Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the Ledger
Sadi stared at the name.
Vega.
Roman looked at her.
“Tell me that's fake.”
“It is.”
“Which part?”
“My name.”
“Not good enough.”
Police moved through the showroom while Marcus quietly spoke with their lieutenant. Roman had enough legitimate influence to make confusion move quickly, but Sadi barely noticed.
She stared at the paper.
Isabel Vega had never legally existed.
Arturo created that identity for her.
A joke, he'd said.
If she was going to protect his money, she should carry his name.
She had hated it.
Roman lowered his voice.
“Are you his daughter?”
“No.”
“Wife?”
Sadi nearly recoiled.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Property.”
That silenced him.
She wished she could take the word back.
Roman's anger changed direction.
Not toward her.
Toward a dead history he couldn't touch.
Sadi explained only enough.
At twenty-two, she had been a junior forensic accountant working contract audits.
She found irregularities in a logistics company.
The irregularities belonged to Arturo Vega.
He offered her a job.
She refused.
Then her younger brother Mateo disappeared.
Arturo offered again.
She accepted.
For eighteen months, she built systems and traced transfers while secretly copying evidence.
Then Mateo died anyway.
After that, Sadi stopped surviving for him and started destroying Arturo.
She gave evidence to investigators.
His network fractured.
Arturo disappeared before trial.
Sadi vanished too.
Roman listened without interrupting.
“Why didn't you enter witness protection?”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“Someone leaked my location.”
Roman looked toward Gina.
Sadi followed his gaze.
“No. Not her. This happened years ago.”
“Same network?”
“I don't know.”
Roman pressed the towel harder against his wound.
“Then tonight someone used my dealership to move Vega money, someone recognized you, and someone broke into your apartment.”
“Yes.”
“And you still want to go alone?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She glared at him.
“You said you wouldn't control me.”
“I won't.”
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was an opinion delivered efficiently.”
Despite herself, Sadi almost smiled.
Roman saw it.
Then his expression softened.
“Choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Go alone, and I don't stop you.”
He nodded toward Marcus.
“Or let us help.”
Sadi looked at the blood on Roman's shirt.
“Why?”
Roman answered immediately.
“Because this happened inside my company.”
“That isn't enough.”
“No.”
His eyes darkened.
“And because Vega killed my brother.”
There it was.
The missing piece.
Roman's brother Luca had discovered laundering through one of the Costa family's legitimate businesses six years ago.
He tried to expose it.
Three days later, his car exploded.
Roman had spent years dismantling anything connected to Vega.
Tonight the enemy had apparently walked through Roman's front door.
Sadi made her choice.
“Hospital first.”
Roman frowned.
“No.”
“Then I'm going alone.”
“You negotiate aggressively for a cashier.”
“I quit, remember?”
Marcus laughed.
Roman sighed.
“Fine.”
They left through the rear.
At a private clinic, Roman received twelve stitches.
Sadi waited outside.
At 11:43 p.m., they reached her apartment.
The door was open.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Sadi went straight to the bedroom.
The floorboard had been lifted.
The red notebook was gone.
On her bed lay an envelope.
Roman opened it only after she nodded.
Inside was a photograph of Mateo.
Alive.
Sadi stopped breathing.
The timestamp printed on the photograph was dated eight months after his supposed death.
On the back were six handwritten words:
YOUR BROTHER DIDN'T DIE THAT NIGHT.
Below them was an address.
Roman looked at her.
Sadi reached for the photograph.
Her fingers trembled.
Then someone knocked three times on the apartment door.
Marcus checked the hallway camera.
His face tightened.
“Roman.”
“Who?”
Marcus turned the screen toward them.
A man stood outside.
Older.
Thin.
Scar across his cheek.
Sadi dropped the photograph.
She knew him.
It was the man who had identified Mateo's body five years earlier.
He raised his face toward the camera.
Then spoke directly into it.
“Sadi, if you want to know where your brother is, open the door.”
Roman moved beside her.
May you like
The man outside reached into his coat.
And the apartment doorknob began turning from the other side.
