Chapter 32 Chapter 32

Chapter 32 Chapter 32
~THIRTY-TWO~

I showed the text to Declan, my hands shaking.

"Not again," he said. "This can't be happening again."

"Who's left?" I asked desperately. "Who else could want to hurt us?"

We called Detective Morrison immediately.

"The message came from a burner phone," he said after checking. "No way to trace it. But I'll put a team on this. See if we can figure out who sent it."

"Could it be someone connected to Victoria?" I asked. "Someone who knew about the secret?"

"It's possible," Detective Morrison said. "I'll look into everyone who visited Victoria in prison before she died."

After he hung up, I stared at my phone, wondering what to do.

"You can't let them control you," Declan said. "This is exactly what they want—for you to be too scared to act."

"But what if they're serious?" I asked. "What if telling Sarah really does put someone in danger?"

"Then we protect Sarah while we tell her," Declan suggested. "But we don't let anonymous threats dictate our lives. Not anymore."

He was right. We'd spent years running from threats and warnings. It was time to stop.

I called Sarah and asked her to come over. "It's important," I said. "And bring your boyfriend if you want. You might need support."

Sarah arrived an hour later, alone. "You sounded so serious on the phone," she said. "What's going on? Is someone threatening you again?"

"Not exactly," I said. "Sarah, sit down. I need to tell you something, and it's going to be hard to hear."

I told her everything. About Diana, about the adoption, about the secret our mother had kept for her entire life.

Sarah's face went through several emotions—shock, disbelief, anger, hurt.

"So my whole life is a lie," she said finally, her voice flat.

"No," I said firmly. "Your life is real. Mom's love for you is real. Our sisterhood is real. The only thing that's different is biology."

"That's not a small thing, Anita," Sarah said, tears streaming down her face. "I don't even know who my real mother was. I don't know where I come from."

"You come from love," I said. "Mom chose to raise you, to make you part of our family. That means more than biology ever could."

"Easy for you to say," Sarah snapped. "You know who your parents are. You know where you came from. I'm just the orphan your mother felt sorry for."

"That's not true," I said. "Sarah, you're my sister. Nothing about that has changed."

But Sarah was already standing up. "I need time to process this. I can't—I can't be here right now."

She left before I could stop her.

"That went badly," Declan observed.

"What did you expect?" I asked. "I just destroyed her entire sense of identity."

"You told her the truth," Declan corrected. "Which is what she deserved. Now she needs time to deal with it."

I tried calling Sarah several times that evening. She didn't answer.

I called my mother to tell her what I'd done.

"Why?" my mother asked, her voice breaking. "Why did you tell her? I asked you not to."

"Because secrets always come out," I said. "And it's better she heard it from family than some other way."

"You've ruined everything," my mother said. "Sarah will never forgive me for lying to her all these years."

"She will," I said, hoping I was right. "She just needs time."

But days passed, and Sarah still wouldn't talk to me. She wouldn't answer calls or texts. She blocked me on social media.

"Give her space," Declan advised. "She'll come around when she's ready."

I hoped he was right, but I was worried. Sarah had a tendency to spiral when she was upset.

A week after our conversation, I got another text from the unknown number.

You were warned. Now someone Sarah loves will pay the price for your disobedience.

"They're going to hurt someone close to Sarah," I told Declan, showing him the message.

"Her boyfriend," Declan said immediately. "He's the person she's closest to right now."

We called Detective Morrison and explained the situation.

"We'll put protection on him," Detective Morrison said. "What's his name?"

"David Chen," I said. "He works at—"

I stopped. "Wait. Chen? Is he related to Margaret Chen?"

"I don't know," Declan said. "Sarah never mentioned it."

We called Margaret to ask.

"David is my nephew," Margaret confirmed. "He and Sarah have been dating for about six months. Why?"

I explained the situation.

"I'll call him right now," Margaret said. "Make sure he's safe."

But when she called David, he didn't answer.

"His phone is going straight to voicemail," Margaret said, sounding worried.

"Where does he work?" Detective Morrison asked.

"Downtown, at an architecture firm," Margaret said. "Chen and Associates. It's the family business."

Detective Morrison sent officers to David's workplace immediately. They found his office empty, his computer still on, his coffee still warm.

David Chen had vanished.

"We need to find Sarah," I said. "She needs to know David's missing."

But when we went to Sarah's apartment, she wasn't there either.

"Where would she go?" Declan asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "She's been so angry with me, she might not want to be anywhere I could find her."

We checked her favorite coffee shop, the gym she belonged to, even the hospital where she worked. No sign of Sarah anywhere.

