Chapter 4 - The Secret Inside the Valerio House
Sebastian raised his gun.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Bianca Conti stepped through.
Alone.
Her white gown was stained with blood.
Harper stared.
“Whose blood is that?”
“Not mine.”
Bianca locked the door behind herself.
Sebastian kept the gun raised.
“Where is Lorenzo?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Bianca looked at Harper.
“But she should.”
Harper held her mother’s letter.
“You told me not to read it.”
“Because Lorenzo altered it.”
Harper’s fingers tightened.
Bianca removed a folded document from beneath her gown.
“My father has spent twelve years searching for that safe.”
“Why help us?” Sebastian asked.
Bianca laughed bitterly.
“Because you were right.”
“About?”
“I wanted power.”
She looked exhausted.
“But I wanted my own. Not his.”
Bianca explained that Lorenzo had planned the marriage because controlling Sebastian through family ties would protect him from the evidence Daniel had hidden.
When Sebastian rejected Bianca privately weeks earlier, Lorenzo changed strategy.
Harper became leverage.
“Did you send the photographs?” Harper asked.
“No.”
“Victor Salvi?”
“My father hired him.”
“And the ring?”
Bianca nodded.
“He wanted Sebastian to believe I was involved.”
Sebastian lowered his weapon slightly.
“Why?”
“To make you attack us first.”
“And start a war.”
“Yes.”
Harper looked at the letter.
“What was altered?”
Bianca pointed toward the second page.
“The final paragraph.”
Harper read it.
Evelyn Evans had worked with Vittorio Valerio.
Not romantically.
Not criminally.
She had been a forensic accountant.
She discovered Lorenzo’s conspiracy before Daniel did.
Vittorio helped her hide evidence.
Then Evelyn was killed in what everyone believed had been a car accident.
Harper stopped.
“My mother was murdered?”
Bianca’s eyes softened.
“Yes.”
Harper sat down.
Sebastian crouched beside her.
For once, she did not make a joke.
She couldn’t.
“My father knew?”
“Not until later,” Bianca said.
Harper looked at the safe.
Twelve years of secrets.
Sixteen years of grief.
Her parents had tried to protect her by removing truth from her life.
Instead, they had left holes everywhere.
Sebastian touched her hand.
She held on.
Bianca watched them.
“So it really is her.”
Sebastian looked up.
“What?”
“The reason you rejected us.”
He did not answer.
Bianca smiled without humor.
“I wondered.”
Harper pulled her hand away.
“Can we perhaps discuss Sebastian’s romantic catastrophes after we survive the assassination conspiracy?”
“Reasonable,” Bianca said.
The ledger contained payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
Businesses.
And several Commission members.
Enough evidence to destroy Lorenzo’s organization.
But one page was missing.
Bianca knew why.
“My father has it.”
“What’s on it?” Harper asked.
“The person who ordered Evelyn’s death.”
Harper went still.
“You said Lorenzo did.”
“I said my father covered it up.”
“Who ordered it?”
“I don’t know.”
Sebastian stood.
“Then Lorenzo does.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Dante’s voice came through Sebastian’s earpiece.
“Company.”
They escaped through an old service corridor.
Bianca went with them.
Outside, Daniel waited in an SUV despite his bandaged shoulder.
When he saw Bianca, he reached for a weapon.
Harper stepped between them.
“She helped us.”
Daniel looked furious.
“Her father killed your mother.”
“Maybe.”
“Harper.”
“Maybe.”
She showed him the ledger.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Where’s page forty-seven?”
“Lorenzo.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“What is on it?”
He looked at Harper.
“The truth.”
She almost screamed.
“I am officially banning that sentence. Everyone keeps saying ‘the truth’ like there is only one. Tell me what happened.”
Daniel looked toward Sebastian.
“Evelyn discovered someone inside the Valerio family was working with Conti.”
Sebastian became still.
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
They returned to the lake house before sunrise.
Bianca was placed under guard.
