Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Started It All
Nathan answered the phone on speaker.
No one spoke at first.
Then a woman's voice.
"Roman."
He went white.
"Mother?"
I had never seen my husband look like a child.
"You've grown careless."
Roman's hand closed around the hospital bed rail.
"You're alive."
"So is Augustus."
"Where are you?"
A soft laugh.
"You still think you're asking the questions."
Roman looked at me.
I saw something terrible forming in his face.
Not fear for himself.
For us.
His mother continued.
"The ledger was never Augustus's greatest danger."
Nathan signaled for technicians to trace the call.
"What was?" Roman asked.
"Daniel."
My brother entered the room just in time to hear his name.
He stopped.
Evelyn said, "He found something even he doesn't understand."
Daniel approached the phone.
"What?"
"You found the payments."
"Which payments?"
"The ones Roman made before your accident."
Silence.
I looked at Roman.
He shook his head.
"No."
Daniel stared at him.
Evelyn laughed.
"Still lying."
Roman leaned toward the phone.
"You want me? Come get me. Leave them out of this."
"My son, you never understood. Elena was never outside of it."
The call ended.
Nathan's technician shook his head.
Untraceable.
Daniel turned toward Roman.
"What payments?"
Roman looked furious.
"Not what she implied."
"Then explain."
Roman looked at me.
This time he didn't hesitate.
"Six years ago, I paid a private investigator to follow Daniel."
My brother's face darkened.
"Why?"
"Because I suspected Augustus knew you had the ledger."
"That's why you approached Elena."
"Yes."
"And the payment happened before my crash."
"Yes."
Daniel's fists clenched.
"Did your investigator cause it?"
"No."
"Can you prove that?"
Roman went silent.
I closed my eyes.
Secrets again.
But this time he corrected himself.
"I don't know."
Daniel stared.
Roman continued.
"The investigator disappeared the same night."
Nathan cursed.
"Name?"
"Marcus Reed."
Daniel went pale.
"Marcus Reed?"
"You know him?"
"He's the man who pulled me from the wreck."
Roman froze.
"What?"
The room changed.
Daniel explained.
He remembered very little from the crash.
Fire.
Metal.
Someone dragging him through snow.
The rescuer said his name was Marcus.
Roman had arrived minutes later.
For six years, both men believed Roman had saved Daniel.
But Marcus Reed had done it first.
Nathan searched databases.
Marcus Reed.
Former Chicago police detective.
Declared dead five years earlier.
Of course.
Another dead person who wasn't necessarily dead.
I looked at Sofia sleeping in the bassinet.
"This family needs a rule."
Roman glanced at me.
"No more funerals without DNA."
Daniel laughed despite himself.
Roman actually smiled.
Then Nathan's phone rang.
Agents had located Augustus.
An abandoned rail property south of the city.
And Evelyn might be with him.
Roman stood.
I said, "No."
He stopped.
"I'm going."
"You have a newborn daughter."
"My father—"
"Has spent your entire life making you react exactly how he wants."
Roman stared at me.
Daniel nodded.
"She's right."
Roman looked offended.
"You agreeing with my wife is becoming irritating."
"Get used to it."
Nathan prepared a tactical operation.
Roman gave them every property record he had.
Every access code.
Every secret his father had once taught him.
That was the difference now.
Roman stopped protecting family secrets.
He started exposing them.
Near midnight, agents arrested Augustus.
Evelyn was not there.
Roman watched the live update from my hospital room.
When officers led his father out in handcuffs, Roman did not celebrate.
He sat beside Sofia.
Quiet.
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
"That I spent half my life trying not to become him."
"And?"
"I became enough like him to hurt you."
That was the most truthful thing he had ever said.
He looked at me.
"I won't ask you to stay married to me."
I swallowed.
"Good."
"I won't ask you to forgive me."
"Good."
"I'll give you the house."
"I don't want the house."
"Whatever you want."
I studied him.
