Chapter 2 - The Name Vincent Recognized
“Lock the house.”
Vincent's order changed everything.
Enzo reached for his phone.
Norah grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Both men looked at her.
“That’s my brother.”
“That doesn't mean he's safe,” Vincent said.
“He disappeared.”
“I know.”
Norah turned on him.
“You know?”
Vincent held Daniel's unopened letter.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“What exactly do you know about my family?”
“Not enough.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No. It's the truth.”
On the monitor, Daniel stood outside the service entrance.
He looked terrible.
His beard was overgrown. His jacket was dirty. He was thinner than Norah remembered.
But he was alive.
Norah moved toward the door.
Vincent blocked her.
“Move.”
“No.”
“My brother is downstairs.”
“And someone used him eighteen months ago to disappear with information belonging to me.”
Norah stared.
“What information?”
Vincent held up the letter.
“We're about to find out.”
He unfolded it.
The handwriting was Daniel's.
Vincent read silently.
His expression became increasingly severe.
Norah could no longer tolerate waiting.
“Read it.”
Vincent handed her the page.
Daniel's message was short.
Vincent—
If you're reading this, I either disappeared or failed.
The person who arranged the attack against you isn't gone.
The man everyone blamed was only part of it.
Someone inside your house paid him.
I found the payments.
Eleanor was right years ago.
The danger was always inside.
If Norah ever comes to work for you, she doesn't know any of this.
Keep her out of it.
—Daniel
Norah read the final line twice.
Her hands shook.
“My mother knew?”
Vincent took the letter.
“Apparently.”
“She worked here?”
“For my grandmother.”
“When?”
“Before I took control of the estate.”
Norah looked at the photograph again.
Her mother had never mentioned the Rossy family.
Not once.
Eleanor Bennett had died seven years earlier after a short illness.
Norah had believed she knew every important chapter of her mother's life.
Now an entire hidden history had appeared inside a dusty folder.
The intercom buzzed.
“Mr. Rossy?”
Vincent pressed the button.
“What?”
“We have the man at the service entrance.”
“Search him. Bring him upstairs.”
Norah started toward the door.
Vincent caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Just enough to stop her.
“He comes here after eighteen months, on the exact night you accidentally cook the first meal I've been able to finish in six months.”
Norah pulled free.
“You think I planned this?”
“I think coincidences are expensive.”
“You ate soup.”
“And your brother arrived.”
“Those things have nothing to do with each other.”
Vincent's expression said he was not convinced.
Neither, suddenly, was Norah.
Five minutes later Daniel entered.
Norah forgot every question.
She ran to him.
Daniel caught her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
“You idiot,” Norah whispered.
“I know.”
“You disappeared.”
“I know.”
“I thought you were dead.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Norah hit his chest once.
Then hugged him again.
Vincent allowed the reunion for perhaps ten seconds.
“Daniel.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
He saw Vincent.
Everything changed.
He stepped away from Norah.
“You look awful.”
Vincent's mouth tightened.
“So do you.”
“Fair.”
Enzo closed the door.
Daniel looked at the empty bowl on Vincent's desk.
His eyebrows lifted.
“You ate?”
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“How did you know I wasn't eating?”
Daniel said nothing.
Vincent stepped closer.
“Answer.”
“I've been watching.”
“From where?”
“Far enough away to stay alive.”
Norah stared at her brother.
“Daniel, what did you do?”
He looked at her.
“I borrowed money.”
“I know that.”
“No. You know what I wanted you to believe.”
Norah went still.
“The gambling debt?”
“Was real.”
Her jaw tightened.
“But?”
Daniel exhaled.
“I made it look worse than it was.”
“Fifty thousand dollars isn't worse?”
“I needed people to believe I'd run because of gambling.”
Norah's voice broke.
“I have been paying your debt.”
Daniel's face collapsed.
“What?”
“Every month.”
“I thought they would drop it when I disappeared.”
“They didn't.”
He looked genuinely sick.
Vincent watched both of them.
