Chapter 9 - The Father Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Rafe couldn't speak.
His mother approached him.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
Rafe's expression hardened.
“You let me believe my father was dead.”
“I believed it too.”
“But you weren't certain.”
“No.”
Sloan watched him struggle.
Rafe's father, Alessandro Castellano, had disappeared after an internal power struggle.
Margarite believed he had been killed.
Then letters began arriving.
No return address.
Each one contained details only Alessandro should have known.
At first, Margarite ignored them.
Then threats appeared.
If she refused to cooperate, Rafe would suffer.
She had obeyed because she believed Alessandro was capable of anything.
Sloan asked the most important question.
“What did he want?”
Margarite looked at her.
“Control.”
Of what?
The family.
The businesses.
And Rafe.
Alessandro believed Rafe had betrayed him by changing the organization after inheriting it.
He wanted his son weakened enough to surrender authority.
The illness wasn't designed to kill Rafe.
It was designed to make him doubt himself.
Sloan understood.
The person poisoning Rafe wasn't trying to remove him.
He was trying to make Rafe believe he was no longer capable of leading.
Then Rafe looked at Sloan.
“You knew this could happen.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you come?”
“Because your father killed my father.”
The room went silent.
Rafe stared at her.
Sloan continued.
“My father spent years investigating Alessandro's network.”
Rafe's face changed.
“So this was personal.”
“It started that way.”
“And now?”
May you like
Sloan looked at him.
“Now I want the truth.”
