Chapter 2 - WHAT HER FATHER LEFT BEHIND
The top-floor lounge was closed to the gala.
Roman apparently considered that a suggestion rather than a rule.
A security guard opened the doors without being asked.
Elena entered cautiously.
Mason attempted to follow.
Roman stopped him.
“You stay outside.”
“You don't order me around.”
Roman looked at him.
Mason stayed outside.
Vanessa didn't try.
That bothered Elena.
She seemed to understand Roman's world better than Mason did.
Inside, Manhattan glittered beneath the storm.
Elena remained standing.
“Start talking.”
Roman removed his coat.
“You have your father's temperament.”
“You knew him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Roman walked toward a wall safe hidden behind dark wood paneling.
“He worked for my father.”
Elena's stomach dropped.
“My father sold insurance.”
“For the last eight years of his life.”
Roman entered a code.
The safe opened.
“Before that, Daniel Ward was an accountant.”
“I know.”
“For people whose accounting couldn't survive government inspection.”
Elena stared.
“You're saying my father worked for criminals?”
“I’m saying my father was a criminal.”
Roman removed an old envelope.
“And yours discovered what happened when he tried to stop being useful to one.”
He placed it on the table.
Written across the front:
FOR ELENA — WHEN SHE IS OLD ENOUGH TO CHOOSE.
She recognized the handwriting.
Her father's.
Elena sat down.
For seventeen years, Daniel Ward had existed in fragments.
Sunday pancakes.
Baseball games on television.
The smell of peppermint gum.
A cheap silver watch.
Then a car accident when Elena was eleven.
That was the story.
“Why do you have this?”
“Because he trusted me.”
“You were what, twenty?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Why would my father trust a twenty-two-year-old criminal?”
Roman's jaw tightened.
“Because I owed him my life.”
He told her.
Seventeen years earlier, Roman's father, Vittorio Valenti, had discovered money disappearing from one of his companies.
Daniel found the theft.
The person stealing was Vittorio's brother.
Carlo Valenti.
When Carlo realized Daniel knew, he tried to eliminate the accountant and anyone Daniel had warned.
Including Roman.
Daniel helped Roman escape an ambush.
Three days later, Daniel died.
Car accident.
Roman never believed it.
“Did Carlo kill him?”
“I couldn't prove it.”
“Where is Carlo now?”
“Dead.”
Elena swallowed.
“Did you kill him?”
Roman met her eyes.
“No.”
She believed him.
That realization disturbed her.
“What is in the envelope?”
“I don't know.”
“You kept it seventeen years without opening it?”
“It wasn't mine.”
That answer changed something.
Elena reached for the envelope.
Then the lounge doors opened.
One of Roman's men entered.
“Boss.”
He handed Roman a tablet.
Roman's face hardened.
“What?”
“The SUV moved.”
“Where?”
“Miss Ward's apartment.”
Elena stood.
“What?”
Roman turned the screen.
Security footage showed two men entering her building.
One carried a black case.
Elena reached for her phone.
“I need to call the police.”
“Do it.”
She hesitated.
“You're not going to stop me?”
“Why would I?”
“Because…”
“You think mafia means I object to police when somebody is breaking into your apartment?”
Fair point.
She called.
Then she remembered something.
“My cat.”
Roman blinked.
“My cat is inside.”
One of his men looked away suspiciously quickly.
“His name is Oliver.”
Roman picked up his coat.
“Apparently we're rescuing Oliver.”
Despite everything, Elena laughed.
It lasted three seconds.
Then Roman's man said:
“We identified one intruder.”
“Who?”
“Hale security.”
Elena stopped.
Vanessa.
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
And a small brass key.
Elena read the first line.
My darling Elena, if Roman Valenti gives you this letter, then the Hale family has finally come looking for what I stole from them.
Elena slowly lifted her head.
“Hale?”
Roman read the fear in her face.
She handed him the letter.
He didn't take it.
“It's yours.”
She continued reading.
Her father had discovered a hidden financial ledger.
Not Valenti money.
Hale money.
Payments connecting respected businesses, judges, contractors, and organized crime.
Daniel hid the evidence.
He believed the Hales discovered what he had done.
He also believed they would eventually search for it.
The final line made Elena's blood run cold.
The key opens something I placed in your mother's grave.
Elena stared at Roman.
“My mother's grave?”
Roman's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Elena.
“What?”
“The police reached your apartment.”
“And?”
“No intruders.”
“Good.”
“No.”
Roman's expression darkened.
“Your apartment was already empty.”
Elena frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Someone removed everything.”
Her laptop.
Files.
Photographs.
Boxes.
Even Oliver.
Elena went pale.
Then a photograph arrived on her phone.
Oliver sat inside a carrier.
Alive.
Beneath the photograph was a message from Mason.
Come back to the gala alone if you want your things returned.
Elena stared.
Roman read it over her shoulder.
His face became terrifyingly still.
“My fiancé stole my cat?”
“Former fiancé.”
“This isn't funny.”
“I wasn't joking.”
Then another message arrived.
This one from Vanessa.
Bring the key.
Elena looked at the brass object in her hand.
Mason hadn't cheated on her by coincidence.
Vanessa hadn't entered their relationship because she wanted him.
They had been waiting for Elena to discover something she didn't even know she possessed.
May you like
And suddenly five years with Mason looked less like a failed romance.
It looked like surveillance.
