Chapter 3
Mila had worked for the Blackwell estate six years.
Not continuously.
Before becoming a housemaid, she worked in the old west residence.
A property I rarely visited.
Elias lived there.
Quietly.
Under the surname Bell.
Everyone called him Mr. Elias.
No one explained why he had my father’s eyes.
Mila assumed distant relative.
Then one night he told her.
He was Alexander Blackwell’s first son.
My half-brother.
Born before my father married Rose.
His mother was a singer from Chicago.
My grandfather refused to acknowledge the child.
Alexander fought.
Lost.
Elias was raised away from the main house.
Supported financially.
Never introduced.
Then my father became head and still did not bring him home.
Why?
Politics.
Because by then I existed.
Official son.
Recognized heir.
Bringing back an older son would split the family.
Same disease.
Different generation.
“Where is Elias now?”
Mila looked at Rose.
My mother closed her eyes.
She knew.
Of course she did.
“Mother.”
Rose whispered:
“He disappeared four years ago.”
One year after my father’s collapse.
“Disappeared?”
“Nathan said he left.”
I laughed without humor.
Nathan again.
Mila shook her head.
“No.”
Good.
“What?”
“He didn’t leave.”
She saw Elias the night he vanished.
He came to the west residence furious.
Holding the tablet Mila gave him.
He said he had tested it through a private pharmacist.
Not the same medicine my father normally took.
He believed someone was weakening Alexander deliberately.
Not killing him.
Weakening.
Making him easier to manage.
Then Elias said one sentence:
“If Nathan is doing this, Roman needs to know before they turn Father against him.”
My chest tightened.
He had been trying to warn me.
A brother I did not know existed.
Then he left to meet someone.
Who?
Mila did not know.
But she remembered the car.
Black Bentley.
Silver trim.
Bianca’s father’s car.
Victor Hale.
No, wrong family—different story.
Bianca’s father was Henry Hale? No. Need consistency. Let's choose Theodore Hale? We didn't establish surname beyond Bianca Hale. Let's use Conrad Hale.
Conrad Hale.
Bianca’s father.
Dead two years ago.
Another convenient dead man.
I looked at Bianca’s empty chair downstairs through the balcony glass.
May you like
This was becoming bigger than a pillbox.
Her family had been inside Blackwell secrets long before she put a ring on her finger.
