Chapter 7 - THE LETTER BENEATH THE BED
The mansion was sealed within sixty seconds.
Security teams searched the grounds, the service tunnels, the garages, and the surrounding woodland. Every camera was reviewed. Every employee was questioned.
Daniel had disappeared without triggering a single alarm.
Sebastian stood in the medical suite, studying the open window.
It was on the second floor.
The drop was too dangerous for a malnourished man who could barely walk.
"Someone helped him," Dominic said.
Sebastian examined the windowsill.
A muddy footprint marked the edge.
Then he noticed a strip of blue fabric caught on a broken latch.
Daniel had been wearing a blue hospital gown.
"This wasn't an escape," Sebastian said. "Someone took him."
Clara stood in the doorway, pale but composed.
"Who would want him?"
"Anyone who believes he can expose the truth."
She looked at the empty bed.
"Then we should stop wasting time looking for the people who already know what happened. We need to find what they don't want us to discover."
Sebastian turned toward her.
She held up the yellowed letter Margaret had given them.
"There was another page in the envelope. I didn't show you because I wanted to read it first."
Sebastian frowned.
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid it would say something about my mother that I wasn't ready to hear."
She unfolded the page.
The handwriting was unmistakably feminine.
If Lily is ever found, tell her the truth about the night she disappeared. She was not abandoned. She was taken to protect another child.
Below the paragraph was a name.
Rebecca Sterling.
Clara looked at Sebastian.
"Vanessa's mother?"
He nodded slowly.
"Rebecca was the woman who helped arrange Michael's adoption."
The letter continued.
Rebecca believed Michael's biological father was a dangerous man who wanted to use the Romano family to protect his own criminal empire. She brought the baby to Antonio because she thought he could hide him. But when she learned the child's true identity, she changed her mind.
The final sentence had been underlined.
She told me she would rather see both children disappear than let their father find them.
Clara lowered the page.
"What does that mean?"
Sebastian took a breath.
"It means somebody may have manipulated all of us from the beginning."
They returned to room seventeen.
Dominic had stationed guards outside the door, but Sebastian ordered them away.
He entered with Clara and examined the bed.
The frame was old iron. The mattress had been replaced recently, but scratches along the wall suggested someone had moved it repeatedly.
Clara knelt and felt along the baseboard.
"There."
A narrow panel shifted beneath her fingers.
Behind it was a small metal box.
Sebastian opened it.
Inside lay a sealed envelope, a microcassette, and a photograph of a man standing beside a black sedan.
The man wore a wedding ring.
His face had been scratched out.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten note:
For Michael, when he is ready to know who he is.
Sebastian inserted the cassette into an old player found in the basement storage room.
Static filled the air.
Then a woman's voice emerged.
Rebecca Sterling.
"If you're hearing this, the family has already begun asking questions."
She paused.
"Michael, I am sorry. I wanted to protect you. Your father was not Daniel Romano. He was a man who used Daniel's name to gain access to the family."
Clara felt Sebastian stiffen.
Rebecca continued.
"He had an affair with your biological mother, and when she discovered his identity, she tried to take you away. He arranged for her disappearance. Antonio helped cover up the crime because he believed exposing it would destroy his sons."
A door slammed somewhere in the corridor.
The recording continued.
"His name is Victor Vale."
Sebastian stared at the player.
Victor Vale had been a powerful underworld financier. He had disappeared twenty years earlier after a failed attempt to seize control of several East Coast shipping operations.
Most people believed he was dead.
Rebecca's voice trembled.
"He is still alive. He has been watching the family. He wants the trust, and he wants the children who can expose him."
The tape clicked.
Silence.
Clara slowly sat back on her heels.
"If Victor Vale is Michael's father, then why did he want me?"
Sebastian looked at the photograph.
"Because your mother was the only person who could have proved he ordered her murder."
Clara's throat tightened.
"And because I'm the missing beneficiary."
"Yes."
She looked toward the doorway.
"What if Michael knew?"
Sebastian didn't answer.
He was staring at the final item in the box.
A folded page bearing the official seal of the Romano family trust.
At the bottom was a handwritten instruction from Antonio.
If Victor Vale returns, transfer guardianship of Lily to the one person he cannot buy.
Beneath it was a name.
SEBASTIAN ROMANO.
Clara read it twice.
"Your father chose you to protect me."
Sebastian's voice was low.
"He knew I would never surrender you to someone like Victor."
A phone began ringing in his pocket.
The number was blocked.
He answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
"You have something that belongs to me."
Sebastian glanced at Clara.
"Who is this?"
"You have my letter. My photograph. And my son."
Sebastian's blood turned cold.
"Victor Vale."
The voice chuckled.
"Bring Clara to the old river warehouse before midnight. Come alone, or Daniel dies."
The call ended.
A second message arrived immediately.
It contained a photograph of Daniel tied to a chair.
Behind him stood a man holding a pistol.
May you like
And beside that man was Michael.
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