THE ROMANO FAMILY SECRET

Sebastian refused to take the note at face value. He sent Marco to secure the property and called a retired federal investigator who had once helped him expose a corrupt shipping company. He did not call the police yet; if Adrian was alive, a careless move might put him in greater danger.

Olivia sat in Sebastian’s private office while a locksmith examined the necklace. The pendant looked simple from the outside: a silver shield, a lion beneath three stars, and the initials A.R. The jeweler found no obvious seam until he warmed the metal gently and examined it under magnification.

“There,” he said, pointing to a hairline gap along the rim. “This was made to open, but not with a normal clasp.”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “Can you do it without damaging it?”

“I can try.”

Olivia held her breath as the jeweler used a fine tool. A tiny section of the pendant released with a click. Inside, wrapped in waxed paper, lay a narrow strip of microfilm and a folded piece of paper no larger than a fingernail.

The paper carried three words in Emily Bennett’s handwriting:

Trust the second son.

Olivia stared at it. “My mother wrote this.”

Sebastian looked at the message, then at the portrait of Adrian behind his desk. “Second son could mean me. Or it could mean someone else.”

“Richard said Adrian discovered who was really running the family.”

“Which means the necklace may contain evidence, not just a family keepsake.”

The microfilm required a specialist. Sebastian sent it to a trusted analyst and instructed him to work offline. While they waited, Olivia called the number that had reached her. It went straight to voicemail. She left no message. She couldn’t risk revealing where she was.

Vanessa appeared at the office door. She had changed into a cream blouse, but her face looked exhausted. “Sebastian, can we speak privately?”

“No.”

Her eyes flashed with humiliation. “I’m still your fiancée.”

“Not for much longer.”

The words struck her hard. She looked at Olivia as though the maid had stolen more than a bracelet.

“I know how this looks,” Vanessa said. “But Richard has helped this family for years. He handled the trusts, the properties, everything. If he’s guilty, I want to know. But you’re letting one phone call turn your life upside down.”

“You were terrified when Olivia mentioned her mother’s death,” Sebastian said.

“I was shocked.”

“You dropped your glass when she said someone stopped Adrian from reaching them.”

Vanessa’s composure cracked. “Because I knew Adrian had tried to return once. I was told he’d been killed.”

“By whom?”

“Richard. He said Adrian had become unstable and dangerous. He said your father had ordered him to keep Adrian away.”

Sebastian stood slowly. “And you never told me?”

“I was nineteen when Adrian disappeared. I believed the adults around me. I was trying to survive in a family where every conversation could become a threat.”

“That explains your fear. It doesn’t excuse your lies.”

Vanessa lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Olivia didn’t know whether the apology was genuine. She only knew Vanessa had humiliated her publicly and seemed to regret it only after the powerful man in the room turned against her.

The analyst called at 10:18 p.m. The microfilm contained scanned account entries, shipping manifests, and a list of payments made to a private security company. One name appeared repeatedly: Richard Sterling. Another was marked with a code—SECOND SON.

Sebastian read the figures in silence. The entries suggested that, shortly before Adrian vanished, he had discovered money being moved through legitimate Romano businesses to finance a network of illegal shipments. The amounts were enormous. Some payments continued after Adrian disappeared, and several were made in the weeks before Emily’s death.

“Someone was paying to keep this operation alive,” Sebastian said. “And my brother found out.”

Olivia leaned closer to the screen. “What does ‘second son’ mean?”

The analyst enlarged a note attached to one manifest. The message had been typed, not handwritten:

Transfer the ledger to the second son. The first has already been compromised.

Sebastian’s face went cold. Their father had been the oldest son. Adrian was next in line. Sebastian had always assumed “second son” referred to him.

Then the analyst found a birth record linked to a shell company. It named a boy born in Milwaukee twenty-four years earlier. The mother’s name was Emily Bennett. The father’s name had been deliberately removed.

Olivia gripped the edge of the desk.

“That’s me.”

“Your birth was recorded under a false parentage code,” the analyst said. “Someone paid to seal the original file.”

Sebastian looked at the date. “Adrian knew Emily before he disappeared. If he was your father, he may have been trying to protect you.”

A second file opened on the screen: a scanned photograph of Adrian standing outside a hospital, holding a newborn wrapped in a white blanket. His expression was tired but radiant. Around his neck hung the silver pendant.

Olivia pressed her hand to her mouth.

“He knew me,” she whispered. “He held me.”

Sebastian had no comforting answer. He had spent twenty-two years imagining the brother he lost, but never once had he pictured Adrian as a father.

The analyst enlarged the background of the photograph. A dark sedan sat near the hospital entrance. Its license plate was partly visible. Marco traced it to a vehicle registered to a company that no longer existed.

The company’s last listed director was Richard Sterling.

Then another message arrived on Sebastian’s secure phone.

Midnight. The boathouse. Bring Olivia and the necklace. Come alone, or Adrian dies.

Sebastian looked at Olivia.

She lifted her chin. “We’re going.”