Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED SCARFWe left the hospital before sunrise.
The convoy drove through the mountains under heavy fog.
Noah sat beside Samuel.
Goliath occupied the rear seat.
I watched the trees through the window.
Sixteen years.
I had spent sixteen years believing my father's murder was the beginning of my life.
Maybe it had been the beginning of a lie.
Samuel finally spoke.
“My daughter was seventeen when she disappeared.”
“Why?”
“She discovered something.”
“What?”
“Money.”
I looked at him.
“Money?”
“Your father had started moving money through charities. Money that didn't belong to him.”
My jaw tightened.
“My father ran legitimate businesses.”
Samuel gave me a tired look.
“So did every criminal I've ever met.”
Marcus glanced at him.
Samuel continued.
“Your father wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“The organization.”
I said nothing.
I had known my father was involved in illegal operations.
But I had never known the scale.
Samuel explained that Evelyn had worked as a messenger for my father's organization.
She had been young.
Too young.
She saw transactions.
Names.
Accounts.
People.
Then she discovered something that terrified her.
A ledger.
A black book containing every payment made by the organization for twenty years.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Even members of my own family.
“Where is the ledger?” I asked.
Samuel looked at me.
“Your father hid it.”
“Where?”
“He never told anyone.”
“What happened to Evelyn?”
“She vanished the same night your father died.”
I stared at him.
“Everyone said she ran.”
“She didn't.”
“Then where did she go?”
Samuel looked toward the mountains.
“I don't know.”
A phone rang.
Marcus answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then hung up.
“Someone broke into your Manhattan office.”
I sat forward.
“Anything stolen?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“They took one thing.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
“Of my father?”
Marcus shook his head.
“Of you.”
The convoy continued through the fog.
I felt something cold settle inside me.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Someone wasn't attacking my empire.
They were pulling me toward a specific truth.
And Noah was somehow connected.
We reached an isolated estate by noon.
Noah stared at the house.
“Do you live here?”
“Sometimes.”
“It's huge.”
“Too huge.”
He smiled.
“You don't like it?”
“Not anymore.”
He looked confused.
I understood why.
The house had once felt like power.
Now it felt like a mausoleum.
That afternoon, Noah explored the grounds with Goliath.
Samuel watched from the porch.
I sat across from Marcus in the study.
“Find Evelyn Carter.”
“We already have.”
My head snapped up.
“What?”
Marcus placed a file on the table.
“She isn't missing.”
My pulse changed.
“Where is she?”
Marcus opened the file.
A photograph appeared.
A woman in her early thirties.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
Red scarf.
She stood outside a small bookstore in Charleston.
My breath caught.
“She changed her name.”
“To what?”
“Evelyn Hart.”
“Why hasn't anyone found her?”
“Because she wanted to disappear.”
“Where is she now?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Coming here.”
The study door opened.
I stood.
A woman entered.
She stopped when she saw me.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
I remembered her.
Not the adult woman.
The girl.
Seventeen.
Standing across the street in a red scarf.
Her eyes were the same.
“Roman,” she whispered.
My voice came out rough.
“Evelyn.”
She looked toward the window.
Noah was outside.
Her face changed.
She whispered:
“He found him.”
“Who?”
“The boy.”
“What does Noah have to do with you?”
She looked at me.
“Everything.”
Before she could explain, a gunshot shattered the window.
I pushed her down.
Glass exploded across the room.
Marcus fired toward the tree line.
Another shot.
Goliath barked.
Noah screamed.
I ran.
Outside, Noah was frozen beside the fountain.
A sniper had him in his sights.
I tackled him.
The bullet struck stone where his head had been.
“Run!”
Noah grabbed Goliath.
Evelyn appeared behind us.
“Inside!”
We reached the house.
The doors slammed shut.
Marcus's men surrounded the property.
Noah was shaking.
I crouched beside him.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Evelyn knelt.
She touched his face.
Noah stared at her.
“Do I know you?”
She smiled sadly.
“No.”
Then she looked at me.
“But your father knew me.”
“What are you hiding?”
She took a breath.
“Your father didn't die because he betrayed the organization.”
“Then why?”
“Because he discovered who was really controlling it.”
“Who?”
Evelyn's eyes filled with fear.
“Your brother.”
The room went silent.
Adrian.
My brother.
The man who had supposedly been at a business conference the night our father died.
I shook my head.
“No.”
Evelyn whispered:
“He wasn't working for your father.”
May you like
She looked toward Noah.
“He was working against him.”
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