"You still think problems can be solved by giving people things."
He almost smiled.
"Occupational flaw."
"I want time."
"You have it."
"I want separate homes."
His expression flickered.
Pain.
Then acceptance.
"Okay."
"I want therapy."
Roman looked horrified.
I laughed.
"That scares you more than Augustus."
"Significantly."
"Individual and couples therapy."
"If you're willing."
"I said therapy. I didn't say reconciliation."
"I understand."
"And Roman?"
"Yes?"
"You don't get surveillance on my new place."
He looked almost insulted.
"Basic perimeter security?"
"No."
"Door camera?"
"I will choose it."
He exhaled.
"Fine."
Progress.
Daniel sat beside me later.
"I'm leaving Chicago."
I looked at him.
"Running again?"
"No. Starting over."
"Where?"
"Madison, maybe."
"Close."
"If you'll have me."
I touched his hand.
"I haven't forgiven you either."
"I know."
"But Sofia needs an uncle."
His eyes filled.
"I'd like that."
Christmas ended.
Augustus was charged federally.
The ledger opened investigations into judges, contractors, and officers.
Nathan's leak was identified.
Vanessa testified.
Roman testified too.
For the first time in generations, the Vale name was not used to silence people.
It was used to tell the truth.
Weeks passed.
I moved into a townhouse near Lincoln Park.
Roman visited Sofia every day.
Never unannounced.
Never without asking.
Sometimes he stayed ten minutes.
Sometimes two hours.
He learned bottles.
Diapers.
How Sofia only slept when someone walked in circles around the kitchen.
He also went to therapy.
I know because he complained about it constantly.
"She asks invasive questions."
"That's the job."
"She asked about my father."
"Tragic."
"Then she asked about you."
"Terrifying."
"Very."
Slowly, Roman changed.
Not because I threatened to leave.
I already had.
He changed because he finally understood love did not guarantee possession.
Three months after Christmas, Detective Morris called.
They had found Evelyn.
Alive.
Living under another identity.
But there was something strange.
She had turned herself in.
And requested to speak to me.
Roman immediately said, "Absolutely not."
I stared at him.
He stopped.
Closed his eyes.
Then corrected himself.
"Sorry."
"Better."
"I would prefer you not to."
"I know."
"Will you?"
"Yes."
He nodded reluctantly.
At the federal building, Evelyn Vale sat across from me behind glass.
She looked older than the photograph.
Tired.
But unmistakably Roman's mother.
"Why me?" I asked.
She placed both hands on the table.
"Because Roman won't believe me."
"Believe what?"
"Augustus wasn't the one who sent those photographs on Christmas Eve."
My pulse slowed.
"Then who did?"
Evelyn stared directly at me.
"I did."
I felt cold.
"Why?"
"To get you out of the estate."
"You nearly destroyed my marriage."
"No."
Her expression remained calm.
"I exposed what was already broken."
I hated that answer because part of me understood it.
"Why did you need me out?"
"Because Augustus's men were coming for the ledger."
"Then why not warn me?"
"Because Roman monitored every threat."
"Protection."
"Control," she said.
I stared at her.
She knew her son.
"Why turn yourself in now?"
Evelyn leaned closer.
"Because Augustus wasn't the last person behind this."
My heart dropped.
"No."
"There's someone else."
I stood.
"I have had enough dead relatives and secret conspiracies for one lifetime."
"Elena."
I stopped.
Evelyn reached into the folder before her.
A photograph slid beneath the glass.
A man beside my brother.
Daniel.
Taken yesterday.
My chest tightened.
The man beside him was Marcus Reed.
The investigator who had supposedly died.
On the back of the photograph, three words had been written.
DANIEL TRUSTS HIM.
Evelyn looked at me.
"He shouldn't."
I grabbed my phone.
Called my brother.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Daniel sent me a single text.
COME ALONE.
A second message appeared.
An address.
May you like
And beneath it:
DON'T TELL ROMAN.
