Chapter 6 - THE FATHER WHO LEFT TWO LIVES BEHIND
Lily had spent six years believing she knew how her father died.
Cancer.
A hospital bed.
Her hand in his.
His last words telling her to stay kind even when life gave her reasons not to be.
Now she stood in Damian’s penthouse holding evidence that Raymond Harper had worked for the Vale organization for seventeen years.
“He lied to me.”
Damian remained several feet away.
“He protected you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
At least he didn’t pretend.
Lily opened another file.
Her father’s signature appeared beneath shipping records, offshore accounts, and coded payments.
Then she found something different.
A monthly transfer.
Recipient: J.V.
The transfers began two weeks after Julian’s supposed death.
Lily looked up.
“J.V.”
Damian was already staring.
“Julian Vale.”
“Your brother may be alive.”
Damian didn’t celebrate.
Hope frightened him more than certainty.
“Where did the money go?”
“Montana. Then Wyoming. Final account closed three years ago.”
Damian turned toward the window.
“Why would your father help Julian disappear?”
Lily remembered something.
“When Dad was dying, he kept asking me to bring him a blue notebook.”
“Did you?”
“I thought it was medication confusion.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
She suddenly stopped.
“Yes, I do.”
Her father’s storage locker.
They drove there before sunrise.
Dust covered everything.
Lily opened boxes of old clothes, tax returns, Christmas ornaments.
Finally, inside a toolbox, she found a blue notebook.
Damian stood behind her.
The first pages contained ordinary calculations.
Then names.
Dates.
Payments.
And one sentence circled twice.
JULIAN KNOWS VICTOR DIDN’T ORDER IT. THE ORDER CAME FROM INSIDE VALE.
Damian read it again.
“What order?”
Lily turned the page.
A name had been torn out.
But an impression remained in the paper.
She angled it toward the light.
M—
“Marcus?” Lily whispered.
Damian’s phone rang.
Marcus Bell.
Both stared at the screen.
Damian answered.
“Marcus.”
“Where are you?”
“Why?”
“Your office was breached. Someone stole the Romano drive.”
Damian’s eyes shifted to Lily.
“Who had access?”
“You, me and security.”
“And Lily.”
Silence.
Marcus finally said, “Yes.”
Damian ended the call.
“He’s setting me up,” Lily said.
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“I trust evidence.”
She recoiled.
“So after everything, you think I could have stolen it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Lily—”
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Mrs. Alvarez tied to a chair.
Lily gasped.
Another message.
BRING THE BLUE NOTEBOOK. COME ALONE.
Damian read it.
“No.”
“They have her.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“They’ll kill her.”
“And they’ll kill you after you deliver the notebook.”
Lily’s hands shook.
Damian took her face gently.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“I will get her back.”
“How?”
“Trust me.”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“You just told me you weren’t sure I stole your drive.”
Pain crossed his face.
“You’re right.”
He stepped back.
“I spent my whole life believing trust was stupidity. Every time I start caring about someone, that training comes back.”
“Then unlearn it.”
Damian looked at her.
“I trust you.”
“Because you have evidence?”
“No.”
That mattered.
More than Lily wanted it to.
They traced the message to an abandoned Vale warehouse.
Damian wanted Lily outside.
She refused.
“You have an irritating definition of protection,” he muttered.
“You have an irritating definition of partnership.”
Inside, Mrs. Alvarez sat beneath a hanging light.
Marcus Bell stood behind her.
Lily stopped.
Damian’s face became stone.
“Marcus.”
Marcus smiled.
“You always were slow when feelings got involved.”
“You killed Julian?”
“No.”
Damian’s eyes sharpened.
“Where is he?”
“Ask Lily’s father.”
“He’s dead.”
“Convenient.”
Marcus held out his hand.
“Notebook.”
Lily raised it.
“Let her go.”
“First the book.”
“No.”
Marcus laughed.
“Waitress negotiating with the mafia.”
“Former waitress.”
“Congratulations.”
A gun appeared in his hand.
Damian moved slightly in front of Lily.
Marcus noticed.
“There it is. Your weakness.”
Damian answered quietly.
“No.”
He looked at Lily.
“My reason.”
Lily’s heart stopped for half a beat.
Then every light in the warehouse died.
Mrs. Alvarez screamed.
Men shouted.
Damian grabbed Lily.
A struggle erupted in darkness.
Thirty seconds later, emergency lights flickered on.
Marcus was gone.
Mrs. Alvarez was safe.
But the blue notebook had vanished.
Damian’s men searched the warehouse.
One returned carrying something.
A silver chain.
Damian took it.
His face changed.
“What is it?” Lily asked.
“My brother’s.”
Then a voice came from the shadows behind them.
“You always did lose things, Damian.”
Damian froze.
A man stepped into the light.
Older than the photograph.
A scar across his jaw.
But unmistakable.
May you like
Julian Vale smiled sadly at his brother.
“Hello, Damian.”