“Who holds the debt?”
Norah refused to answer.
Vincent repeated the question.
Daniel answered.
“Calder.”
Enzo swore.
Vincent's eyes became cold.
“Martin Calder?”
Daniel nodded.
Norah looked between them.
“Who is that?”
Vincent turned toward the window.
“A man who manages several lending operations.”
“Loan shark.”
“Yes.”
“Does he work for you?”
“No.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
Vincent faced Daniel.
“Because Calder worked with the man who poisoned me.”
Silence.
Daniel nodded.
“Exactly.”
He reached inside his jacket.
Enzo moved instantly.
Daniel froze.
“Easy.”
He slowly withdrew a small flash drive.
“This is why I disappeared.”
He placed it on Vincent's desk.
“Bank transfers. Shell companies. Payroll records.”
Vincent did not touch it.
“Copies?”
“Three.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere safer than here.”
Vincent almost approved.
Almost.
Norah looked at the flash drive.
“What does this have to do with Mom?”
Daniel pulled out another photograph.
Eleanor Bennett stood in the mansion kitchen beside Vincent's grandmother.
Behind them was a younger man.
Norah recognized nobody.
Vincent did.
His face hardened.
“Thomas Vale.”
Daniel nodded.
“Your current financial administrator.”
Vincent looked at Enzo.
Enzo went pale.
Vale had worked inside Vincent's organization for nearly twenty years.
Daniel pointed to Eleanor.
“Mom discovered missing money when she worked here. Small amounts at first. She told your grandmother.”
Vincent said, “My grandmother fired three people over that.”
“She fired the wrong people.”
Vincent stared at Thomas Vale's younger face.
Daniel continued.
“Vale learned to hide the money better. Years later he started using outside operators.”
“The underboss.”
“Yes.”
“The poisoning.”
Daniel nodded.
Norah backed toward the desk.
“This is insane.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That's why I left.”
“You could have told me.”
“And put you in the middle?”
“You left me with fifty thousand dollars in debt!”
Daniel had no answer.
Vincent did.
“I'll deal with Calder.”
Norah turned sharply.
“No.”
Vincent looked surprised.
“That debt exists because of something connected to me.”
“It exists because Daniel borrowed money.”
“I can erase it.”
“I don't want that.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't want to owe you.”
Vincent studied her.
“You fed me.”
“I fed myself. You stole it.”
Enzo coughed again.
Daniel looked between them.
“What exactly happened while I was gone?”
“Nothing,” Norah and Vincent said simultaneously.
That would have been funny under different circumstances.
Then Enzo's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Vincent stepped toward him.
Enzo ended the call.
“The kitchen cameras just went offline.”
Vincent looked toward the hallway.
“All of them?”
“Only the kitchen.”
Daniel grabbed the flash drive.
“No.”
Vincent looked at him.
Daniel's face had turned white.
“What?”
“The evidence isn't only digital.”
“Where is it?”
Daniel looked at Norah.
“Mom hid something here.”
Norah whispered, “What?”
“A ledger.”
“Where?”
“In the old servants' pantry.”
Enzo frowned.
“That room hasn't been used in years.”
Daniel nodded toward the hallway.
“That's why someone just disabled the kitchen cameras.”
They ran.
By the time they reached the service corridor, the lights were off.
Enzo drew a flashlight.
The pantry door stood open.
Daniel stopped.
“I locked that.”
Vincent moved ahead.
Inside, shelves had been pulled apart.
Old boxes littered the floor.
Someone had searched the room.
Norah noticed a wooden panel hanging loose behind a shelf.
“Daniel.”
He turned.
She pointed.
Daniel crossed the room and pulled the panel away.
Behind it was a narrow compartment.
Empty.
Except for a folded piece of paper.
Vincent picked it up.
One sentence had been written in fresh black ink.
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME WHERE TO LOOK.
Then a sound came from the corridor.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Approaching.
Vincent turned toward the door.
May you like
A shadow stopped on the other side.
And someone whispered Norah's name.