"Try her phone again," Detective Morrison suggested.

This time, Sarah answered.

"What do you want?" she asked coldly.

"Where are you?" I asked. "David's missing. Someone took him from his office."

"What? No, that's not possible. I just talked to him this morning," Sarah said.

"When was the last time you actually saw him?" I pressed.

Sarah was quiet. "Yesterday. We had breakfast together before work."

"Sarah, where are you right now?" I asked again.

"I'm at Diana's grave," Sarah said softly. "I found out where she was buried and came to... I don't know. Meet her, I guess."

"Stay there," I said. "We're coming to you."

The cemetery was on the edge of the city, quiet and peaceful. We found Sarah sitting in front of a simple headstone that read: Diana Margaret Lawson, Beloved Daughter and Mother.

"She died so young," Sarah said without looking up. "Only twenty-four. I never got to know her."

I sat down next to her. "I'm so sorry you're going through this."

"Are you?" Sarah asked. "Because it feels like you just dropped a bomb on my life and walked away."

"I told you because I love you," I said. "Because you deserved to know the truth."

"The truth sucks," Sarah said. She finally looked at me, her eyes red from crying. "I keep thinking about all the times Mom could have told me. Every birthday, every Christmas, every important moment—she chose to keep lying."

"She was trying to protect you," I said.

"From what? From knowing I was loved enough that someone chose to raise me even though they didn't have to?" Sarah asked. "That's not something that needs protection. That's something to celebrate."

She had a point.

"You're right," I admitted. "Mom should have told you years ago. But Sarah, her love for you is real. Everything she did, she did because she loves you."

"I know," Sarah said quietly. "I'm still angry, but I know."

My phone buzzed with a text. Detective Morrison.

We found David. He's alive but was drugged and left in an abandoned warehouse. Bringing him to the hospital now.

Relief flooded through me. "They found David. He's okay."

Sarah's face crumpled. "Thank God. Can we go see him?"

At the hospital, David was groggy but unharmed.

"What happened?" Margaret asked her nephew.

"Someone came into my office pretending to be a delivery person," David explained. "They had a package for me. When I opened it, some kind of gas came out. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a warehouse with police officers standing over me."

"Did you see who took you?" Detective Morrison asked.

"No, I was unconscious almost immediately," David said. "But there was a note pinned to my shirt."

He handed Detective Morrison a piece of paper.

This is what happens when warnings are ignored. Next time, I won't be so merciful. Keep your family's secrets buried, or more people will suffer. - A Friend

"They're serious about this," I said. "Someone really doesn't want Sarah to know the truth about her mother."

"But why?" Sarah asked. "What difference does it make who my biological mother was?"

"Maybe it's not about you," Detective Morrison said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's about Diana. Maybe she had secrets of her own that someone wants to keep buried."

"What kind of secrets?" I asked.

"That's what we need to find out," Detective Morrison said.

Over the next few days, Detective Morrison's team investigated Diana's life. What they found was surprising.

Diana had been engaged when she died. To a man named Richard Castellano—a wealthy businessman with connections to organized crime.

"Castellano died five years ago," Detective Morrison explained. "But his family is still active in various... enterprises. Some legal, some not so legal."

"You think the Castellano family doesn't want people digging into Diana's past?" Declan asked.

"I think it's possible," Detective Morrison said. "Diana might have known things about their operations. Things they don't want coming to light."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We keep digging," Detective Morrison said. "But carefully. The Castellanos are dangerous people."

That night, I got a call from an unknown number. Against my better judgment, I answered.

"Mrs. Harris," a man's voice said. "My name is Marco Castellano. I believe we need to talk."

"How did you get this number?" I asked.

"That's not important," Marco said smoothly. "What's important is that you stop investigating Diana Lawson. Her past is her past. It has nothing to do with you or your family."

"She was my aunt," I said. "And Sarah's mother. We have every right to know about her."

"You have rights," Marco agreed. "But so do we. The right to privacy. The right to protect our family's reputation. I'm asking nicely, Mrs. Harris. Stop digging. Walk away. Forget about Diana."

"And if I don't?" I challenged.

"Then I can't guarantee your family's safety," Marco said. "David Chen was a warning. Next time might not end so pleasantly."

He hung up before I could respond.

"The Castellanos definitely have something to hide," I told Declan after explaining the call.

"So we have a choice," De
clan said. "Back off and never know the truth about Diana, or keep investigating and risk another attack."

"Some choice," I muttered.

But I already knew what I was going to do.

I wasn't backing down.

Not when we'd come this far.