Accompanied by her best friend and Tyler, Aurora went to the shelter where her brother had taken refuge for safety. Seeing them at his doorstep, he blanched before bowing his head slightly.
"Since when do you bow to greet me?!"
"It's not you, it's the man behind you. Tyler Bellmore."
"Why are you..."
"What, you don't know? You didn't tell him who you were before?"
"Can someone explain to me what's going on between you so we can get to the heart of the matter quickly?"
Tyler entered first, sitting down on one of the available chairs. He put on his usual hard, impassive face.
"Do you know the Bonnato Mafia?"
"Yes, the most powerful of the American mafias." It was their leader, above all, who was best known among all the mafia bosses for his expertise in butchering assassins. But why this question? What does this have to do with you?
"I'm the son of the head of this mafia, even though, in practice, he retired to his villa in Canada."
Aurora remained silent for a long time before blinking, afraid she had misheard. She was expecting anything but... that.
"Excuse me? Did you just say you're the son of the most powerful mafia boss in all of America?"
"That's exactly right."
She turned to her friend, who was just as stunned as she was, then to her brother, who was smiling. As if he was delighted to have such an important person in the same room as him.
"And you knew it." So you also knew who he was when you learned I was at the same university and in the same classes as him.
"Yes, I knew, but I thought he told you just like you became friends."
"As you can see, no, I didn't know. And obviously, we don't have the same definition of friends since he didn't keep me informed of such important information," she added, giving him a cold look. "Hilton, I need to talk to you. In private."
She pulled him along, ignoring the puzzled looks from her two friends, and locked herself in a room with him.
"Is there a problem?"
"Yes, three days ago, there was a fire at our aunt's house, and I was there."
"Oh yeah, I heard about it at the prison. By the way, are you okay?"
"Yes, but that's not why I need your help. After the explosion, I was able to retrieve the mini-bomb for analysis. I also have the mini-camera I set up to spy on us. Since I know you're an expert in this kind of thing, I want you to analyze all the fingerprints on the bomb and the camera, and if you can, find out where it was manufactured. For my part, I'll continue my investigation to prove your innocence."
"I'll take care of it. Thanks, Sister."
As soon as they left the room, Aurora headed straight for the car without even glancing at her friends.
"Sandy, I advise you to go home; you have a book to write. Since your reputation has been cleared, I'm sure your publishing house has already asked for news about your new book. For my part, I'll continue my research with Tyler."
"You're probably right." Sandy added, glancing furtively at him to make him understand that he should be patient with her.
Aurora sent her friend a friendly glance before getting into the car in silence. Tyler, in turn, settled down, stared at her, and opened the bottle.
"Let's talk about it now. What do you want to know?"
"When were you planning on telling me?"
"Actually, I wasn't planning on talking about it at all. I wasn't expecting him to bring it up either."
"What's the point of working together if we're hiding such important things from each other? We're supposed to trust each other."
"I remind you, I must have discovered your pregnancy by pure chance. You weren't planning on telling me, and I know it."
"No, that's different. We weren't working together yet at that point. We weren't partners yet."
"Very well." But understand me when I say that my family history isn't exactly a trivial topic of discussion that anyone would want to discuss.
"All I'm asking is more trust between us."
Aurora's phone suddenly rang in the cabin, and the name on the display made the young woman smile again.
"Yes, Hilton, you already have what we need? It's very quick..."
"Before you exclaim your joy, I advise you to prepare yourself for what I'm about to tell you."
"What do you mean?! What did you find?"
"Among my results, I found that Charlotte and I are biologically related."
"Normal. She's our cousin."
"She's more than that. She's our half-sister."
Aurora remained silent for a moment, her complexion having become almost livid, which alarmed Tyler, who turned off the music on his radio. He glanced at her a few times to understand the situation, even though Aurora still had the same expression.
- Excuse me?! Can you repeat what you just said?
"Charlotte is our half-sister."
"Sandy's side."
She had been writing for fifteen minutes before hearing someone ring her doorbell.
"Who could be ringing at this hour in the afternoon? I'd like to rest after work."
But when she opened the door, she remained motionless at first before closing it. She caught her breath before opening her door again.
"Hello, Simon."
"Hello, ma'am? Yes, Mr. Watts has arrived safely. He just rang her doorbell. I'm going to begin my mission."
"Very well, you can start tailing him. And make sure he doesn't do anything wrong."
"Yes, ma'am."