Chapter 4
Bennett’s birth mother was Lila Hart.
Twenty-four.
Beautiful smile.
Terrible poker face.
Daughter of Daniel Hart, one of my father’s drivers.
I knew her most of my life.
Not close enough to call best friend.
Close enough that she trusted me when everything collapsed.
Bennett’s father disappeared before he was born.
Not dead.
Gone.
Lila refused to name him.
That was her right.
Then complications after childbirth took her from us.
Before she died, she asked one thing.
“Don’t let them make him pay for me.”
I never understood exactly what she meant.
I thought she meant poverty.
Her father’s debts.
Maybe abandonment.
So I took Bennett.
Not bought.
Not acquired.
Took responsibility.
Loved him afterward.
Then somewhere along the way, responsibility became motherhood so completely that I stopped remembering there had ever been a distinction.
Only five people knew the whole story because Lila asked for privacy.
Silas was one.
Why did he now want her name public?
I went to Grace.
She was seventy now.
Still Bennett’s favorite person because she let him eat crackers before dinner.
“Did Lila ever tell you who his father was?”
Grace became still.
That answered.
“You know.”
“She made me promise.”
“Lila is dead.”
“A promise doesn’t expire because the person does.”
Fair.
I sat.
“Silas wants her name exposed.”
Grace’s face changed.
That mattered.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked toward the nursery.
Then finally said:
“Because Lila wasn’t afraid people would judge her.”
I waited.
“She was afraid someone would recognize Bennett’s father.”
My pulse slowed.
“Who?”
Grace shook her head.
“I never knew the name.”
“What did you know?”
“One thing.”
Lila had told Grace the father belonged to a family powerful enough that if Bennett’s existence became known, people would try to claim him.
Not emotionally.
Politically.
I stared.
Silas did not merely want Bennett disqualified as a Caruso heir.
May you like
He wanted his blood identified.
Which meant the old man believed Bennett might belong to another family powerful enough to become useful.
