Chapter 7
Vincent Parker had kept a private list of bloodlines.
William learned that from Damian.
Not heirs.
Bloodlines.
Names of children born inside or near the Parker organization. Who their parents were. Who could one day make claims. Who Vincent trusted. Who he believed should be watched.
Elena found Emma’s name inside.
William stared through the glass.
“Why?”
Victor answered.
“Because Vincent knew Elena was pregnant.”
William turned.
The room went silent.
“Elena was Emma’s mother?”
Victor said nothing.
Emma had called Elena “Mommy.”
William had assumed love, adoption, guardianship.
Now the pieces shifted.
“Elena gave birth to her.”
“Yes.”
William’s chest tightened.
That made Emma his niece.
His actual blood.
His sister’s daughter.
The photograph suddenly felt heavier in his pocket.
“Daniel was her father?”
“Yes.”
William looked at Damian.
“And Vincent knew.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t I?”
Neither brother answered.
William understood before they spoke.
Because Vincent ordered everyone not to tell him.
He had been running crews for years by then. He was not a child.
But Vincent had still decided what truths William was allowed to know.
“What did he plan for Emma?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Damian answered.
“He wanted her outside Parker succession.”
William almost laughed.
“She was a baby.”
“To Vincent, babies became adults.”
William knew that logic.
His father had planned thirty years ahead and called everyone else careless for living in the present.
“What did Elena do?”
“She took the ledger,” Damian said. “Then she vanished with Emma.”
“And Rachel?”
Victor looked away.
“Elena’s half-sister.”
William stared.
“Through who?”
“Your mother.”
That changed everything again.
William’s mother, Margaret Parker, had died when he was seventeen.
Apparently she had left behind another daughter William never knew existed.
Rachel.
Half sister to Elena.
Half sister to William.
And Noah—
William looked toward the baby.
If Rachel was Noah’s mother, then Noah was also Parker blood.
Not one hidden child.
Two.
Vincent had spent years erasing a branch of his own family.
May you like
Now both surviving children had appeared at William’s table starving.
And Victor had tried to throw them back into the rain.
