Chapter 2 - The Name They Buried
The stranger stopped ten feet away.
Rainwater dripped from the shoulders of his gray coat.
He looked older than the photograph Mara remembered, but unmistakably the same.
Arthur Bennett.
The father she had spent her childhood imagining.
The man Evelyn said had died before Mara could remember him.
“Mara,” he said.
Her throat tightened.
“You’re alive.”
Arthur’s expression twisted.
“So are you.”
Caleb moved between them.
“You have five seconds to explain why you’re here.”
Arthur gave him a tired smile.
“You still count when you’re angry.”
Caleb’s eyes went cold.
“That’s one.”
“Caleb—”
“Two.”
Arthur raised both hands.
“I came because Daniel asked me to.”
Mara stepped around Caleb.
“You knew Daniel?”
Arthur looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
Pain passed over his face.
“The answer depends on which lie you want first.”
Mara stared.
“Try the truth.”
Arthur looked toward Isabella Romano.
The elderly woman had risen from her pew.
For the first time, fear showed on her face.
Arthur said quietly, “We need somewhere private.”
Caleb laughed without humor.
“You don’t give orders in my brother’s funeral.”
“No. But if Isabella hears what I’m about to say, you’ll never get the full story.”
Caleb turned.
His mother was already moving toward them.
She walked slowly with a cane, accompanied by a lawyer Mara recognized from the news, Vincent Caruso.
Isabella stopped several feet away.
Her eyes remained fixed on Mara.
“You have her face,” she said.
Caleb stepped forward.
“Mother.”
Isabella ignored him.
“You have my mother’s face around the eyes.”
Mara’s skin prickled.
“Do you know me?”
Isabella’s lips trembled.
“I buried you.”
Arthur scoffed.
“You buried an empty coffin.”
Isabella’s cane struck the marble.
“You.”
Arthur faced her.
“Yes, Isabella.”
“You should have stayed gone.”
“So should your secrets.”
Several mourners were staring.
Caleb made a decision.
“Luca. Clear the sacristy.”
Five minutes later, the four of them stood inside a private stone-walled room behind the sanctuary.
Isabella refused to sit.
Arthur did.
Mara stood closest to the door.
Caleb remained beside her.
Not touching.
Protecting.
She hated that part of her found comfort in it.
Arthur removed a small metal key from his pocket.
“Daniel found me nine months ago.”
Caleb’s expression sharpened.
“How?”
“He found records from an old clinic outside Evanston.”
“What records?”
Arthur looked at Mara.
“Yours.”
Mara swallowed.
“Medical?”
“Birth records. Surgical records. Bloodwork.”
Isabella said, “That clinic was closed.”
Arthur looked at her.
“Burned.”
Mara turned.
“What?”
Arthur continued.
“Three days after Daniel requested archived files, someone burned the storage wing.”
Caleb looked at Isabella.
She remained expressionless.
Mara said, “Why would anyone care about my medical records?”
Arthur’s answer was immediate.
“Because DNA doesn’t respect family lies.”
Silence.
Caleb folded his arms.
“Start at the beginning.”
Arthur took a breath.
“In 1999, Evelyn Bennett was ordered to take Elena out of Chicago.”
Mara stared.
“Ordered by whom?”
Arthur looked at Isabella.
The old woman closed her eyes.
Caleb noticed.
“Mother?”
Isabella whispered, “Your father.”
Caleb’s face hardened.
“My father was dead by then.”
“Not yet.”
“He died September ninth.”
“No,” Isabella said. “The public announcement was September ninth.”
Arthur nodded.
“Victor Romano died October second.”
Caleb looked stunned.
“Why lie about the date?”
Isabella leaned heavily on her cane.
“Because the family was collapsing.”
Arthur continued.
“Victor had been negotiating with federal prosecutors.”
Caleb’s eyes narrowed.
“My father would never cooperate.”
“You were twenty-two,” Arthur said. “You knew the man he wanted you to see.”
Caleb lunged.
Luca appeared at the doorway immediately.
Arthur didn’t move.
Mara stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Caleb froze.
She looked at Arthur.
“Keep talking.”
Arthur nodded.
“Victor discovered that several businesses bearing the Romano name were being used for things he never approved. He wanted out. More importantly, he wanted his children out.”
“Children,” Mara repeated.
“You. Caleb. Daniel.”
Her chest tightened hearing herself placed in that list.
Arthur continued.
“Victor created three trusts. One for each child.”
Caleb said, “I know about the trusts.”
“No. You know about two.”
Arthur looked at Mara.
“Elena’s was larger.”
Isabella snapped, “That was Victor’s mistake.”
Everyone turned.
Isabella realized she had said too much.
Mara stared.
“Why?”
The older woman’s mouth tightened.
“Because he was sentimental.”
Arthur laughed softly.
“Because Elena inherited her grandmother’s shares.”
Caleb frowned.
“What shares?”
“Romano Holdings.”
Caleb slowly turned toward Mara.
Arthur continued.
“Twenty-four percent.”
Mara almost laughed.
“I own twenty-four percent of a company?”
