Chapter 4 - What Happened Two Years Ago
Hannah was already moving.
“I’m going to her.”
Victor blocked the doorway.
“No.”
“Get out of my way.”
“Hannah.”
“That is my mother.”
“And whoever sent this expects you to panic.”
“I am panicking.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice broke.
“My mother is all I have.”
Victor’s expression changed.
He stepped aside.
“Then we go together.”
Twenty minutes later, Hannah sat in the back of Victor’s car beside Mia while security vehicles surrounded them.
Victor had wanted Mia left at the estate.
Mia had refused to release Hannah’s hand.
So she came.
Hannah called the hospital repeatedly.
Her mother was safe.
No unusual visitors.
No threats.
That should have calmed her.
It didn’t.
Someone had photographed her.
That meant someone knew Hannah’s life.
Her job.
Her mother.
Maybe her debt.
Maybe everything.
When they reached the hospital, Hannah rushed upstairs.
Her mother, Laura Brooks, sat beside the window reading.
“Hannah?”
Hannah hugged her.
Laura laughed softly.
“Well, hello to you too.”
“You’re okay?”
“I was until my daughter entered like the building was burning.”
Then Laura saw Victor.
Her smile disappeared.
Victor noticed.
So did Hannah.
“Mom?”
Laura stared at him.
“You’re Victor Romano.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“We’ve met?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Hannah stepped back.
“Mom.”
Laura looked at Mia.
Something like grief crossed her face.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Mia hid partly behind Hannah.
Laura’s eyes filled.
Hannah’s confusion became fear.
“You know her.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“Hannah, sit down.”
“No.”
“Honey—”
“Tell me.”
Laura looked toward Victor.
“I wondered when this would happen.”
Victor’s voice was controlled.
“When what would happen?”
“When someone finally found Elena’s phone.”
Silence.
Hannah stared at her mother.
“How do you know about the phone?”
Laura’s hands trembled.
“Because Elena called me the night she died.”
Hannah felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Laura had worked as a bookkeeper years earlier.
Not for Victor.
For one of Adrian Romano’s companies.
She had discovered irregular transfers.
Small enough to hide individually.
Enormous together.
Money disappearing through contractors, shell companies, and false invoices.
Elena had noticed too.
They began comparing records.
“What ledger?” Victor asked.
Laura looked at him.
“The one your brother created.”
“Adrian?”
She nodded.
“He documented everything.”
“Who was stealing?”
Laura looked toward Mia.
Victor understood.
“Not here.”
Mia, however, stepped forward.
She touched Laura’s hand.
Laura started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Mia watched her.
“I should have done more.”
Hannah knelt beside her mother.
“You were involved in this?”
“I tried to help.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“To keep you alive.”
The words silenced Hannah.
Laura explained.
Adrian discovered that someone close to the family had been diverting company money.
But money wasn’t the real danger.
The transfers were being used to hide something larger: bribery, blackmail, and illegal contracts conducted through businesses Victor believed legitimate.
Adrian planned to expose it.
Elena called Laura the night they died because Adrian’s copy of the ledger had disappeared.
“Who took it?” Victor asked.
“I never knew.”
“Gabriel?”
Laura’s face changed.
Victor saw it.
“You know him.”
“He came to me after the explosion.”
Victor stepped forward.
“You said Gabriel was alive?”
“He was.”
Hannah looked between them.
“Was?”
Laura swallowed.
“Gabriel wasn’t responsible for what happened.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Then why disappear?”
“Because somebody framed him.”
“Who?”
Laura reached toward a drawer beside the bed.
She removed an old envelope.
“I kept this because Elena made me promise.”
Inside was a key.
Small.
Brass.
Number 17 engraved into it.
Victor stared.
“Gate Seventeen.”
“No,” Laura said. “Locker seventeen.”
“Where?”
“The old Romano Foundation building.”
Victor’s face changed.
The foundation had closed three years earlier.
Laura continued.
“Elena said if anything happened, the ledger would tell you who betrayed your family.”
Hannah looked at the key.
“Then why didn’t you give it to Victor?”
“Because two days after Elena died, I received a photograph of Hannah leaving work.”
Hannah stopped.
Laura’s eyes filled.
“With a message.”
“What message?”
Laura looked at her daughter.
“Stay silent or your daughter follows Elena.”
Hannah felt sick.
Victor turned away.
His guilt was immediate.
“This happened because of my family.”
“No,” Hannah said.
He looked at her.
“It happened because someone made a choice.”
Victor said nothing.
Laura reached for Hannah.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The medical debt.”
Hannah frowned.
“What about it?”
“Some of it isn’t real.”
Hannah stared.
Laura explained that after her illness, bills began arriving from companies she didn’t recognize.
Collection agencies called.
Interest multiplied.
Hannah had accepted increasingly desperate work.
Then, eleven days ago, a recruiter contacted her about the Romano estate.
Hannah’s skin turned cold.
“I didn’t apply here.”
Victor looked sharply at her.
“What?”
“I applied through a domestic staffing agency.”
“Which one?”
“Briar Staffing.”
Victor immediately called Caleb.
Five minutes later, Caleb confirmed it.
Briar Staffing had been incorporated four months earlier.
Its only significant client?
The Romano estate.
Hannah whispered, “Someone wanted me here.”
Victor looked toward Mia.
And suddenly the message made sense.
SHE WILL MAKE HER REMEMBER.
Someone hadn’t merely watched Hannah arrive.
Someone had arranged it.
But why?
That evening they went to the abandoned Romano Foundation building.
Victor refused to leave Hannah behind.
Hannah refused to leave Mia.
So they entered together.
Locker seventeen stood in the basement.
Laura’s key fit.
Victor opened it.
Empty.
Except for one photograph.
Elena and Laura.
On the back:
THE LEDGER IS WHERE MIA FELT SAFE.
Hannah immediately knew.
“The library.”
They raced back to the estate.
Hannah went directly to the oak desk.
Mia followed.
She crawled underneath.
Ran her fingers along the wooden underside.
Then stopped.
A hidden panel.
Victor opened it.
Inside lay a leather ledger.
Two years hidden beneath the exact desk where Mia had been found during the thunderstorm.
Victor lifted it carefully.
The first pages contained financial records.
Payments.
Names.
Dates.
Then Hannah saw one name repeated.
Sebastian Romano.
Victor’s expression darkened.
But the final page contained another name.
Gabriel Romano.
Beside it Adrian had written:
GABRIEL DISCOVERED IT FIRST. TRUST HIM.
Victor stared.
“Then Sebastian—”
The lights went out.
Mia gasped.
Hannah pulled her close.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Victor reached for his phone.
No signal.
From somewhere beyond the library came the sound of a door opening.
Then footsteps.
Slow.
Approaching.
Victor pushed Hannah and Mia behind him.
A man appeared in the doorway.
Older.
Thin.
A scar crossed his temple.
Victor stared as though he had seen a ghost.
The man looked directly at Mia.
Then at Victor.
“Hello, brother.”
May you like
Victor whispered the name nobody in the family had spoken for two years.
“Gabriel...”
