Page 60 of Reconciling the Consequences

They had everything they needed, but they wanted to finish out the year of boxes they had, to be thorough. They would need to continue to go through all the other boxes in her off-site warehouse, but they had some breathing room now.

They had enough to bring her father in front of a judge and indict him. They could get the warrant issued and have him held without bond as a flight risk due to the offshore bank accounts.

She just needed to make sure Carmichael and Associates would still be standing afterward. Thankfully, when her father had retired last year and named her managing partner, he had to put her name on the deed and legally sign everything over to her.

That could make things tricky when it came time to testify, but as most of the dirty dealings happened before she was even born, she would likely be in the clear. She also had Stephanie’s report to show that Case Holdings had never been listed as a research firm on any of the cases that Kara had worked on.

Stephanie had painted a pretty clear picture of who at the firm was involved and who wasn’t. Unfortunately, it was most of the senior partners—the old-school crowd that had worshiped her father. She had slowly been firing them in the last year, working her way through her father’s old stalwarts—but it was too little, too late.

When it was time to call it a day, the girls headed out, leaving Kara alone with Danvers, or as alone as they could get with Derrick propped up on the couch, watching TV and keeping an eye on them.

Danvers was still reading a file, glasses propped on his nose.

“Whatcha got there?” Kara asked softly, not wanting Derrick to hear from across the great room. He had been dozing off and on all day against his stack of pillows.

Freddy looked up from the file with a frown on his face. His gray eyes were missing their usual cocky glint. “I found the motive,” he murmured, keeping his voice low. He sat up straight before he held the file out to Kara.

She reached for it, but Danvers held on to his side, looking her dead in the eye. “You can make a copy, but I’ll need this,” he said, his voice stern.

She nodded, and he slowly surrendered the file.

He stood up and started gathering everything he was taking with him. Every day he took more and more back to his office for safekeeping.

Kara opened the file and started reading. She got lost in the documents while Danvers pulled on his Tom Ford suit jacket and buttoned it.

She let out a quiet gasp as she realized what she was reading.

Paternity Test Results.

Mac Taylor was her brother Marcos’s father. Marcos Candela’s parents were Carlita Candela and Mac Taylor.

She and Marcos had different dads.

Vince never lied to her regarding the paternity test results. Carlita had lied to both Mac and Vince. Had she been hoping that Vince would take care of her and the baby? Had she hoped to pull a fast one on him? Use him for his money?

Kara didn’t know. She didn’t know a lot anymore. Apparently, her mother was not the woman Kara had thought she was. Carlita held a secret past that she’d kept from her daughter, kept from both her children.

“Shit.” Kara breathed, reading the file. She looked up at Danvers in shock as the reality of it all came crashing down on her, as everything she’d ever known as a child came down and settled on her shoulders. The weight of it made breathing harder.

Danvers nodded. “Make yourself a copy, but then I need the original.” He continued gathering his things.

Kara nodded. “This is huge.”

“You have no idea,” Danvers answered, shaking his head. “I suggest you talk to your brother about that, and don’t wait.” Danvers leveled her with piercing stare that sent a shiver running down her spine.

He knows something.

She narrowed her eyes at him. She didn’t like mind games. If he knew something, he better just spill. “Spit it out, Danvers.”

“Talk to your brother.” He gave her a pointed stare before he turned and headed for the door.

Kara glared after him, but short of chasing him and causing a scene in front of Derrick—something she really didn’t want to do—she was at a loss. She turned back to the file instead, still in disbelief.

Marcos and Johnny are half brothers.

Overthecourseofthe next week, Kara found herself constantly forcing her thoughts away from Marcos and what they’d discovered. She zoned out while reading through case notes, her thoughts a foggy cloud that weighed on her mind. Danvers, for all his cocky bullshit, didn’t comment other than to reiterate that she needed to speak with her brother.

Her brother Marcos. How would she tell her brother about his father? How would she tell her brother that he had a brother? That she was dating his brother?

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