Chapter 9
I answered Elias Mercer the next morning.
Not by message.
Call.
He answered immediately.
“Selene.”
“You knew my number.”
“I’ve known it for years.”
Interesting.
“But not Bennett.”
“No.”
His voice changed at the name.
Grief does strange things even through a phone.
“Is he Adrian’s?”
I did not lie.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then a sound like someone sitting down.
“My grandson.”
Biologically.
I did not correct him immediately.
“Lila asked that Bennett never become a family bridge.”
He was quiet.
“You knew her?”
“Yes.”
“I met her once.”
That surprised me.
Adrian brought Lila to his father privately.
Elias disliked the relationship.
Too ordinary.
Too disconnected from Mercer.
He told Adrian it would pass.
Then Adrian died.
Elias never knew Lila was pregnant.
Regret arrived twenty years too early or three years too late depending how you measure.
“I want to see him.”
“No.”
Silence.
Not never.
Not punishment.
No today.
Elias exhaled.
“I am his grandfather.”
“You are a stranger to him.”
“That can change.”
“Maybe.”
He hated maybe.
Good.
Then he asked:
“What do you want?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s impossible.”
Old families again.
Every conversation expected a trade.
“I want you to understand Bennett is not a route, vote, marriage, succession solution, or proof Adrian continues through you.”
Silence.
“He is three.”
Elias spoke more softly.
“I only want to meet him.”
Maybe true.
Maybe not fully.
People rarely understand all their motives at once.
“We start with me.”
He agreed.
Then Silas made one last move.
He leaked the adoption internally.
Not publicly.
To twelve senior Caruso relatives.
By lunchtime, I received three calls.
One asked whether Bennett was still “eligible.”
I hung up.
Another asked whether Mercer would now claim him.
I hung up.
The third came from Raymond Vale.
He asked:
“Does Bennett know?”
That was the only intelligent question.
“No.”
“Then maybe everyone should shut up until his mother decides how to tell him.”
I smiled.
Finally.
One adult.
May you like
The crisis Silas wanted had arrived.
Now I got to decide whether it controlled the family or exposed it.
