Chapter 4 - The Attorney Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The man waiting downstairs introduced himself as Samuel Price.
Roman recognized him immediately.
So did Evelyn.
Price had handled legal affairs for Roman’s father, Matteo Valente.
The family had been told Samuel died in a boating accident ten years earlier.
Yet there he stood in Roman’s mansion, older and thinner but unmistakably alive.
Roman dismissed everyone except Marcus, Vivian, Evelyn, Sophie, and me.
Price placed a leather folder on the marble table.
“You’re late,” Roman said.
“By about ten years.”
Price accepted the insult.
“I stayed dead because Matteo told me to.”
Roman’s expression hardened at his father’s name.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then start making sense.”
Price opened the folder.
Inside was an original medical directive dated thirteen years earlier.
Roman read it.
His father had anticipated exactly this situation.
If any family member attempted to remove Roman through manipulated medical evidence, all emergency transfer provisions would automatically become void.
Roman looked up.
“My father expected this?”
“He expected ambition.”
“From whom?”
Price glanced at Evelyn.
She lowered her eyes.
“Matteo knew someone wanted Roman’s position,” she said.
Roman slammed the document down.
“And everyone decided the best way to protect me was to lie for twelve years?”
Price remained calm.
“The person Matteo feared had no power while you were healthy and in control.”
“Who?”
“Anthony.”
Roman laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Price shook his head.
“Anthony is involved. He isn’t the architect.”
The room fell silent.
“Then who is?”
Price looked at Sophie.
“Before I answer, the child should leave.”
Sophie folded her arms.
Roman almost smiled despite everything.
“She stays.”
I didn’t like that decision.
But I understood why he made it.
Sophie had noticed what every adult missed.
Price continued.
“Matteo discovered someone had been collecting medical records on you since you were nineteen.”
Roman frowned.
“My asthma?”
“Your respiratory condition made you vulnerable to a legal mechanism that couldn’t easily be challenged if doctors agreed you were temporarily incapacitated.”
Vivian asked, “Who had access that long ago?”
Price looked directly at Evelyn.
Roman followed his gaze.
His mother went pale.
“No,” she said.
Roman stood.
“Mother?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I never—”
Price interrupted.
“Not Evelyn.”
Roman stopped.
Price removed another paper.
A hospital authorization.
The name on it was Dr. Nathan Cross.
Vivian’s brother.
But the date was seventeen years old.
Vivian stared.
“Nathan was in medical school.”
“Exactly,” Price said.
Someone had begun cultivating him before Roman even took control of the family businesses.
Vivian called her brother again.
This time Nathan answered.
His voice was terrified.
“Vivian?”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t say.”
“Were you in Roman’s house today?”
“No.”
“Someone disguised himself as you.”
Nathan went silent.
Roman took the phone.
“Why does your name appear on a seventeen-year-old authorization involving me?”
Nathan breathed heavily.
“Roman, I didn’t know what it was.”
“Explain.”
“When I was a resident, someone paid my tuition debt.”
“Who?”
“I never met them.”
Roman looked at Price.
Nathan continued.
“In exchange, I signed consulting documents. Years later I realized they were using my credentials to access medical files.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“Because they had my signature on everything.”
Vivian closed her eyes.
The same method.
Forge enough paperwork around a person and eventually nobody knew which signatures were real.
Roman asked, “Did you create the form found today?”
“No.”
“Did you help Anthony?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Yes.”
Vivian whispered, “Nathan.”
“I thought it was corporate planning. He said Roman needed an emergency continuity protocol.”
Roman’s voice became cold.
“What was supposed to happen at lunch?”
Nathan began crying.
“Your food.”
My stomach dropped.
Roman looked toward the dining room.
“What about it?”
“Nothing lethal.”
“Then what?”
“A medication that could trigger respiratory distress.”
Vivian gripped the table.
Nathan continued.
“They needed witnesses. They needed you to reach for the inhaler and not find it. Then someone would call emergency services. The responding doctor had already been arranged.”
Roman stared at his inhaler.
Sophie had interrupted the sequence.
By pointing at the purse, she had exposed the missing medication before lunch.
Roman asked the next question.
“Who put my inhaler in Vivian’s purse?”
Nathan whispered, “I don’t know.”
“Who ordered you?”
Silence.
“Nathan.”
“I never knew the real name.”
“What did you call them?”
“The Chairman.”
Roman looked at Marcus.
Marcus looked equally confused.
Price did not.
Roman noticed.
“You know that name.”
Price slowly closed the folder.
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
Before he could answer, every light in the mansion went out.
Emergency lights activated seconds later.
Marcus pulled Roman away from the windows.
Security alarms began sounding.
I grabbed Sophie.
Then we heard glass breaking somewhere downstairs.
Roman shouted, “Lock this room!”
Marcus secured the doors.
Vivian turned on her phone flashlight.
Price was no longer beside the table.
Roman looked around.
“Samuel?”
No answer.
The balcony door moved.
Marcus rushed toward it.
Open.
Price had disappeared.
On the table where his folder had been was a single photograph.
Roman picked it up.
It showed his father, Matteo, standing beside another man.
The second man’s face had been scratched away.
On the back were four handwritten words:
THE CHAIRMAN NEVER LEFT.
Roman stared at the handwriting.
“That’s my father’s writing.”
Then Sophie pointed toward the dark hallway beyond the glass doors.
A shadow moved.
May you like
Someone whispered Roman’s name.
And the voice sounded exactly like his dead father.