Harper sat in the kitchen drinking coffee.
Sebastian entered.
Without the jacket and tie, he looked less like a mafia boss.
That was dangerous in a different way.
He sat opposite her.
“You should sleep.”
“You should stop telling me what to do.”
“I’m your boss.”
“Are you?”
His gaze sharpened.
Harper continued.
“If this ends, I don’t know whether I can go back to arranging your lunches and pretending none of this happened.”
“I don’t want you to.”
Her heart stumbled.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
No hesitation.
Harper stared at him.
Sebastian leaned forward.
“I rejected fourteen women because every one of them made me think about the woman sitting outside my office correcting my calendar.”
“Sebastian—”
“I knew your coffee order before I knew Bianca’s middle name.”
“That is because you pay me to order coffee.”
“I know when you’re angry by how hard you hit the keyboard.”
“I do not hit—”
“You do.”
Harper looked away.
He reached across the table.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“I didn’t notice you because of the dress.”
Her breath caught.
“I noticed you two years ago.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I was your employer.”
“That is surprisingly ethical.”
“I have occasional moments.”
She laughed.
He smiled.
Actually smiled.
Then his expression sobered.
“I also knew my life was dangerous.”
“It still is.”
“Yes.”
“And now mine is too.”
“Yes.”
“That is a terrible argument.”
“I know.”
Harper studied him.
“I don’t want to be chosen because fourteen other women failed.”
“You weren’t number fifteen.”
“What was I?”
“The reason there never could be one.”
Silence.
Harper stood.
Sebastian stood too.
She was suddenly close enough to feel his breath.
“You have terrible timing.”
“I’ve been told.”
“By me.”
“Repeatedly.”
She touched the bandage on his forehead.
Then she kissed him.
It was brief.
Soft.
Almost cautious.
When Harper pulled away, Sebastian looked more stunned than he had in the boutique.
She smiled.
“That was for the compliment.”
“Which one?”
“The dress.”
“I can make more.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
His hand settled at her waist.
This kiss was not brief.
For several seconds, there were no Contis.
No Commission.
No dead mothers.
No secret ledgers.
Only them.
Then Sebastian’s phone rang.
Dante.
Sebastian answered.
His expression changed.
“What happened?”
Harper watched the warmth disappear from his eyes.
“When?”
He listened.
“We’re coming.”
“What?”
Sebastian looked at Harper.
“Your father is gone.”
Her heart stopped.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Someone took him.”
Bianca entered the kitchen behind them.
A guard followed.
She looked pale.
“My father just contacted me.”
Harper stared at her.
“What does he want?”
Bianca handed over her phone.
A photograph showed Daniel tied to a chair.
Beneath it was an address.
And a demand.
BRING HARPER AND THE LEDGER.
Sebastian’s face became murderous.
“No.”
Harper looked at him.
“He’s my father.”
“I know.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to decide.”
“I’m not delivering you to Lorenzo Conti.”
Harper grabbed the ledger.
“Then help me make sure he doesn’t get what he wants.”
Bianca stared at the address.
Then she whispered, “There’s something wrong.”
“What?”
“That building.”
Sebastian looked at her.
Bianca swallowed.
“My father doesn’t own it.”
“Who does?”
She slowly turned the phone toward him.
The property record appeared.
VALERIO HOLDINGS.
Sebastian’s face emptied.
“That company was dissolved twenty years ago.”
Bianca shook her head.
“No.”
She enlarged the owner information.
“It was transferred.”
Harper leaned closer.
A single name appeared.
Sebastian read it aloud.
Then all the color left his face.
“Vittorio Valerio.”
His father.
The man who had been dead for nine years.
At that exact moment, Sebastian’s phone received a video call.
The screen showed Daniel tied to the chair.
A shadow moved behind him.
Then an older man stepped into view.
Sebastian dropped the phone onto the table.
Harper had seen that face in photographs.
Everyone had.
May you like
Vittorio Valerio looked directly into the camera.
“Hello, son.”
