Chapter 3
The legally documented DNA result arrived five days later.
Jace was Cassian’s biological son.
Cassian read the report alone.
Then he called Noah into his study.
He did not want his eight-year-old hearing it from staff, relatives, or school gossip.
Noah sat on the sofa with his knees pulled up.
Cassian held the paper.
“The test came back.”
Noah watched him.
“Jace is my son.”
Noah looked down.
“So he’s my brother.”
“Biologically, yes.”
“Do I have to like him?”
Cassian nearly smiled.
“No.”
“Good.”
That answer came fast.
Cassian sat across from him.
“You also don’t have to decide what he means to you today.”
Noah picked at his cardigan sleeve.
“He locked me in the locker.”
“I know.”
“Because he hates me?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah looked toward him.
“Do you hate him?”
Cassian thought carefully.
“No.”
“Even after what he did?”
“I’m angry about what he did.”
“That’s different?”
“Yes.”
Noah seemed unconvinced.
Cassian did not force the lesson.
The financial records arrived that afternoon.
For thirteen years, Lena had received monthly support.
It began at $2,500.
Increased gradually.
Tuition payments were separate.
Medical expenses were reimbursed.
Summer programs.
Therapy.
Sports.
The arrangement was substantial.
Approximately $760,000 had reached Lena or providers on Jace’s behalf over thirteen years.
Cassian had authorized none of it.
Yet every annual renewal included his digital signature.
Rebecca looked at him.
“Your signature system?”
“Vale firm archive.”
“Who controlled it thirteen years ago?”
“My father.”
“Anyone else?”
“Firm administrator. General counsel.”
The payments came from the Vale Family Assistance Trust.
Cassian knew the trust existed.
It paid for education, emergency support, family medical expenses, and private security for extended relatives.
He had never reviewed every beneficiary.
Arthur had managed it for decades.
Rebecca asked:
“Was Jace technically a beneficiary?”
“Not that I knew.”
The trust ledger did not use his name.
Recipient code:
H-17.
Lena Holloway.
Rebecca found something else.
The trust had not actually funded the full cost.
Each year Vale & Vale reimbursed a portion of the assistance trust through a line item labeled:
Confidential case-development expenses.
Cassian stared at it.
“That makes no sense.”
“Why?”
“Family support is not case development.”
“How much was reimbursed?”
Rebecca turned the page.
Over thirteen years?
Almost $2.9 million.
Cassian looked up sharply.
“But Lena received seven hundred sixty thousand.”
“Yes.”
“Where did the rest go?”
Rebecca did not know yet.
That transformed the problem.
Someone had not merely hidden a child.
May you like
Someone had built a financial channel around him.
And Jace had received only a fraction of the money flowing through it.
