Chapter 5 - The Mistress’s Truth
The helicopter landed on the roof of an unfinished skyscraper owned by one of Roman’s companies.
Roman was waiting.
Evelyn stepped out first.
Then slapped him.
The sound echoed across the concrete.
Roman did not react.
“That was for lying to me for four years.”
He nodded once.
She slapped him again.
“That was for last night.”
Vanessa quietly said, “That one was deserved.”
Roman glanced at her.
Evelyn almost laughed.
Almost.
Instead she demanded the truth.
Roman led them into a secured room.
There, he explained that Charles Vale had served both families for decades. Vale had managed trusts, shell companies, and confidential settlements.
He had access to everything.
When Salvatore Castellano discovered Vale was siphoning money and building his own criminal network, he threatened to expose him.
Salvatore died two weeks later.
Thomas Moretti became suspicious.
Then Thomas died too.
“Why marry me?” Evelyn asked.
Roman looked directly at her.
“Initially?”
The word hurt.
“Yes.”
“To keep Vale from gaining control of your inheritance.”
Evelyn stared at him.
Her marriage had been a transaction from the beginning.
“And later?”
Roman said nothing.
She laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
He stepped closer.
“Later became complicated.”
“No. You made it complicated because telling the truth would have required treating me like an adult.”
Roman accepted that without argument.
Vanessa sat silently nearby.
Evelyn turned toward her.
“And you?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“I wasn’t his mistress.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Evelyn stared.
“What?”
Vanessa removed the diamond pendant from her neck and placed it on the table.
Inside was a microphone.
“I was working for him.”
Evelyn looked at Roman.
The betrayal somehow became worse.
“You staged it?”
“Vanessa had been getting close to Vale’s financial network.”
“So you brought her to my birthday party and publicly humiliated me as part of an investigation?”
Roman’s silence answered.
Vanessa stood.
“I told him not to.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa continued anyway.
“Vale needed to believe Roman had become careless. Roman wanted him to think your marriage was collapsing and Vanessa was becoming his weakness.”
Evelyn laughed once.
“So I was collateral damage.”
Roman said quietly, “Yes.”
It was the wrong answer.
And perhaps the only answer that could have kept her from hating him forever.
No excuses.
No claim that he had done it for her.
Just yes.
Evelyn walked toward the window.
Chicago stretched below.
For four years, Roman had decided what she could survive without ever asking her.
She turned.
“Here’s what happens now. You don’t protect me. You don’t order me. You don’t hide information from me.”
Roman’s eyebrows lifted.
“You’re staying?”
“I’m finishing what my father started.”
“That’s dangerous.”
“So is marriage to you. Apparently I survived that.”
Gabriel coughed to hide a laugh.
Roman glared at him.
For the first time, Evelyn saw something almost human in Roman’s irritation.
She continued.
“After Vale is finished, our divorce proceeds.”
Roman’s expression went blank.
“That part isn’t negotiable.”
He looked at her for several seconds.
“Fine.”
It should have felt like victory.
Instead, Evelyn felt strangely hollow.
They spent the next hours examining her father’s files.
Vale had built an enormous financial network, but they needed evidence connecting him directly to the murders.
Vanessa had one possibility.
“Vale contacted me two months ago.”
Roman looked sharply at her.
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t trust you enough.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
Vanessa continued.
“He thought I genuinely wanted Roman. He offered me money to keep him distracted.”
“How much?”
“Five million.”
Gabriel whistled.
“I should date Roman.”
“No,” Evelyn and Vanessa said simultaneously.
Everyone went silent.
Then Vanessa laughed.
Evelyn tried not to.
Failed.
Even Roman’s mouth twitched.
It lasted three seconds.
Then Vanessa became serious.
“Vale wants to meet me tomorrow.”
Roman immediately said, “No.”
Evelyn said, “Yes.”
Roman turned toward her.
“He knows the ring was opened.”
“Then we give him something more valuable than the ring.”
“What?”
“Me.”
Roman’s face hardened.
“Absolutely not.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You agreed.”
“To what?”
“No orders.”
“This isn’t an order. This is me explaining that walking voluntarily into a meeting with the man who murdered your father is insane.”
“Better.”
Roman stared at her.
Gabriel intervened.
“She’s right.”
Roman looked ready to throw him through the window.
The plan was simple.
Vanessa would contact Vale.
She would say Evelyn had discovered the evidence but did not trust either Roman or Gabriel.
Evelyn wanted to negotiate.
Vale took the bait immediately.
The meeting was scheduled for midnight inside an abandoned theater on the South Side.
At 11:57, Evelyn walked inside alone.
A spotlight illuminated the stage.
Charles Vale sat in the front row.
He smiled.
“My beautiful goddaughter.”
Evelyn’s stomach turned.
“Did my father beg?”
Vale’s smile disappeared.
Straight to the point.
Good.
“You always were Thomas’s daughter.”
“Answer me.”
Vale stood.
“No. Your father didn’t beg.”
Evelyn’s hidden microphone transmitted every word.
“He disappointed me,” Vale continued. “He could have lived.”
“Like Salvatore?”
Vale’s eyes narrowed.
Evelyn pushed.
“You killed them both.”
“I corrected two problems.”
There.
The confession.
Evelyn almost smiled.
Then Vale did.
“You think Roman is listening.”
Her heartbeat stopped.
Vale raised one hand.
A man dragged someone onto the stage.
Vanessa.
Blood ran from a cut near her eyebrow.
Vale smiled.
“Roman isn’t listening anymore.”
May you like
He held up a crushed transmitter.
“And neither is anyone else.”
