Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Claire stared at the photograph until the image blurred.
Roman took the phone.
His expression changed.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Claire's voice broke.
"That's my husband."
The photograph showed Maisie sitting on a chair.
She wasn't crying.
A man's hand rested on her shoulder.
Only half his face was visible.
But Claire knew the scar above his eyebrow.
She had kissed it a thousand times.
Daniel Ellis.
Dead for two years.
Roman enlarged the image.
"Look."
"What?"
"The background."
Concrete wall.
Metal shelving.
A red emergency pipe.
Roman knew the mansion better than anyone.
"That's not the basement."
"Then where?"
"Old security building. North property."
Claire ran toward the door.
Roman caught her.
"If Daniel is alive, we don't know whose side he's on."
"He's with my daughter."
"Exactly."
She pulled away.
"Then I'm going."
Roman took a gun from his desk.
"So am I."
They left through a service tunnel built decades earlier.
Roman explained that his father had installed escape routes during a violent period in the family's history.
Claire barely listened.
Only one thought existed.
Daniel.
Alive.
They emerged near the north property.
The abandoned security building stood among trees.
Roman motioned for Claire to stay behind him.
The door was unlocked.
Inside they found Rosa tied to a chair.
Claire rushed forward.
"Maisie?"
"They took her."
"Who?"
Rosa struggled to breathe.
"Daniel."
Claire closed her eyes.
Roman cut the ropes.
Rosa grabbed Claire's wrist.
"He saved us first."
"What?"
"Victor's men stopped my car. Daniel attacked them. He pulled Maisie out."
Claire's mind reeled.
"Then why send that photograph?"
"I don't know."
A voice came from the hallway.
"Because I needed Roman away from the house."
Claire turned.
Daniel stepped through the doorway.
Alive.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar ran along his jaw.
Claire couldn't move.
Neither could he.
"Claire."
She crossed the room and struck him.
Then again.
Daniel accepted both blows.
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You let your daughter grow up without you."
"I know."
"Where is she?"
"Safe."
"WHERE?"
Daniel opened another door.
Maisie ran out.
"Daddy!"
Claire stopped.
Maisie knew him.
Daniel looked ashamed.
"I've been seeing her."
Claire stared at him.
"When?"
"Sometimes Rosa helped."
Claire looked at Rosa.
"I'm sorry," the older woman whispered.
Claire wanted to scream.
Instead she dropped to her knees and hugged Maisie.
Daniel crouched several feet away.
"I couldn't come home."
"Why?"
"Because Mercer never ended."
Roman stepped forward.
"Who betrayed us?"
Daniel looked at him.
"Your father built Mercer to catch traitors. After he died, someone turned it into something else."
"Who?"
"Victor was part of it."
Claire thought of the ring.
"But he isn't in charge."
Roman's expression hardened.
"Then who is?"
Daniel looked toward the mansion.
"Someone with your name."
Roman went still.
"Matteo?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Roman understood.
"No."
"Your brother has been selling information for six years."
Roman shook his head.
"I raised him."
"And that's why nobody suspected him."
Daniel opened a steel cabinet.
Files filled it.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Audio recordings.
"The night I supposedly died, I was meeting a federal investigator. Matteo discovered it. Victor ran my car off the road."
Claire whispered, "How did you survive?"
"A truck driver found me before Victor returned."
"And you didn't call me?"
"I wanted to."
"You had two years."
"If Matteo knew I was alive, you and Maisie became leverage."
Claire looked at their daughter.
Daniel's eyes filled.
"I watched her birthday from across the street."
Claire's anger didn't disappear.
But something inside it cracked.
Roman examined the documents.
"Why attack me now?"
"Because you were about to discover the accounts."
Roman remembered.
Three days earlier, his accountant had reported missing money.
"Matteo knew?"
"Matteo ordered the shed."
Roman turned away.
His own brother.
The boy he had protected after their father died.
Claire asked, "Why bring Roman here?"
"Because Matteo is moving everything tonight. Records. Money. People. If Roman stayed inside, they'd either kill him again or make him look responsible."
Roman looked at Daniel.
"You could have told me."
"I tried two years ago."
Daniel pulled out an audio recorder.
A voice played.
Matteo.
"If Roman ever finds out, Mercer dies with him."
Roman's face became stone.
Then another voice.
Victor.
"And Daniel?"
Matteo answered.
"Make it look like an accident."
Claire covered her mouth.
There it was.
Proof.
Daniel had been hunted because of Matteo.
Roman had nearly died for the same reason.
Maisie tugged Claire's sleeve.
"Mommy, can Daddy come home now?"
Nobody knew how to answer.
Then the lights went out.
Roman raised his weapon.
Daniel grabbed Maisie.
A vehicle stopped outside.
Doors slammed.
Multiple footsteps.
Daniel whispered, "They found us."
Roman looked through the window.
Six armed men surrounded the building.
Victor stepped from the lead vehicle.
But he wasn't alone.
Matteo Duca climbed out beside him.
And Matteo was holding Rosa's phone.
He looked directly toward the dark window.
May you like
Then he shouted:
"Roman, send Claire and the child outside, and I'll tell you who really ordered Daniel's death..."
