Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Rosa started crying when I showed her the photograph.
“You knew.”
She sat in Damian's library, surrounded by security personnel and locked doors.
“Elena—”
“You knew my mother didn't die.”
“I knew she survived.”
The distinction made me furious.
“For how long?”
“Three months.”
“Where was she?”
“Hidden.”
“From Father?”
Rosa nodded.
My mother, Isabel Mercer, had discovered the financial network connecting Charles Mercer and Roman Voss.
She had tried to expose them.
Father discovered her plan.
The car accident that supposedly killed her had been staged to make the world believe she was dead.
But she survived.
Luca Voss helped her disappear.
That was why they were together in the photograph.
Luca hadn't been Father's enemy.
He had been Mother's ally.
Then Roman discovered them.
Three months later, Luca was dead.
Soon afterward, my mother vanished for real.
“Is she dead?” I asked.
Rosa's tears answered before her words did.
“I believe so.”
I sat down.
Damian stood across the room.
His face carried the same grief in a different form.
Our families hadn't merely destroyed each other.
They had rewritten the truth until their children inherited the wrong war.
Rosa reached for my hand.
“Your mother left evidence.”
“Where?”
“She didn't tell me. She said only you could find it.”
“Why me?”
“Because she made the hiding place from something Charles would never bother remembering.”
A memory surfaced.
My mother had loved music.
She kept an antique music box in my childhood bedroom.
Father hated it.
After her supposed death, it disappeared.
“Where's my music box?”
Rosa's eyes widened.
“I put it in storage.”
Damian immediately ordered it retrieved.
An hour later, the box sat on his desk.
I opened it.
The melody barely played.
Inside was a tiny ballerina.
I remembered twisting it as a child.
This time, I noticed something beneath the velvet lining.
A key.
Not brass.
Silver.
Damian examined it.
“Safe-deposit key.”
Marcus traced the engraved number.
The bank was in Manhattan.
By morning, we were inside a private vault.
The box contained no money.
Only documents.
And a video cassette.
Damian had it digitized.
My mother's face appeared on the screen.
I hadn't heard her voice in fourteen years.
“Elena,” she began, “if you're watching this, then I failed.”
I broke.
Damian sat beside me.
He didn't touch me until I reached for his hand first.
Then he held on.
Mother explained everything.
Charles had laundered money through Roman's companies.
Roman had stolen from Charles.
Luca discovered the theft.
Mother discovered the laundering.
Together, they planned to expose both men.
Roman ordered Luca killed.
Father helped conceal it.
Then Father discovered Mother had copied the evidence.
He tried to silence her.
She escaped.
But she knew she couldn't remain hidden forever.
Near the end of the recording, she looked directly into the camera.
“Elena, your father will tell you fear is obedience. It isn't. Fear is simply what people like him build when love fails them.”
I covered my mouth.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Ethan knows part of this.”
I looked toward my brother.
He went pale.
“What part?”
Ethan stood.
“Elena—”
“What did you know?”
“I found one of her letters when I was nineteen.”
“You knew she survived?”
“For a while.”
“And you never told me?”
“Father caught me with it.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“He said if I ever told you, he'd kill you.”
I stared at him.
“You let me mourn her.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“For fourteen years?”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I stood.
I couldn't forgive him.
Not then.
Maybe not ever.
Damian followed me into the hallway.
“Elena.”
“I need air.”
“You need security.”
“I need five minutes where nobody decides what I need.”
He stopped.
That was one thing Damian was learning.
When I said stop, he stopped.
I walked to the terrace.
A minute later, he appeared inside the doorway but didn't cross it.
“You can come out,” I said.
He joined me.
“I owe you an apology,” he said.
I laughed bitterly.
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
That silenced me.
“I married you believing you were part of what happened to Luca.”
“I know.”
“I intended to dismantle your family while forcing you to watch.”
“I know.”
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
He accepted it.
No defense.
No excuse.
“I won't keep you in this marriage.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“When this is over, you can leave. I'll sign whatever you want.”
Something inside me hurt unexpectedly.
This marriage had begun as a prison.
Now that its door was open, I wasn't sure why leaving felt complicated.
“Why?”
“Because choice should have been yours from the beginning.”
Before I could answer, Marcus stepped onto the terrace.
“We found Roman.”
Damian turned.
“Where?”
“Mercer Holdings.”
“Doing what?”
Marcus held up his phone.
Security footage showed Roman entering my father's executive floor.
Ten minutes later, Father entered.
Then Ethan.
I spun around.
“Ethan is upstairs.”
Marcus looked at me.
“No.”
We rushed back inside.
The room was empty.
Ethan's coat remained on the chair.
His phone lay beneath it.
On the screen was one unsent message addressed to me.
ELENA, FATHER HAS THE ORIGINAL RECORDING. IF I DON'T COME BACK—
The message ended there.
May you like
Then Damian's phone rang.
Roman Voss was calling.
