Chapter 12 - The Son Who Chose Wrong
Harper looked at Connor.
"Again?"
His face broke.
"It's not what you think."
She almost laughed.
"You desperately need another sentence."
Clara stepped forward.
"Connor finally chose his family."
Roman moved beside Harper.
Clara held up the document.
A transfer authorization.
Harbor Light assets.
Forged.
Harper saw the flaw immediately.
"My signature isn't there."
Clara smiled.
"It will be."
"Why?"
"Because Paige is alive."
She gestured.
A screen illuminated.
Paige appeared on camera inside an unknown room.
Connor closed his eyes.
Harper understood.
He hadn't betrayed them.
He had pretended to join Clara to keep Paige alive.
Clara didn't notice Harper's realization.
But Roman did.
Harper stepped toward the table.
"Give me the documents."
Clara handed them over.
Harper read slowly.
Stalling.
Roman's security team needed time to trace Paige's video.
Connor looked at Harper.
Then tapped his thumb twice against his leg.
A signal.
Two.
Harper remembered Connor's old habit.
When lying under pressure, he tapped once.
When warning her privately, twice.
She turned to Clara.
"You built all of this?"
"No."
"Then who did?"
Clara's smile faded.
"People like your father liked to pretend systems have creators. They don't. They have beneficiaries."
"You."
"Families like mine."
Harper kept her talking.
"Why destroy D.C.M.?"
"I didn't. Arthur and Marcus became careless."
"And now you want Harbor Light."
"I want what was always ours."
Harper put down the pen.
"No."
Clara's face hardened.
"Paige dies."
Connor moved.
Fast.
He grabbed his mother's wrist.
Roman crossed the distance.
The gun Clara had hidden beneath her coat fell.
Federal agents entered.
Connor shouted, "Now!"
Clara was arrested.
Paige was found twelve minutes later in a nearby property.
Alive.
Connor sat on the church steps afterward.
Harper joined him.
"You could have told us."
"They watched everything."
"You still should have tried."
"I know."
He looked at her.
"I spent four years making choices for you because I thought I knew what was best. I wasn't going to do that again."
Harper considered him.
For the first time, Connor had risked himself without demanding gratitude.
"Paige loves you," Harper said.
Connor looked toward the ambulance where Paige sat.
"I know."
"Don't make her regret it."
He nodded.
Harper stood.
"Harper?"
She turned.
"Thank you."
She didn't say you're welcome.
Some things didn't need smoothing over.
Roman waited by the car.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
"That sounded suspiciously confident."
"I'm learning."
He opened the door.
She didn't enter.
Instead she looked at him.
"Roman."
"Yes?"
"What are we doing?"
He smiled.
"Standing outside a church."
"You know what I mean."
His smile disappeared.
"I don't want to assume."
That answer.
Again.
Always giving her the choice Connor had taken.
Harper stepped closer.
"I'm in love with you."
Roman stopped breathing.
For perhaps the first time since she'd met him, Roman Falco looked genuinely unprepared.
Harper smiled.
"Ten seconds."
"What?"
"You have ten seconds to respond before this becomes extremely embarrassing."
He laughed.
Then kissed her.
No cameras.
No enemies.
No performance.
Just them.
When they separated, Roman whispered, "I love you too."
Her phone rang.
Sarah.
Harper groaned.
"She has supernatural timing."
She answered.
Sarah didn't speak immediately.
"Sarah?"
"You need to come to the office."
"Why?"
"Federal investigators are here."
Harper stiffened.
"For what?"
"Harbor Light."
"We already gave them everything."
"No."
Sarah's voice shook.
"They found another account."
Harper looked at Roman.
"Whose?"
Sarah whispered, "Yours."
Harper went cold.
"That's impossible."
"They have your signature."
"I never signed anything."
"I know."
"Then what is it?"
Silence.
Sarah finally said:
"Harper, the account was opened when you were seventeen."
The year her father died.
"And there's something else."
"What?"
"The account was accessed yesterday."
"By whom?"
Sarah inhaled.
"The security photograph just came through."
Harper heard keys clicking.
Then Sarah stopped speaking.
"Sarah?"
"Oh my God."
"Who is it?"
A photograph arrived on Harper's phone.
She opened it.
And stared at the man standing at the bank counter.
Roman looked over her shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
May you like
Because the man in the photograph was Jonathan Bennett.
Harper's father.
