Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Raised a Monster
Damian read his mother's name three times.
It did not change.
Evelyn Cross.
Authorization.
Medical access.
Payments.
Arthur Hale had documented everything.
Elena watched Damian become very still.
That was how his anger worked.
Other men shouted.
Damian became quiet enough to make everyone else afraid to breathe.
"My mother wasn't involved in the business."
Rafael stood near the door.
"Boss—"
"She hated it."
Nobody answered.
Damian turned to Samuel.
"Could these records be forged?"
Samuel studied the medical documents.
"Anything can be forged."
"That's not what I asked."
Samuel exhaled.
"The formatting is authentic for the hospital. The medication lot numbers match records from that period."
Damian's jaw tightened.
Ethan looked confused.
"Did his mom hurt his dad?"
Elena placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We don't know yet."
Damian closed the folder.
"We're going to find out."
Evelyn Cross lived in a quiet lakefront mansion twenty miles north.
She had left Damian's estate after Vincent's death, saying the house contained too many ghosts.
Damian had believed her.
At seventy-one, Evelyn still attended charity galas, church fundraisers and museum boards.
Chicago newspapers called her elegant.
Private.
Widowed too young.
When Damian entered her library at midnight, she didn't look surprised.
She sat beside the fireplace drinking tea.
"I wondered how long Arthur's secrets would remain buried."
Damian stopped.
Elena felt the answer like ice.
"You knew."
Evelyn looked at her.
"You must be Elena."
Damian moved between them.
"Don't."
Evelyn smiled sadly.
"Your father had your eyes."
Elena's hands clenched.
"You knew him?"
"Very well."
"Did you help kill him?"
Damian's voice cut through the room.
"Answer me."
Evelyn looked at her son.
"No."
"Did you poison my father?"
"No."
Damian placed printed documents on the table.
"Your signature."
"My signature was stolen."
"By whom?"
"Marco."
"Convenient."
"True."
Evelyn's hands trembled slightly around the cup.
Damian saw it.
"So what did you do?"
She looked into the fire.
"I knew Vincent was being poisoned."
The sentence broke something.
Damian stared.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"And said nothing."
"I tried."
"To whom?"
"Arthur."
Elena frowned.
"My father?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Your father discovered the medication inconsistencies before anyone."
"Then why is your authorization attached?"
"Because Marco used me."
Damian laughed once without humor.
"Everyone uses you tonight."
Evelyn rose.
"You think your father was a good man because he's dead."
Damian's face went hard.
"Careful."
"He loved you. That doesn't make him good."
"What did he do?"
Evelyn walked to an old cabinet and removed a sealed envelope.
"Vincent discovered Marco was stealing from the organization."
"We know."
"He planned to kill Marco's entire family."
Vivienne's face flashed in Elena's memory.
Evelyn continued.
"His wife. His daughter. Everyone."
Damian shook his head.
"My father had rules."
"Your father had rules when convenient."
She handed Damian the envelope.
"Arthur begged him not to involve families. Vincent refused."
Damian opened it.
Inside was a copy of an order.
Names.
Addresses.
Marco's family.
Vivienne had been nineteen.
Damian looked sick.
"Marco found out."
"He poisoned your father slowly so Vincent would appear to die from his illness."
"And Isabella?"
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"She discovered the truth."
Damian's voice became a whisper.
"How?"
"Arthur trusted her."
Elena understood.
Her father had needed somebody outside the organization.
A schoolteacher nobody would suspect.
"Arthur gave Isabella copies of Vincent's medical records," Evelyn said. "She planned to take them to federal prosecutors."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Because Arthur believed someone close to you was leaking information."
Damian stared at his mother.
"Me?"
"No."
Evelyn looked away.
Damian's voice sharpened.
"Who?"
"Your uncle Gabriel."
Rafael swore softly.
Gabriel Cross had disappeared six years ago.
Officially dead.
No body had been found.
"Gabriel told Marco about the documents," Evelyn said. "Marco ordered the bomb."
Damian gripped the table.
"And you knew?"
"Not until after."
"You knew for five years."
"Yes."
He looked at her as though she were a stranger.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you were already becoming your father."
Silence.
Evelyn's voice shook.
"You hunted everyone connected to Isabella's death. Men disappeared. Families fled Chicago. I watched my son turn grief into an empire built on fear."
Damian's eyes darkened.
"So you lied."
"I thought if you learned Marco was responsible, you would start another war."
"He killed the woman I loved."
"And how many women would become widows after you answered him?"
Damian stepped back.
Elena had never seen anyone speak to him this way.
Perhaps only a mother could.
Evelyn looked at Elena.
"Arthur wanted Damian to be different."
"My father trusted him."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Damian was the only Cross who still hated what power had done to his family."
Damian's mouth tightened.
"You don't know me."
Evelyn's eyes filled.
"I know exactly who you are. That's why I was afraid."
Elena touched Damian's sleeve.
He looked down at her hand.
The anger did not vanish.
But it stopped moving.
Evelyn noticed.
Something softened in her expression.
"So that's her."
Damian's eyes turned dangerous.
"Don't."
"The woman in your house."
"She's under my protection."
"I didn't say otherwise."
Elena cleared her throat.
"I am also standing here."
Evelyn almost smiled.
"I like you."
Damian muttered, "Of course you do."
The moment ended when Rafael's phone rang.
His face changed.
"Ethan."
Elena spun around.
"What?"
"Samuel says his blood pressure crashed."
She was already running.
The drive back to the estate became a blur.
Damian made calls.
Samuel prepared emergency transport.
Elena sat beside him, shaking.
"It was his medication."
"We corrected it."
"What if Marco's people did more?"
"We'll know."
"He was fine when we left."
Damian reached across the seat.
His hand covered hers.
"Elena."
She looked at him.
"You told me yesterday that guilt and responsibility aren't the same."
Her eyes filled.
"Don't use my own words against me."
"They were good words."
She laughed through tears.
"You're terrible at comforting people."
"I've had limited practice."
His thumb moved over her knuckles.
"I'm trying."
That broke her.
Elena turned toward the window and cried silently.
Damian didn't tell her to stop.
He simply kept holding her hand.
At the estate, Samuel met them in the private medical room.
"Ethan's stable."
Elena nearly collapsed.
"What happened?"
"He had an acute reaction."
"To what?"
Samuel held up a medication vial.
"This wasn't part of what I ordered."
Damian's face became deadly.
"Who brought it in?"
"A nurse from the medical supplier."
"Where is she?"
"Gone."
Rafael was already moving.
Samuel continued.
"The vial contained a drug that could have caused cardiac arrest."
Elena stared at her brother through the glass.
"This isn't over."
"No," Damian said.
Marco was in federal custody.
So who had ordered this?
Rafael returned carrying a tablet.
"We pulled exterior cameras."
A woman in medical scrubs had entered through the service gate.
Her face was partially hidden.
But her car was visible.
Damian recognized it.
His expression changed.
"No."
Elena looked.
"What?"
Damian enlarged the license plate.
Registered owner:
GABRIEL CROSS.
The uncle everyone believed had been dead for six years.
A message arrived on Damian's phone.
Unknown number.
You found Arthur's file.
Congratulations, nephew.
Now ask yourself why Marco was so desperate to destroy it.
Another message followed.
A photograph.
Taken less than thirty minutes earlier.
Ethan sleeping inside Damian's medical room.
Someone had been close enough to photograph him.
Inside the supposedly locked estate.
May you like
And beneath the picture were five words.
THIS FAMILY STILL BELONGS TO ME.
