Nicholas felt the blood drain from his face. Mariana Cruz. The name his father, Charles Bennett, had murmured before he died—apologizing to someone Nicholas had never known.
He knelt on the sidewalk, ignoring the dirt staining his suit. “Come with me,” he said softly. “We need to talk.”
In his penthouse overlooking the city, Isabella devoured a sandwich while Nicholas called his family attorney, Arthur Klein.
When Klein saw the girl, he sank into a chair. “She has Charles’s eyes,” he murmured.
Nicholas demanded answers.
The truth surfaced like something buried too long. Charles Bennett had lived a double life. Married for status to Eleanor Bennett, Nicholas’s mother, but in love with a schoolteacher—Mariana Cruz. When Isabella was born, Charles had been too afraid to leave his powerful wife. He kept the child secret, providing money quietly, then retreating again.
“He created private trusts,” Klein explained, laying out documents. “Not just for Isabella. There are six other children. But Isabella… she was Mariana’s daughter. Charles left her majority control over personal offshore assets. Nearly twenty-five million euros.”