Chapter 7 - The Father's Secret
They escaped through the service tunnels beneath the estate.
Harper knew the layout better than anyone.
Damian followed.
“Left,” she whispered.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“You've been down here before?”
“Every week.”
They reached an old maintenance chamber.
Thomas joined them.
“Victor has taken control of the security network.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“How many men?”
“Twenty inside.”
Harper looked at the old blueprints.
“There is another entrance.”
Damian looked at her.
“Where?”
“The wine cellar.”
They moved.
The same cellar where Claudia had tried to kill Harper.
Harper stopped at the door.
Her eyes lingered on the steel frame.
Damian noticed.
“You don't have to go in.”
Harper looked at him.
“Yes, I do.”
She opened the door.
Inside, she found something she had never noticed before.
A narrow service panel behind the wine racks.
Damian pulled it open.
Inside was a hidden room.
Not storage.
A surveillance room.
Monitors.
Documents.
Photographs.
Files.
Harper walked toward a desk.
Her breath stopped.
There was a photograph of her father.
Alive.
Older.
Standing beside Damian's father.
Harper's hands began shaking.
“He knew him.”
Damian stared at the screen.
There were financial records.
Payments.
Offshore accounts.
Federal informant files.
Then Harper found a video.
Her father's face appeared.
“If you're seeing this, Harper, I'm already gone.”
She covered her mouth.
“I didn't betray the Costa family.”
Damian's expression hardened.
“I infiltrated them because they were being betrayed from within.”
The video continued.
“The person responsible is not the Costa family.”
Harper looked at Damian.
“He's inside.”
The video displayed a name.
Victor Hale.
Damian's security chief.
Thomas swore.
Harper's father continued.
“Victor has been selling information to rival syndicates for years. I discovered it. Damian's father tried to protect me.”
The screen flickered.
“He couldn't.”
Harper's eyes filled with tears.
Her father appeared one final time.
“Harper, if you're watching this, remember something. Never trust the person who tells you they are protecting you.”
The video ended.
Silence.
Damian looked at Harper.
“My father knew yours.”
“Yes.”
“He tried to save him.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor killed them both.”
Harper shook her head.
“No.”
She pointed at the files.
“Victor didn't kill my father.”
Damian frowned.
“Look.”
One document showed a payment from Victor.
Another showed a prison transfer.
Another showed a medical facility.
Harper's father hadn't died.
He had been imprisoned.
Alive.
For ten years.
Damian's expression changed.
“Where?”
Harper read the location.
A private rehabilitation facility in Pennsylvania.
Damian immediately reached for his phone.
Thomas stopped him.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The facility burned down six months ago.”
Harper's heart sank.
Then another document appeared.
A transfer order.
One week ago.
Destination:
Costa estate.
Harper stared at it.
Her father had been inside the estate.
Somewhere.
All along.
Damian slowly turned toward the hallway.
A sound came from behind the wall.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three knocks.
Harper froze.
It was a signal.
A signal her father had taught her when she was a child.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three knocks.
She ran toward the sound.
Damian followed.
They opened a hidden door.
Inside sat an older man with gray hair and a scar across his face.
Harper stopped breathing.
“Dad?”
The man looked up.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Harper.”
She ran into his arms.
Behind them, Damian stood motionless.
Because the man Harper had spent ten years believing dead had just spoken his name.
And he had one sentence for Damian.
“Your father was murdered because of Victor.”
May you like
Then he looked at Harper.
“And Claudia was never working alone.”
