Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED
Catherine was too weak to stand for long. Daniel called the doctor and arranged a secure transfer, but my mother refused to leave the greenhouse until she had told us what she could.
“I can’t keep running,” she said. “I have spent twenty-seven years being afraid of a name.”
Sebastian knelt in front of her. “Tell me the name.”
She looked at him, and grief moved across her face.
“Your uncle Michael.”
Sebastian shook his head. “Michael died in a car fire in 2004.”
“No. The family was told he died. Richard helped stage the evidence. Michael disappeared after Elena’s death, and everyone who knew the truth was told to stop looking.”
“Why would my uncle want my mother dead?”
“Because Elena found the ledger. She discovered that Michael had been selling information to rival crews and using Romano properties to move money. Your father wanted him exposed. Elena wanted him arrested. Michael believed she would destroy the family.”
Sebastian stood. “And my father let everyone believe Michael was dead?”
“Antonio believed it was safer than admitting his brother had betrayed him. Richard convinced him that a public investigation would bring down the entire family. Antonio agreed to silence. I was young, frightened, and carrying evidence I didn’t understand. I left before Michael could reach me.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Catherine’s eyes filled. “Because the police officer who came to question me was wearing Michael’s ring.”
The photographs suddenly seemed heavier in my hands.
Sebastian looked toward the picture of his uncle. “Where is he now?”
“I don’t know. Richard said Michael had left the country. But three weeks ago, someone began calling the rehabilitation center, asking about my records. Then a man came to my room and said the past had finally caught up with me.”
I gripped her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted you to have one ordinary life. I thought if I stayed quiet, they would leave you alone.” She touched my cheek. “I was wrong.”
The doctor arrived and insisted on taking Catherine to the hospital. This time she agreed, but before she left, she pressed the locket into my palm.
“There’s something else,” she said. “Your grandfather didn’t just hide the ledger. He hid a list of everyone who helped Michael. It includes people who are still powerful. If Sebastian finds it, he’ll understand why Richard is desperate.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “Where is it?”
Catherine looked at him for a long moment. “I don’t know. Elena told me she had placed it somewhere Michael would never search. She said the answer was in the family portrait.”
We returned to the mansion. The grand hall was quiet, the guests gone, the torn scraps of Antonio’s letter still collected in a silver bowl on the dining table. The room where Vanessa had humiliated my grandfather now felt like the center of a storm.
Sebastian ordered the family portrait removed from the library wall. It showed Antonio and Elena standing in front of the mansion, with Sebastian as a boy between them and Michael just behind his brother. The frame was heavy oak, its backing sealed with old paper.
Daniel carefully removed it.
Behind the backing was a narrow compartment. Inside lay a folded sheet of paper, a photograph, and a brass key.
Sebastian unfolded the sheet. It was a list of names and coded account numbers. Several names belonged to people who had attended the engagement dinner. One was a retired judge. Another was a former police superintendent. A third was Richard Sterling.
But the last name made Sebastian’s face go blank.
Daniel.
His head of security.
The man who had stood beside him for twelve years.
The man who had just helped search the warehouse.
Sebastian looked toward the doorway.
Daniel was gone.
“Lock the house down,” Sebastian ordered. “No one leaves.”
His phone rang before the order could be carried out. Daniel’s name appeared on the screen.
Sebastian answered. “Where are you?”
A pause.
Then Daniel said, “I’m sorry, sir.”
Sebastian’s voice turned cold. “What did you take?”
“The ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a daughter.”
The line went silent for a moment. Then Daniel continued, his voice breaking. “Michael has her. He said if I didn’t bring him the original records, she’d disappear. I thought I could get the ledger and still bring it back before anyone knew.”
“You helped him take my mother?”
“No. I swear. I didn’t know Catherine was at the greenhouse until I heard your team find her.”
“Where are you now?”
“South entrance. Alone.”
Sebastian looked at me. I saw the fury in his eyes, but also the calculation. Daniel had betrayed him, yet he might still be the only person who knew where Michael was holding his daughter.
“Come inside,” Sebastian said. “Put your weapon on the ground and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Daniel entered ten minutes later, soaked with rain. He placed his pistol on the marble floor and stepped away from it. His face was hollow with shame.
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“You helped the man who may have killed my mother.”
“I know.”
“You helped him threaten Emma’s mother.”
“I know.”
Sebastian moved closer. “Where is Michael?”
Daniel swallowed. “The old family chapel. He’s using it as a meeting place. He said the ledger is only part of what he needs. He wants the will, too.”
“Why?”
“Because the will names the person who inherits the trust Elena created before she died.”
Sebastian looked at me.
I felt the truth approaching before he said it.
“Who inherits it?”
Daniel’s eyes lowered.
“Emma.”
The room went silent.
Then Daniel added, “And Michael knows that if she claims the trust, his entire operation can be exposed.”
Sebastian turned toward the family portrait. Behind the glass, his mother’s painted face seemed to watch us.
“Then we’ll make sure she claims it,” he said.
A new message arrived on Daniel’s phone.
A photograph of a young girl tied to a chair in a dim room.
Beneath it, Michael had written:
BRING EMMA TO THE CHAPEL. NO POLICE. NO ROMANOS.
The picture had been taken minutes earlier.
Daniel whispered, “That’s my daughter.”
May you like
Sebastian picked up his coat.
“We’re going to get her.”
