CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: WINTER
Numb.
That’s what I feel.
Everything seems to be moving in slow motion and those papers are the only thing I can see.
Maddox Hawthorne is my uncle.
Diamond is my cousin.
Some of the pieces of the puzzle have landed on the table in front of me.
This makes more sense.
Giovanni wants to use Maddox’s niece against him. Before now, the man hasn’t known me from Eve, but as Diamond had told me after revealing the documents, blood is blood.
It doesn’t matter if Maddox doesn’t know me, I’m his sister’s kid and that means something.
And it makes more sense as to why my mother was killed. The Costas hit Dox right through his bloodline.
And Giovanni wants to do it again.
The papers could be fake.
Its the thing I keep going back and forth on. In actuality, I’ve doubted every document that Diamond has brought me, and why is that?
Is it because I don’t want any of this to be true?
I don’t know, but I'd asked Amarie another favor to settle this once and all.
I needed her to find a way to verify the documents. All of them. The picture. The coroner’s report. The birth certificates.
“What the fuck do you think I am?” she’d asked me, staring down at the two birth certificates. “Some kind of clergy at the courthouse?”
“No,” I shook my head. “But I know you can get them checked out.” I hadn’t explained how I knew because there was no real explanation, just this gut feeling that I had.
She’d scoffed at me and grumbled, speaking in French before finally letting out a dramatic sigh and agreeing.
Now, the only thing I can do is wait.