Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO SOLD MENavy told Diego everything before they reached the city.
She expected fury.
She got silence.
That was worse.
Diego sat opposite her inside the armored SUV, one hand resting against his knee while Luca spoke quietly with security in the front seat.
“Say something,” Navy finally demanded.
Diego looked at her.
“Thomas ordered Mateo’s ambush.”
“That’s what my mother says.”
“And Victor knew this marriage would happen.”
“Yes.”
“He wants you inside my house.”
“Yes.”
“To kill me.”
Navy hated the final sentence.
“I didn’t know.”
Diego’s expression did not change.
“I know.”
“You believe me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if you intended to kill me, you wouldn’t have told me.”
It was annoyingly logical.
Navy looked out the window.
“What if there’s something inside the house?”
“There is.”
She turned sharply.
Diego continued.
“A wedding gift arrived this morning while we were gone.”
“From?”
“Thomas.”
Navy’s face tightened.
“What is it?”
“A silver music box.”
She closed her eyes.
“Where?”
“Security isolated it.”
“Good.”
“You recognize it?”
“Yes.”
Navy looked at him.
“It was mine when I was a child.”
Back at Ramos House, the music box sat inside a transparent containment case in the security room.
An explosive technician had already examined it.
No bomb.
No poison.
No tracking device.
Just an old silver box engraved with tiny roses.
Navy stared at it.
“My mother gave me that.”
Luca folded his arms.
“Then why does Thomas have it?”
“Father took everything from her room after she ‘died.’”
Diego watched Navy.
“Open it?”
She nodded.
A technician passed the box through after another scan.
Navy lifted the lid.
A mechanical melody began.
She immediately recognized it.
Clair de Lune.
Her mother used to play the piece on piano.
Inside lay a folded piece of paper.
Three words.
UNDER THE MIRROR.
Navy frowned.
Diego read over her shoulder.
“What mirror?”
Navy knew immediately.
“The bedroom Father assigned me when I was seventeen.”
“Martin House?”
“Yes.”
Luca muttered something in Italian.
Diego looked at Navy.
“Thomas wants us to find something.”
“Or he wants us inside the house.”
“Same thought.”
Navy took out her phone.
“I’m calling him.”
Diego stopped her.
“From a secure line.”
They used his office.
Thomas answered after six rings.
“Navy?”
His voice sounded exhausted.
She closed her eyes.
For a moment he was not the man who sold her.
He was the boy who once carried her on his shoulders.
Then she remembered Mateo.
“Did you send the music box?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“Did you order the Ramos ambush?”
Thomas inhaled.
“Navy—”
“Yes or no.”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
Her stomach turned.
Diego stood several feet away.
He did not move.
“Mateo died because of you.”
“I was trying to kill Diego.”
Navy looked toward her husband.
Diego’s face became stone.
“Why?”
Thomas’s voice cracked.
“Father told me Diego was planning to wipe us out.”
“You believed him?”
“I was twenty-four and stupid.”
“You were twenty-four and ambitious.”
Thomas did not deny it.
Navy continued.
“And then you gave me to him.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“Father wanted you married into Ramos House.”
“I know.”
“He had already arranged someone inside Diego’s staff.”
Navy looked at Diego.
His eyes sharpened.
“Who?”
Thomas whispered, “I don’t know.”
“Then what is under the mirror?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
“Why didn’t you take it?”
“I can’t get inside that room without Father knowing.”
Navy’s anger rose.
“You live there.”
“Not anymore.”
That stopped her.
“Where are you?”
Thomas hesitated.
Then Navy heard a sound through the phone.
A door.
A man’s voice.
Thomas whispered, “I have to go.”
“Thomas.”
“Listen to me.”
His breathing quickened.
“Father can walk.”
Navy froze.
“What?”
“The stroke damaged him, but he recovered months ago.”
“Why is he still pretending?”
“Because weakness made everyone stop watching him.”
The line went dead.
Navy stared at the phone.
Diego spoke first.
“We’re going to Martin House.”
Luca objected immediately.
“Absolutely not.”
