Chapter 3 - His Fiancée Until Midnight
The woman looked like Evelyn Hayes.
Not similar.
Not vaguely familiar.
She had Evelyn’s eyes.
Evelyn’s mouth.
Even the tiny scar above her right eyebrow.
Beatrice could not move.
“Mom?”
The woman flinched.
Arthur stepped between them.
“You shouldn't have come here.”
“I've spent seventeen years not coming here.”
Her voice was older.
But Beatrice knew it.
She had heard that voice reading bedtime stories.
Singing badly in the kitchen.
Whispering that everything would be all right during thunderstorms.
Beatrice grabbed the desk.
“You’re dead.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“I know.”
Arthur shut the office door.
“You have to leave.”
“No.”
“Evelyn—”
“No more.”
She walked toward Beatrice.
Beatrice backed away.
The hurt on Evelyn’s face was immediate.
“I understand.”
“No, you don't.”
“You're right.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“I stood beside an empty coffin?”
Evelyn's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because people were trying to kill you.”
Beatrice laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“So you protected me by disappearing?”
“I protected you by making them believe there was nothing left to find.”
Arthur moved toward the windows.
“Dominic will come.”
“He should,” Evelyn said.
Arthur spun.
“You don't know what you're saying.”
“I know exactly what I'm saying.”
Beatrice looked between them.
“Who was my father?”
Silence.
“Gabriel Russo?”
“No,” Evelyn said.
Relief came first.
Then confusion.
“Then why did Arthur send me his photograph?”
“Because Gabriel helped me escape.”
“From whom?”
Evelyn looked at Arthur.
Arthur said nothing.
“From whom?”
“My employer.”
“The Russos?”
“No.”
Evelyn reached into her coat.
Arthur tensed.
She removed an old photograph.
A younger Evelyn stood beside Gabriel Russo and another man.
The third man was Arthur Davenport.
But something about the image was strange.
Arthur wore a security badge.
Not a suit.
Not campaign clothes.
Beatrice took it.
“What is this?”
“The Davenport family wasn't always powerful.”
Arthur stared at the floor.
Evelyn continued.
“Before politics, Arthur worked for a private financial network. Wealthy families. Judges. Contractors. Criminal organizations. Anyone who needed money moved without questions.”
Beatrice looked at Arthur.
“You laundered money?”
“I was twenty-four.”
“You became a senator.”
“Years later.”
Evelyn said, “Because the people behind that network financed him.”
Arthur snapped, “I spent twenty years trying to get out.”
“And they spent twenty years reminding you that nobody gets out.”
Beatrice thought about Chloe.
“The transfer Chloe mentioned.”
Arthur looked away.
“She was giving federal agents access to Dominic's financial network.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked her to.”
Beatrice stared.
“You used your daughter to frame him?”
“I was trying to protect this family.”
“You keep saying protect when you mean lie.”
The office door opened.
Dominic entered with Marco.
Arthur swore.
Dominic stopped when he saw Evelyn.
For the first time that evening, Dominic Russo appeared genuinely shaken.
“You.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Hello, Dominic.”
“You were at my father’s funeral.”
“Yes.”
“You left the handkerchief.”
“Yes.”
Dominic pulled it from his pocket.
“E.H.R.”
“Evelyn Hayes Russo.”
Beatrice stared at her mother.
“Russo?”
Dominic’s gaze sharpened.
Evelyn nodded.
“I married Gabriel.”
Everything shifted again.
“You said he wasn't my father.”
“He wasn't.”
“Then why marry him?”
“To give you his name if anything happened to me.”
Beatrice's voice dropped.
“Who was my father?”
Evelyn walked toward Arthur’s desk.
She picked up a framed photograph of Arthur with his late wife and Chloe.
Then set it facedown.
“Your biological father was a federal investigator named Daniel Hayes.”
Beatrice’s throat tightened.
“What happened to him?”
“He discovered the network.”
Arthur spoke quietly.
“And they killed him.”
Beatrice turned toward him.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And then you adopted me?”
“Your mother asked me to.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No. I asked you to protect her temporarily.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You were supposed to return.”
“I tried.”
“You disappeared.”
“Because somebody inside your house gave them my location.”
Arthur went still.
Dominic said, “Who?”
Evelyn’s eyes moved toward the overturned family photograph.
“Arthur’s wife.”
Chloe’s mother.
Beatrice felt sick.
“She tried to have my mother killed?”
“She tried to have both of you killed,” Evelyn said.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel left something with me before he died.”
“A file?”
“A ledger.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“The Black Ledger.”
Arthur stared at him.
“You know about it?”
“My father spent twenty years looking for it.”
Evelyn nodded.
“And that is why I came back.”
“Where is it?” Dominic asked.
“I don't have it.”
“Who does?”
Evelyn looked at Beatrice.
“She does.”
Beatrice actually looked behind herself.
“What?”
“You've had it since you were eleven.”
“No, I haven't.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Do you remember the music box I gave you?”
Beatrice remembered.
A wooden box with a painted ballerina.
Arthur had kept it after Evelyn’s supposed death.
“In my childhood room.”
Arthur went pale.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Beatrice asked.
Arthur grabbed his phone.
“Chloe.”
He called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Arthur opened the security application.
The screen showed his townhouse.
Beatrice’s old bedroom.
The door was open.
A figure moved inside.
Chloe.
She held the music box.
Then Liam stepped into view behind her.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Marco.”
“Already moving.”
On-screen, Chloe opened the box.
She removed the velvet lining.
Underneath was a thin black notebook.
Evelyn whispered, “Oh, God.”
Chloe looked directly into the security camera.
Then she smiled.
She lifted her phone.
Beatrice’s phone rang.
Chloe.
Beatrice answered.
“Put it back.”
Chloe laughed softly.
“So it finally happened.”
“What?”
“The night everyone decided the fat adopted sister was secretly important.”
Beatrice closed her eyes.
The insult no longer hurt the same way.
“Chloe, you don't understand what you have.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Liam took the ledger from her.
Dominic stepped closer to the phone.
“Liam.”
Silence.
Then Liam spoke.
“Cousin.”
“If you hurt her—”
“You still think this is about Chloe?”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“What is it about?”
“The ledger.”
“For whom?”
Liam laughed.
“You really don't know.”
The security feed suddenly went black.
Then Chloe screamed.
The call remained connected.
Something crashed.
Beatrice heard running.
“Chloe?”
No answer.
“Chloe!”
Then Liam whispered into the phone.
“They found us.”
“Who?” Dominic demanded.
Liam breathed hard.
“The people your father spent his entire life hiding from.”
A gunshot exploded through the speaker.
The call disconnected.
Arthur grabbed his coat.
Dominic was already moving.
Beatrice followed.
Evelyn caught her arm.
“No.”
“Chloe is there.”
“She humiliated you.”
“She’s still my sister.”
Evelyn stared at her daughter.
Then released her.
Dominic looked back.
“Stay beside me.”
They rushed toward the elevator.
Before the doors closed, Beatrice’s phone vibrated again.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
Chloe was tied to a chair.
Behind her stood a man whose face remained outside the frame.
The message underneath contained six words.
BRING DOMINIC RUSSO’S FIANCÉE TO US.
Then another message appeared.
ALONE.
May you like
And beneath it came an address Beatrice knew immediately.
It was the cemetery where she had buried her mother seventeen years earlier...
