Chapter 3 - THE MAN SHE ALMOST MARRIED
Mason had met Elena five years earlier.
At a coffee shop.
He spilled espresso on her manuscript.
Apologized.
Bought her another coffee.
Asked for her number.
Elena had called it fate.
Roman called it recruitment.
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
“Then stop saying it like fact.”
Roman nodded.
Fair.
That irritated her more.
They went to the cemetery with police awareness but without announcing the real purpose.
Elena found her mother's grave.
Margaret Ward.
Beloved Wife and Mother.
Roman stayed several yards away.
“This feels wrong,” Elena whispered.
“Then don't do it.”
She looked at him.
“You've waited seventeen years.”
“I can wait another night.”
Elena inserted the key into a tiny weather-sealed compartment hidden behind a bronze memorial vase.
It opened.
Inside:
A flash drive.
And a photograph.
Daniel Ward stood beside another man.
Roman's father.
Between them was a woman.
Elena recognized her.
Margaret.
Her mother.
On the back:
THE THREE WHO KNEW.
Elena's understanding of childhood cracked again.
Her mother had been involved too.
The flash drive was encrypted.
Roman knew someone.
Of course Roman knew someone.
Within hours, they accessed it.
The files contained financial records.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
But one name appeared repeatedly.
HALE, VICTOR.
Vanessa's father.
Billionaire philanthropist.
Hotel investor.
Political donor.
And apparently a man Daniel Ward had feared enough to prepare evidence against.
Then Elena saw another name.
Mason Carter.
Not five years earlier.
Nine.
Mason had worked for Hale interests four years before meeting Elena.
She stared at the screen.
“He knew who I was.”
Roman said nothing.
“He always knew.”
Her relationship had begun with a lie.
Maybe every birthday.
Every vacation.
Every whispered promise.
Every time Mason asked casually about her parents.
Her childhood.
Old belongings.
Storage units.
He had been searching.
Elena ran to the bathroom and vomited.
Roman waited outside.
When she emerged, he handed her water.
No touching.
No empty reassurance.
She appreciated that.
“Why didn't they just take the key?”
“They didn't know you had it.”
“Neither did I.”
“Exactly.”
“So Vanessa seduced Mason because…”
“She may have stopped trusting him.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“At least somebody noticed his weaknesses.”
Roman almost smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Every screen died.
A gunshot cracked downstairs.
Roman moved instantly.
“Elena, behind me.”
Men shouted.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Roman's security rushed toward the stairwell.
Then Elena's phone rang.
Mason.
She answered.
“Elena, listen to me.”
“You have ten seconds.”
“Vanessa is going to kill Roman.”
Elena looked at him.
Roman heard.
Mason continued.
“And when he's dead, she's going to kill you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because she just ordered me killed too.”
Then something slammed against Mason's end of the call.
He gasped.
The connection ended.
Roman checked his weapon.
Elena stared at him.
“What now?”
“We leave.”
“What about Mason?”
Roman opened the emergency exit.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you still want to save the man who spent five years lying to you.”
Elena looked into the dark stairwell.
Then at her father's files.
“I don't.”
Roman nodded.
“But?”
May you like
She grabbed the flash drive.
“I want him alive long enough to tell me why.”