Diego looked at him.
“Prepare eight men.”
“That estate is hostile ground.”
“Then prepare twelve.”
Navy stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Diego sighed.
“You’re going to argue.”
“Correct.”
“Fine.”
Luca looked disgusted with both of them.
They entered Martin House at midnight through an old servants’ passage Navy remembered from childhood.
The house smelled exactly the same.
Polished wood.
Beeswax.
Old smoke.
Fear.
Navy’s former bedroom remained locked.
She knew where Victor kept spare keys.
Or used to.
The third key worked.
Inside, time had stopped.
Her childhood books remained on shelves.
A pale blue chair sat beside the window.
The dressing mirror stood exactly where it had when Navy was seventeen.
She approached it slowly.
Under the mirror.
Navy crouched.
Nothing.
Diego examined the frame.
“Maybe behind it.”
Together they lifted the heavy mirror from the wall.
A small recessed compartment appeared.
Inside were three flash drives.
A ledger.
And photographs.
Navy picked up the first.
Victor Martin shaking hands with a city commissioner.
Second.
Victor with Leonard Hale, a rival smuggler.
Third.
Victor meeting one of Diego’s employees.
Navy stopped.
She knew the man.
Everyone in Ramos House knew him.
Benjamin Cole.
Diego’s chef.
The same man who prepared almost every dinner Diego ate.
Diego took the photograph.
His face changed.
A date was printed in the corner.
Six months earlier.
Long before the wedding.
“Victor’s man inside my house,” Diego said.
Navy’s pulse accelerated.
Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.
They froze.
The bedroom door opened.
Thomas stood there.
Blood covered one side of his face.
Navy rushed toward him.
“What happened?”
“Father knows.”
Behind him came another sound.
Slow applause.
Victor Martin stepped into view.
No wheelchair.
No trembling hand.
No helpless expression.
He stood upright in a dark suit, supported only slightly by a cane.
His smile was calm.
“My children.”
Navy stopped breathing.
Victor’s eyes moved to Diego.
“Mr. Ramos.”
Diego positioned himself between Navy and her father.
Victor noticed.
His smile widened.
“How touching.”
Navy looked at the man who had terrorized her childhood.
For years, she had imagined him weakened by stroke.
Reduced.
Powerless.
Now she understood the deception.
“You can walk.”
“Obviously.”
“You lied.”
Victor shrugged.
“People reveal fascinating things around a cripple.”
Thomas leaned against the wall.
Victor glanced at him.
“My son learned that too late.”
Navy looked at Thomas.
“What did he do to you?”
Victor answered.
“Discipline.”
The word made Navy’s skin crawl.
Diego heard the change in her breathing.
He stepped closer to Victor.
“Use that word again.”
Victor laughed.
“You really have become protective.”
“Move away from them.”
“From my children?”
“They stopped being yours when you turned them into weapons.”
Victor’s expression cooled.
Then he looked at Navy.
“You told him.”
“Yes.”
“About your mother?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“You found Evelyn.”
“Yes.”
Victor’s calm finally cracked.
That was when Navy understood.
Her mother was the one thing he had never truly stopped fearing.
Because Evelyn knew.
Victor raised his cane.
A sharp metallic click sounded.
Diego moved instantly.
A blade slid from the cane’s lower section.
Victor lunged.
Thomas shoved Navy aside.
Diego caught Victor’s wrist.
The room exploded into movement.
Security rushed through the hallway.
Thomas fell.
Victor fought with surprising strength.
Navy saw Diego twist his arm and force the blade down.
Then gunfire sounded from somewhere downstairs.
Luca shouted through the radio.
“AMBUSH! MOVE!”
Diego grabbed Navy.
Victor laughed from the floor.
“You think you found the traitor?”
Diego stopped.
Victor’s smile was bloody.
“Benjamin is only the messenger.”
Navy’s heart dropped.
Victor looked directly at her.
“The person closest to Diego is mine.”
May you like
Then the house lights died.
And in the darkness, somebody inside Diego’s own security detail fired directly at him.
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