Chapter 4 - The Price of Protecting HerBy noon, I had learned three things.
Roman's father had been involved in something far darker than gambling.
My mother had apparently helped Elena uncover it.
And someone had spent six years making sure neither Roman nor I discovered the connection.
I sat at the kitchen table, staring at the photograph.
Roman stood beside the window.
"You should have told me my mother was involved."
"I didn't know."
"Then find out."
He turned.
"Cara, there are things in my family's history that could get you killed."
I laughed bitterly.
"That ship sailed when somebody shot through my living room."
He accepted that.
For the next two hours, Roman showed me financial records from Cavalli Enterprises.
Shipping manifests.
Medical invoices.
Payments to offshore companies.
I understood almost none of it.
Until I recognized one name.
"Saint Agnes Children's Hospital."
Roman looked at me.
"What about it?"
"My mother worked there."
His expression sharpened.
"Are you certain?"
"She was the billing administrator for eleven years."
Roman opened another document.
A payment authorization dated six years earlier.
Two million dollars transferred through a foundation supposedly supporting pediatric medical research.
The approving signature belonged to his father.
The receiving administrator was listed as Margaret Bennett.
My mother.
I stared at the screen.
"She wouldn't steal money."
"I didn't say she did."
"But that's what it looks like."
Roman closed the laptop.
"Then we find out what really happened."
That evening, Frankie Lombardo arrived.
He looked genuinely surprised to see me sitting beside Roman.
"Boss, we have a problem."
Roman gestured toward the office.
"Talk."
Frankie glanced at me.
"Privately."
Roman's expression cooled.
"Anything involving Cara gets discussed in front of Cara."
I looked at him.
He didn't look back.
Frankie hesitated.
"Natalia has contacted Viktor Orlov."
Roman went still.
"Her uncle?"
Frankie nodded.
"He's demanding a meeting. Claims you threatened his niece."
Roman laughed without humor.
"She threatened a nineteen-year-old girl."
Frankie lowered his voice.
"Orlov says you have forty-eight hours to apologize publicly."
"And if I don't?"
"He'll consider our business agreement terminated."
Roman stood.
"Then let him."
Frankie looked horrified.
"Roman, the docks—"
"I said let him."
Later, Lily found me in the library.
She had been unusually quiet.
"There's something I need to tell you."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
She sat beside me.
"Three weeks ago, a man approached me outside campus."
I stared at her.
"What man?"
"He said he worked for a scholarship foundation."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he offered to pay my tuition."
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
We had been drowning in bills.
Lily had been considering dropping out.
"What did he want?"
She twisted her fingers.
"He asked about Mom."
I opened my eyes.
"What about her?"
"Whether she left us any old hospital files."
My heart began pounding.
"What did you say?"
"That you kept everything in the bakery basement."
I stood so abruptly that the chair scraped against the floor.
"Lily."
"I'm sorry."
I grabbed my phone.
Roman answered immediately.
"What's wrong?"
"Someone knows about Mom's files."
"Where are they?"
"At my bakery."
Silence.
Then Roman said, "Don't move."
We reached Flower and Fire twenty minutes later.
The front window had been smashed.
Inside, overturned tables littered the floor.
My display cases were destroyed.
Six years of work lay scattered beneath broken glass.
I stood in the doorway, unable to breathe.
"My bakery."
Roman stepped beside me.
"I'm sorry."
I walked toward the kitchen.
My favorite copper mixing bowl had been crushed.
The framed photograph of my mother was gone.
But the basement door remained locked.
I reached beneath the counter for the spare key.
Roman stopped me.
"Let Marco check first."
I wanted to argue.
Instead, I nodded.
Marco descended with two guards.
A moment later, he called out.
"Boss. You need to see this."
We followed him downstairs.
The filing cabinets had been emptied.
Old tax records covered the floor.
But one section of the brick wall had been broken open.
Inside was a metal box.
My mother's handwriting appeared across its lid.
For Cara, when she's ready.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside lay a flash drive, a hospital identification badge, and a letter.
I unfolded the paper.
My darling Cara,
If you're reading this, someone has finally come looking for what Elena and I discovered.
I need you to understand something.
Roman Cavalli is not the man they want you to believe he is.
I stopped breathing.
May you like
The next sentence made my knees weaken.
And the woman everyone believes died in that explosion may not have been Elena.
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