Chapter 7 - TERESA SANTOS
Teresa Santos did not sound surprised.
That was the worst part.
Maria called on speaker only after Teresa consented to Nicholas and Alexandra listening.
“Mom?”
“Baby.”
Maria’s voice shook.
“I found Daniel’s audit.”
Silence.
Then:
“All of it?”
“I think so.”
Another silence.
“Did you find Anthony?”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
There.
Maria whispered:
“Yes.”
Teresa exhaled.
“I wondered when this would happen.”
“Who was Anthony to Daniel?”
Teresa began crying quietly.
Then answered.
“His father.”
Nicholas felt something inside him go still.
No test.
No dramatic music.
A seventy-two-year-old woman finally saying a sentence she had carried for thirty-one years.
Anthony Caruso met Teresa when she worked as a bookkeeper at a hotel he owned.
He was married to Isabella.
Teresa was twenty-eight.
Anthony thirty-seven.
An affair lasted five months.
Teresa ended it.
Then learned she was pregnant.
Anthony wanted secrecy.
Offered money.
Teresa initially refused.
Then Daniel was born with medical complications and she needed help.
She accepted support.
Not a luxury life.
Rent.
Insurance.
School.
Anthony visited Daniel exactly three times.
Never publicly.
Daniel grew up believing his father was a man Teresa had dated briefly who wanted no role.
Was that completely false?
Not entirely.
She simply omitted the name.
When Daniel was twenty-four, Isabella contacted Teresa.
Maria stared.
“His wife?”
“Yes.”
Isabella had discovered payments.
Teresa expected hatred.
Instead Isabella apologized.
For what?
“For being part of a family where the truth had to be bought in installments.”
Nicholas looked down.
His mother.
Then Isabella met Daniel.
Told him Anthony was likely his biological father.
Did Anthony confirm?
Privately.
No DNA.
Letters.
Financial history.
Admission.
Enough for Daniel emotionally.
Not enough for a court.
Daniel wanted no inheritance.
He wanted explanation.
Anthony refused public acknowledgment.
Why?
Succession.
Reputation.
Nicholas was already positioned as sole son and heir.
A second adult son could complicate trusts and businesses.
Nicholas felt sick.
Teresa continued:
“Daniel hated him for that.”
“Did he hate Nicholas?” Maria asked.
“No.”
“He never met me,” Nicholas said.
Teresa paused.
“He saw you once.”
“When?”
“At Isabella’s funeral.”
Nicholas tried to remember thousands of faces.
Nothing.
“He said you looked lonely.”
That hurt unexpectedly.
Then Daniel’s audit for Isabella.
Did she hire him because he was Anthony’s son?
Teresa said no.
Daniel’s firm was selected before Isabella knew his full assignment.
When she discovered, she insisted he remain because removing him would be another punishment for Anthony’s secret.
Conflict of interest?
Possibly.
Daniel disclosed privately to his supervisor.
They created independent review.
Good.
Then Lucy.
Did Teresa know Nicholas employed Maria?
Yes.
Maria stared.
“You knew?”
“I recognized the address on your Christmas card.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Teresa’s voice broke.
“Because Daniel asked me not to drag you into Caruso history unless you chose.”
Maria stood.
Another person protecting through silence.
“Mom.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
Maria cried.
“I worked three years in my dead husband’s brother’s house.”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
Brother.
Not proven genetically.
But likely.
Teresa whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Maria ended the call gently but quickly.
Needed space.
Nicholas did not follow her.
Then paternity.
Could it be established without using Lucy?
Yes.
Anthony Caruso’s medical samples remained archived from cancer treatment.
But privacy and estate authorization required legal process.
Nicholas did not simply call a family doctor.
Alexandra petitioned through estate counsel.
Teresa voluntarily supplied old letters.
Daniel’s employer had a stored blood spot? Not needed.
Anthony’s preserved pathology sample plus Daniel’s archived newborn screening sample might exist, but state law complex.
Alternative:
Teresa and Nicholas could be tested to establish likely half-sibling relation through Lucy? Still child not needed if Daniel's own stored hospital sample exists.
Daniel had donated blood during a surgery at age twenty-seven.
Hospital retained no sample now.
Then Maria found Daniel’s old electric razor.
DNA might be degraded/contaminated.
Could test.
But legal paternity after death required careful chain.
Nicholas surprised everyone.
He said:
“We don't need to prove it today.”
Maria looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel is dead.”
“What about Lucy?”
“If family status changes her legal rights, then we do it properly.”
Not to satisfy Nicholas’s curiosity.
Good.
Then Teresa sent one more item.
Anthony’s handwritten letter to Daniel.
Unsigned publicly.
But unmistakable.
I failed you by pretending money could replace a name.
If you ever want Nicholas to know, I will not stop you.
Daniel never used it.
Why?
On the back, Daniel had written:
I don’t know him.
I don’t need a brother because our father finally got scared.
Nicholas stared.
Fair.
Daniel did not owe him a relationship.
Then another line beneath it:
But if Maria ever needs help after I’m gone, Isabella says Nicholas is not Anthony.
Nicholas’s eyes filled.
May you like
Daniel had apparently believed that much.
And now Maria’s daughter had run to Nicholas’s leg before anyone else.
