
Graham stepped closer.
"Where is Catherine?"
Victor looked at Tabitha.
"Closer than you imagine."
Before anyone could ask another question, the mansion's security system went dark.
Gunshots erupted outside.
Victor stood calmly.
"Your security has become careless."
Graham grabbed Tabitha and pushed her behind the marble staircase.
Men in black entered through the rear doors.
The household staff screamed.
Graham's guards returned fire.
Victor disappeared into the chaos.
When the shooting ended, the attackers were gone.
But so was Tabitha.
Graham searched every room.
He found her phone beside the staircase.
A message appeared on the screen.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT YOUR SISTER BACK.
Below it was an address.
Graham called his security director.
"Find her."
"Boss, the address is an abandoned medical facility."
Graham grabbed his coat.
"Get the cars ready."
The director hesitated.
"Sir, Victor's men are probably waiting."
Graham turned.
"Then they'll learn what happens when they take someone from my family."
At the abandoned facility, Tabitha woke in a small examination room.
Her wrists were tied.
A woman stood beside the window.
She looked almost identical to the woman in the old photograph.
"Who are you?" Tabitha whispered.
The woman turned.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"My name is Catherine."
She approached slowly.
"And I've been waiting twenty-eight years to meet my sister."
Then she placed a photograph in Tabitha's hands.
It showed Isabella holding two newborn babies.
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But written on the back was a sentence that destroyed everything Victor had told them.
ONE CHILD WAS SAVED. THE OTHER WAS SOLD.
