Chapter 6 - The Man Arthur Trusted Most
Arthur reached the apartment first.
The kitchen window stood open.
A woman was inside.
Arthur stopped.
“Mom?”
Elena Romano turned.
She was sixty-two now, elegant even while frightened.
Chloe came behind Arthur.
“What are you doing here?”
Elena looked at Chloe's stomach.
Her eyes filled.
“So it's true.”
Arthur stepped between them.
“Answer me.”
“I came because someone told me Chloe was in danger.”
“Who?”
“Anthony.”
Arthur's jaw tightened.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
Chloe held up the cassette.
“Did you know my father?”
Elena's face answered before she spoke.
“Yes.”
Arthur stared.
“You knew David?”
“For years.”
“And you never told me?”
“Your father made me promise.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“Everyone made promises except to me.”
Elena sat.
Then she told them.
Vincent had planned to dismantle every questionable part of the Romano organization and rebuild the family business around legitimate holdings.
Malcolm opposed him because chaos was profitable.
Elena helped Vincent quietly.
So did David.
After Vincent died, Elena became terrified Arthur would be next.
She asked Anthony to hide evidence.
She asked Leo to stay close to Arthur.
“You put Leo beside me?”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked toward his friend.
Leo seemed equally surprised.
Elena continued.
“But someone intercepted David's evidence.”
“Who?”
“I thought it was Anthony.”
Arthur's phone rang.
Vivien.
“Arthur?”
“Where are you?”
“With Anthony.”
“Are you safe?”
“Yes. Listen carefully. Anthony wasn't helping my father.”
Arthur looked at Elena.
“What?”
“He was following Samuel Reed.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel has been lying.”
Chloe's stomach tightened.
Vivien continued.
“Samuel wasn't only your father's attorney. He created Meridian Holdings.”
Silence.
Arthur remembered the shell company.
The payments.
7-14-19.
“Where are you?”
Vivien gave an address.
An abandoned legal archive downtown.
Arthur looked at Chloe.
“No.”
She hadn't spoken.
“I know that face.”
“What face?”
“The I'm-coming-with-you face.”
“It's my normal face.”
“You're staying.”
Chloe stared.
Arthur sighed.
“I'm asking you to stay.”
“Still no.”
Elena unexpectedly smiled.
“I like her.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
They all went.
Police were notified first.
Arthur had finally learned that lesson.
At the archive building, Vivien and Anthony waited outside.
Anthony handed Arthur a file.
Samuel Reed had created Meridian Holdings twenty years earlier.
But the signatures showed something more complicated.
Vincent had authorized it.
“So Meridian wasn't Malcolm's company,” Chloe said.
“No,” Anthony replied. “It was Vincent's trap.”
A controlled company designed to track stolen money.
Malcolm had unknowingly been feeding evidence into it for years.
Then why had Samuel hidden?
They entered the archive.
Samuel stood inside.
He didn't run.
“You found it,” he said.
Arthur held up the file.
“You've been manipulating us.”
“I've been keeping the evidence alive.”
“You let me think Leo betrayed my father.”
“No. David's recording explained Leo's role.”
“You let Chloe walk into my wedding alone.”
Samuel's face tightened.
“I didn't know she would.”
Chloe stepped forward.
“Who sent me the documents?”
Samuel looked at her.
“I did.”
Arthur moved.
Chloe caught his arm.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because the wedding was two days away and I couldn't reach Arthur.”
“You could have contacted Leo.”
“I didn't trust Leo.”
Leo laughed without humor.
“Apparently nobody does.”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“I was wrong.”
Vivien asked the question that mattered.
“Who blocked Chloe's calls?”
Samuel became still.
“I don't know.”
Elena spoke from behind them.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
Arthur's mother looked devastated.
“I did.”
Arthur stared.
Chloe didn't move.
“You?”
Elena nodded.
“When Malcolm sent photographs of Chloe, I panicked. I believed if Arthur couldn't see her, he would go through with the marriage and Malcolm would leave her alone.”
Arthur's voice became quiet.
“You erased her messages.”
“Yes.”
“The letters?”
“Yes.”
“You told her I wanted nothing to do with her?”
Elena began crying.
“Yes.”
Arthur stepped back as though she had struck him.
Chloe was equally stunned.
Elena approached her.
“I thought I was saving your life.”
Chloe looked at Arthur.
The same words.
The same mistake.
Making choices for someone else in the name of protection.
“You knew I was pregnant?” Chloe asked.
“No.”
“I said it in the messages.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“I never listened to all of them.”
Arthur turned away.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Chloe said, “This family has a terrible definition of protection.”
Arthur almost laughed despite everything.
Elena apologized.
Chloe didn't forgive her immediately.
Neither did Arthur.
But the truth was finally visible.
Malcolm had created the threat.
Fear had done the rest.
Then Leo's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
He ended the call.
“The investigators searched Malcolm's private office.”
Arthur waited.
“They found another file.”
“What file?”
Leo looked at Chloe.
“A medical file.”
Chloe went pale.
“Mine?”
“No.”
Leo swallowed.
“The baby's.”
Arthur stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Leo's next words made Chloe grab the edge of the table.
“Someone accessed Chloe's prenatal records three months ago.”
Arthur's face went cold.
“Who?”
Leo looked at the name investigators had sent him.
Then he slowly raised his eyes.
“Vivien Croft.”
May you like
Everyone turned toward the bride who had never become Arthur's wife.
Vivien didn't deny it.
