Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Roman didn't sleep that night.
He placed two additional guards outside Mia's bedroom, ordered a full review of the estate's security system, and instructed Gabriel to investigate everyone who had entered the mansion during the previous six months.
But the message remained unanswered.
Who was the girl his father had mentioned?
And why was someone convinced that Mia held the key to the truth?
The following morning, Roman found Clare sitting alone in the breakfast room.
She had barely touched her coffee.
"Did you know my father?" he asked.
Clare looked up.
"Not personally."
"Did your mother?"
"She worked for him. That doesn't mean she trusted him."
Roman sat across from her.
"Your mother knew something about his death."
Clare's expression hardened.
"She knew he was afraid. That's all she ever told me."
"Afraid of what?"
Clare shook her head.
"I was twenty-three when she died. She had spent years telling me that powerful men always had reasons for hiding things. I thought she was talking about her employer."
She reached into her handbag and removed an old photograph.
It showed Clare as a teenager, standing beside her mother in front of a modest house.
On the back, her mother had written a date and a single sentence:
Some families inherit money. Others inherit the truth.
Roman examined the image.
A third person appeared in the background, standing near the front gate.
Alessandro Valente.
Clare had never noticed him before.
"He came to our house?" she whispered.
"It appears so."
"Why didn't my mother tell me?"
"Perhaps she was trying to protect you."
Clare shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Everyone keeps using that word. Protect. My mother protected me by hiding things. Julian protected me by disappearing. Now you're protecting me by deciding what I can know."
She stood.
"I'm tired of being protected from the truth."
Roman let her walk away.
He understood the anger.
He had inherited an empire built on secrets, and every attempt to control those secrets had created another problem.
That afternoon, Henry brought him a small package delivered without a return address.
Inside was a children's picture book.
The cover showed a rabbit chasing a star.
Roman opened it.
On the first page, someone had written:
ASK MIA WHAT SHE SAW IN THE GARDEN.
He immediately went to her room.
Mia sat on the floor arranging crayons by color.
When Roman showed her the book, she frowned.
"I've seen that rabbit before."
"Where?"
"In Mama's old apartment."
Roman sat beside her.
"What do you remember?"
Mia thought carefully.
"When I was little, a man came to our house. Mama told me to stay in the bedroom. But I looked through the door."
"What did the man look like?"
"He had shiny shoes and a silver watch."
Roman's stomach tightened.
"Did you hear his name?"
Mia shook her head.
"But he told Mama that somebody had to disappear before the truth came out."
Roman remained still.
"Was the man your father?"
"No. Daddy had a beard. This man had no beard."
"Did your mother see you?"
Mia nodded.
"She told me to forget him. Then she cried in the bathroom."
Roman gently took her hand.
"You're not in trouble for remembering."
Mia looked at him.
"Will you tell Mama?"
"Yes."
"Even if it makes her sad?"
"Especially then."
Later, Clare confirmed that a man had visited her apartment shortly before she accepted the job at the Valente estate. He had claimed to represent an insurance company investigating an old claim involving her mother.
She had refused to speak with him.
He had left the picture book behind.
Roman sent the book to a specialist for examination. Inside the back cover, the technician discovered a narrow pocket containing a memory card.
The card held a short video recorded twelve years earlier.
Alessandro stood in his office, speaking to someone off camera.
"Julian has the original documents," he said. "If he exposes the arrangement, everything collapses."
A second voice answered.
"Then eliminate the problem."
Alessandro looked furious.
"No. I will not have another innocent person destroyed because of this family."
The recording ended abruptly.
Gabriel replayed it twice.
"That voice sounds familiar," he said.
Roman listened again.
He knew it, too.
It belonged to someone who still attended the Valente family's private gatherings.
Someone with access to the estate, the business records, and the security system.
Someone who had known Roman since childhood.
Before Roman could identify the speaker, the mansion's security alarm sounded.
A guard appeared in the doorway.
"Sir, we have an intruder in the east wing."
Roman drew his weapon and ran.
He reached Mia's room first.
The window stood open.
Her bed was empty.
And on the pillow lay Bunny, with a silver pocket watch tucked beneath his torn ear.
Roman recognized the watch immediately.
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It belonged to his uncle, Theodore Valente.
A man who had been dead for eight years.
