THE TYCOON DISCOVERED TWO SHIVERING TWINS AT HIS DECEASED WIFE’S MOUNTAIN CABIN—THEN A CRUST OF BREAD REVEALED THE LIES HIS FAMILY CONCEALED

Marcus’s team tracked Rosa Mendez to a rundown apartment complex on the outskirts of Baltimore. I didn't send my security team. I went myself.

I kicked the apartment door open, splintering the wood. Rosa, a woman in her late fifties, screamed and dropped a laundry basket. When she saw my face, all the color drained from hers. She didn't try to run. She just fell to her knees, sobbing.

“I’m sorry,” she wept, burying her face in her hands. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Cross. I tried to keep them safe.”

I stood over her, my shadow swallowing her small frame. “You took my children.”

“Your mother ordered it!” Rosa cried. “She threatened my family! When Mrs. Elena went into early labor, your mother cleared the floor. She had a private doctor deliver them. Elena... she knew she wasn't going to make it. She gave me the locket. She begged me to hide the girls. Your mother paid me two million dollars to take them to an orphanage in Mexico and never come back.”

“But you didn't,” I said.

“I couldn't,” Rosa whispered. “They looked just like her. I raised them in a basement for three years. But your mother... she found out I never left the country. She sent men to my house last week. I barely escaped with the girls. I knew you always went to the cabin on the anniversary of her death. It was the only place I knew you would be alone. I left them there, hoping you would find them before your mother’s men did.”

I looked at the terrified woman. She was a coward, complicit in my wife’s murder, but she had also saved my daughters' lives.

“Where is the doctor who delivered them?” I demanded.

“Dead,” Rosa choked out. “A car accident two years ago. I’m the only one left who knows the truth.”

I pulled a burner phone from my pocket and tossed it onto the floor in front of her. “You are going to tell this exact story to the federal prosecutors. If you cooperate, I will ensure you get immunity and protection. If you run, my mother’s men won't be the ones you have to worry about. Do you understand?”