The Family at the Wrong Table
Chapter 10 - The Family at the Wrong Table
Samuel met Evelyn at a neutral office with their respective lawyers. He was tall, soft-spoken, and had the same dark eyes. He studied the photograph of Margaret until his hands began shaking.
“My father told me my mother abandoned me,” he said.
Evelyn sat across from him. “Mine told me she loved me. I never knew there was anyone else.”
They agreed to accredited genetic testing rather than declaring themselves siblings from resemblance alone. The waiting felt cruel. Evelyn went back to work, Samuel to his accounting job, both trying to function while a lifetime of questions crowded their thoughts.
When the results returned, the testing strongly supported that they were full siblings.
Samuel cried first.
“I thought there was something wrong with me,” he said. “My father always treated me like an obligation.”
Evelyn reached across the table. “There was nothing wrong with you.”
He took her hand carefully, like someone learning a language he'd been denied.
***
The discovery complicated everything. Samuel had been raised under the Marconi name but said he hadn't known Dominic wasn't his biological father. He remembered Celeste resenting the attention paid to his education while also warning him never to inquire into the family trust.
Dante was careful not to treat Samuel as an accomplice by association. “People aren't guilty because of the family that raised them,” he told Anthony.
But Samuel possessed records that might explain the disputed property transactions. As an analyst, he'd recently flagged a payment from Marconi Capital to the estate-management firm handling Rose's brownstone.
“I asked about it,” Samuel said. “Celeste told me it was a routine property expense.”
“Was it?” Simone asked.
“I couldn't find a legitimate contract.”
That night the siblings walked beside the East River. They spoke awkwardly about childhoods they hadn't shared: school lunches, birthdays, favorite songs, Laura's laugh, the lonely dinners in Dominic's enormous house.
“Do you think our real mother wanted us together?” Samuel asked.
May you like
Evelyn looked at the city lights. “I think she wanted us safe. Maybe now we get to decide the rest.”
Behind them, a dark sedan slowed at the curb, then drove on.
