Chapter 6 - VIVIAN’S LAST OFFER
Christian answered on speaker. Vivian’s voice sounded steady, almost bored.
“You found the storage unit. That was careless.”
“Where did you get this number?” Christian asked.
“You gave it to me, darling. You gave me everything I needed.”
“You’re in custody.”
“Am I? The men guarding me have just been paid to leave. You should ask yourself who signed their checks.”
Christian’s expression hardened. Declan was already speaking into his radio, ordering the safe house sealed. The line crackled.
Vivian continued. “I can tell you who ordered the poison. I can tell you why Sophie’s father died. In exchange, you let me walk out of New York.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll tell someone else.”
“You don’t have anything left to bargain with.”
A soft laugh came through the speaker. “You still think this is about killing you. It was never that simple. The poison was a test. I needed to know whether your people would protect you, whether Romanov would intervene, and whether the waitress would notice what she wasn’t supposed to notice.”
Sophie leaned toward the phone. “Why me?”
“Because your father stole something from the wrong men.”
“What did he steal?”
“The original ledger. The one in that storage unit was a copy. Your father hid the real one before he died. And he left a clue where no one would think to look.”
Sophie remembered the scarred man’s hand, the accident, the photograph, the note. “You’re lying.”
“Of course I am. Sometimes. But not about the ledger.”
Christian cut in. “Who hired you?”
Vivian paused. “A man who calls himself the Architect. He doesn’t run a syndicate. He runs the people who run syndicates. He arranged the feud between your father and Romanov’s predecessor. He arranged the accident. And he arranged for you to grow up believing your father had died because of bad luck.”
Sophie’s knees weakened. Christian steadied her without taking his eyes off the phone.
“Name him,” Christian said.
“You know him. Everyone in your world knows him. They just use a different name.”
The call ended.
Minutes later, Declan reported that the safe house was empty. Two guards were unconscious, the cameras had been looped, and Vivian had disappeared. On the desk she had left her diamond engagement ring. Beneath it was a strip of black silk and a message written in precise handwriting:
ASK CHRISTIAN WHAT HIS FATHER PROMISED YOURS.
Sophie pulled away from Christian.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I don’t know what he promised your father.”
“But you know something.”
Christian’s silence answered before he did. He admitted that his father had once spoken of a family he had failed to protect. He had never given a name. After Michael Callahan died, the records vanished, and the subject became forbidden.
Sophie looked at the man who had asked her to trust him while every new fact revealed another secret.
“I won’t be used as bait,” she said.
“You won’t.”
“You don’t get to promise that. You don’t control everyone.”
“No,” Christian said. “I don’t.”
That honesty did not repair the damage, but it gave her a place to stand. Sophie agreed to continue only if she had access to every document and could speak directly to anyone they found. Christian agreed.
May you like
They returned to the restaurant’s old archive room and searched records from the year of the accident. At 2:14 a.m., Sophie found a maintenance log showing that a private delivery had been made to the club on the night her father died.
The person who signed for it was Antoine.
