Chapter 4 - The Debt That Never Existed
Harper could not speak.
“That isn’t possible.”
Victor enlarged the image.
The timestamp was from forty minutes earlier.
The man was older.
Thinner.
Gray-haired.
But Harper knew the way he stood.
She knew his hands.
She knew the scar beneath his left ear.
“Dad.”
Victor ordered the underground level sealed.
Harper followed him despite his objections.
“You’re staying upstairs.”
“No.”
“This may be a trap.”
“It probably is.”
“That isn’t an argument for coming.”
“If that man is my father, you’re not meeting him without me.”
Victor stared at her.
Then nodded once.
They descended through a hidden service elevator.
The lower level had once been a wine cellar.
Victor’s father had converted part of it into emergency rooms and storage.
The security photograph showed Evelyn entering Room Six.
They reached it.
Empty.
A chair.
A table.
A bloody cloth.
And a tape recorder.
Victor pressed play.
Thomas Carter’s voice filled the room.
“Harper, if you’re hearing this, I failed to keep you away from them.”
Harper covered her mouth.
“I didn’t die twelve years ago. I disappeared because Salvatore Rossi discovered I had copied his accounts. I believed leaving would protect you and Caleb.”
Harper’s eyes filled.
“Protect us?”
Victor listened silently.
“Arthur found Caleb three years ago. He created the gambling debt because he needed leverage. He wanted Harper inside Victor Romano’s home.”
Harper looked at Victor.
The recording continued.
“Not to spy on Victor. To find the red ledger before Victor did.”
Harper’s anger rose.
Arthur had spent eleven months humiliating her because he needed her invisible.
A maid could enter rooms.
A maid could touch desks.
A maid could search trash.
But Harper had never searched for anything.
Arthur had expected desperation to eventually make her steal.
Instead, she had saved Victor.
The recording clicked.
Then Thomas said, “Evelyn is not the architect. Arthur isn’t either.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Who is?”
The recording ended.
Harper stared at the machine.
“No.”
She pressed play again.
Nothing.
A door slammed somewhere down the corridor.
Victor drew his pistol.
“Behind me.”
They moved.
Room Seven stood open.
Evelyn was inside.
Alive.
Terrified.
Her hands were tied.
“Help me.”
Harper froze.
Victor approached carefully.
“Where is Thomas Carter?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“He left.”
“With whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor cut her restraints.
Evelyn immediately looked at Harper.
“I didn’t know Arthur was going to bring Caleb here.”
“You poisoned Victor.”
“I had no choice.”
“You had a choice.”
Evelyn began crying.
“They have my daughter.”
Harper’s anger stopped.
“What?”
“She’s eight.”
Evelyn reached inside her dress and removed a photograph.
A little girl.
“They took her three weeks ago.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
“I never saw him.”
“Him?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Arthur answers to someone.”
Victor looked at Harper.
“Salvatore?”
“No.”
Evelyn shook her head violently.
“Salvatore Rossi is dead.”
Harper’s stomach tightened.
“Then who?”
Evelyn looked toward the doorway.
A sound came from the corridor.
One slow clap.
Then another.
Victor raised his gun.
A shadow appeared beyond the threshold.
Evelyn whispered one sentence.
May you like
“That’s him.”
And the man outside stepped toward the open door.
