Chapter 6 - The Woman Mateo Couldn’t Bury
It was Mateo's mother.
Elena Falcone.
Alive.
Mateo did not speak.
Elena looked at her sons first.
Gabriel.
Then Mateo.
Finally Harper.
“You shouldn't have come back to Chicago.”
Harper almost laughed at the absurdity.
“I've heard that a lot today.”
Mateo found his voice.
“You died.”
“No.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I let the people watching you believe I was buried.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“You knew I was alive?”
Elena looked at him.
“Yes.”
Mateo turned toward Gabriel.
“You said—”
“I didn't know she knew.”
Nineteen years of secrets filled the hotel room.
Elena explained that Antonio Falcone had discovered the hidden financial network shortly before his murder.
The organization called itself the Consortium.
It invested in criminal and legitimate businesses, then secretly controlled both through debt and information.
Antonio had attempted to escape.
He was killed.
Elena had spent years gathering evidence.
Simon eventually became her source.
“Then why frame Harper?” Mateo demanded.
“I didn't.”
“Simon worked for you.”
“Simon worked for everybody because everybody had something he loved.”
His daughter.
Harper understood.
“Who killed her?”
Elena's expression darkened.
“The person running the Consortium now.”
“Name,” Mateo said.
“I don't know.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Twenty years and you don't know?”
“I know the title.”
“What title?”
“The Custodian.”
Harper almost rolled her eyes.
“That sounds unnecessarily dramatic.”
Elena looked at her.
“You're the accountant?”
“Unfortunately.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“I understand why he loves you.”
Silence.
Harper looked at Mateo.
Mateo looked at the wall.
Gabriel looked delighted.
“This family is exhausting,” Harper muttered.
Elena gave Harper a small encrypted card.
“Simon wanted you to have this.”
“Why me?”
“Because you see patterns.”
Harper inserted it into the laptop.
Thousands of transactions appeared.
One stood out.
A recurring payment made every month for thirty-three years.
Recipient:
M.F.
Mateo stared.
“Me?”
Harper shook her head.
“The first payment predates you controlling anything.”
She opened the beneficiary information.
M.F. was not Mateo Falcone.
It was Maria Falcone.
Mateo's grandmother.
The Consortium went back another generation.
Then Harper found something worse.
A payment scheduled for the following month.
Beneficiary:
FALCONE, INFANT.
Her hand froze.
Mateo saw it.
His face became lethal.
“They've already created an account for the baby.”
Harper whispered, “How would they know?”
Nobody answered.
Her pregnancy had been secret.
She had used false names.
Mateo had learned only yesterday.
Yet the account had been created seven weeks earlier.
Someone had known.
Harper searched the attached documents.
There was a medical record.
Her medical record.
From the clinic in Missouri.
“They've been watching me.”
Mateo stood beside her.
“Not anymore.”
Harper looked at him.
“You can't promise that.”
“No.”
His hand settled beside hers on the table.
“But I can promise they won't get near our child.”
For once she believed him.
Then she noticed another attachment.
DNA ANALYSIS.
Her stomach tightened.
“Mateo.”
He opened it.
The document contained prenatal genetic information.
Neither Harper nor Mateo had authorized any DNA test.
Yet the file listed probability of paternity.
99.98%.
Mateo read it twice.
“How did they get this?”
Harper felt sick.
Blood samples.
The clinic.
“They had access to my prenatal tests.”
Elena's expression changed.
“Then they know more than we thought.”
A second page appeared.
FALCONE SUCCESSION PROTOCOL.
Mateo frowned.
“What is that?”
Harper opened it.
A list of names appeared.
Every Falcone child born during the past seventy years.
Some had red lines through their names.
Some had dates.
Death dates.
At the bottom was a blank line.
BABY REED-FALCONE.
Beside it:
EXPECTED DELIVERY: FIVE WEEKS.
STATUS: ACQUISITION PENDING.
Mateo slammed the laptop closed.
“No.”
Harper's fear became rage.
“They think my baby is an asset.”
Elena whispered, “That's what the Consortium has always done.”
A knock sounded.
Liam opened the door.
Nobody stood outside.
Only a small package rested on the carpet.
Mateo picked it up carefully.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
Printed on it was Harper's name.
And tomorrow's date.
Then Harper felt something warm run down her leg.
She looked down.
Mateo followed her gaze.
May you like
Harper whispered, “Mateo…”
Her water had broken.