“Technically, yes.”
Isabella said sharply, “She was legally declared dead.”
Arthur nodded.
“And her holdings transferred.”
“To whom?” Mara asked.
No one answered.
She looked at Isabella.
“To you?”
Isabella’s silence confirmed it.
Mara stepped away.
Everything suddenly became brutally simple.
A supposedly dead child.
An enormous inheritance.
A nurse who disappeared with her.
A family that gained from the death.
“Did you try to kill me?”
Isabella’s face changed.
“No.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
“I protected this family.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Isabella looked at Caleb.
“I will not be interrogated by someone who abandoned her blood.”
Mara stared in disbelief.
“I was six.”
Arthur stood.
“She didn’t abandon anyone.”
Isabella’s eyes flashed.
“Evelyn stole her.”
Mara turned to Arthur.
“Did she?”
Arthur hesitated.
That hesitation hurt.
“Tell me.”
“She took you.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed someone was coming to kill you.”
“Who?”
Arthur looked toward Isabella.
Again.
Caleb saw it.
He stepped closer to his mother.
“Tell me he’s wrong.”
Isabella’s lips pressed together.
“Caleb—”
“Tell me.”
“I never ordered Elena’s death.”
“Then who did?”
Isabella said nothing.
Arthur removed a folded document from inside his coat.
“Daniel believed the answer was here.”
Caleb took it.
A photocopy.
Old.
Typewritten.
At the bottom was Victor Romano’s signature.
Mara moved closer.
“What is it?”
“A transfer authorization,” Caleb said.
“For what?”
Arthur answered.
“Private custody.”
Mara scanned the page.
A name appeared midway down.
ELENA ROSE ROMANO.
Then:
TEMPORARY GUARDIAN: EVELYN MARIE BENNETT.
Mara looked up.
“My father gave me to her?”
“Temporarily,” Arthur said.
“Why?”
“Because he knew there was a threat.”
“From whom?”
Arthur shook his head.
“Daniel never found that page.”
“What page?”
“The second page.”
Caleb looked at the paper.
“This says Page One of Two.”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Page Two?”
Arthur raised the metal key.
“That’s what Daniel sent me to retrieve.”
Luca said from the doorway, “Retrieve from where?”
Arthur looked at Mara.
“A bank deposit box.”
Caleb took the key.
“Which bank?”
“First National.”
Caleb’s expression darkened.
“That branch closed fifteen years ago.”
“The boxes were transferred.”
“Where?”
Arthur gave him an address.
Caleb turned to Luca.
“Car.”
Mara blocked him.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“I’m apparently the dead child everyone keeps discussing. I’m coming.”
Caleb studied her.
For once, he didn’t argue.
They left through a private cathedral entrance.
Isabella did not follow.
But as Mara entered Caleb’s black sedan, she saw Isabella standing beneath the arches, watching.
Her expression wasn’t grief anymore.
It was calculation.
At the bank, an attorney met them after hours.
Daniel had arranged access instructions before his death.
The box required two keys.
Arthur had one.
Daniel’s personal effects contained the other.
Caleb had retrieved them that morning.
Inside the box were three items.
A cassette tape.
A sealed legal document.
And a small silver bracelet.
Mara picked it up.
Tiny engraved letters read:
ELENA R. ROMANO
She stared.
Caleb whispered, “You wore that every day.”
Mara’s eyes filled.
A memory flickered.
A woman fastening something around her wrist.
A man laughing.
Two boys chasing each other through a garden.
Then fire.
Mara gasped.
“What?”
Caleb moved toward her.
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“Fire.”
Arthur went pale.
Caleb opened the legal document.
His eyes moved quickly across the page.
Then stopped.
“What does it say?” Mara asked.
He looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked confused.
Caleb turned the page around.
There was only one paragraph.
Victor Romano had appointed Evelyn Bennett guardian of Elena if anything happened to him.
But beneath Victor’s signature was another name.
A witness.
Mara leaned closer.
She knew the handwriting.
She had seen it on birthday cards her entire life.
Her mother’s signature.
Evelyn Bennett.
Below it was a handwritten sentence.
If Isabella learns Elena survived, take her and never come back.
Mara stared.
Then she saw something else.
A second signature beneath Evelyn’s.
Someone else had witnessed the agreement.
Daniel Romano.
Mara whispered, “He was there.”
Caleb said nothing.
“He knew when he was a child?”
Daniel would have been fourteen.
Caleb looked stunned.
Arthur shook his head.
“No. That signature was added later.”
“How much later?”
Arthur pointed to the date.
Six years ago.
Mara felt something inside her break.
Daniel had known for six years.
Not nine months.
Not after they met.
Before.
Long before.
Her phone buzzed.
A text message.
Unknown number.
Mara opened it.
There was a photograph.
Her mother.
Evelyn Bennett sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Terrified.
Beneath the image were seven words.
BRING ELENA TO THE OLD ROMANO HOUSE.
Mara looked up.
Caleb was already reading over her shoulder.
May you like
A second message appeared.
COME ALONE OR YOUR MOTHER TELLS YOU NOTHING.
