Chapter 4 - The Engagement That Never Happened
The man standing upstairs looked nothing like a dead man.
He was older than Clara remembered, thinner, with silver hair and a scar running beneath his left ear.
But it was Liam Bradley Sr.
Alive.
Liam could barely speak.
“You died.”
His father looked at him.
“No. I disappeared.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I kept you alive.”
Clara stepped forward.
“My parents.”
Bradley Sr. looked at her.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
“Don't.”
He stopped.
“Tell me what happened.”
The older man descended.
“Your parents discovered a laundering operation using Russo companies and Mercer banks. They believed Dominic's father was responsible.”
“Was he?”
“No.”
Clara stared.
“Then who?”
“Someone close enough to use his authority.”
Liam lowered his gun.
“Who?”
Bradley Sr. looked toward the window.
“We don't have time.”
Clara laughed without humor.
“I have spent fifteen years not having time. Make it.”
He looked at her.
“Victoria Mercer's father.”
“Charles Mercer?”
“He built the financial network. But he needed someone inside the Russo family.”
“Who?”
Before he could answer, headlights swept across the cabin windows.
Bradley Sr. cursed.
“They found me.”
Multiple vehicles stopped outside.
Liam pulled Clara down.
Glass shattered.
A bullet struck the wall.
Elaine screamed.
Bradley Sr. opened a hidden panel behind the fireplace.
“Tunnel.”
“You have a tunnel?” Liam demanded.
“I've been hiding for fifteen years.”
They entered.
Clara crawled through darkness with one hand protecting her stomach.
Behind them came footsteps.
Voices.
Then smoke.
Someone was burning the cabin.
The tunnel emerged beyond the tree line.
A black vehicle waited.
Bradley Sr. drove.
For the first ten minutes nobody spoke.
Then Clara's phone rang again.
Dominic.
She answered.
“Clara!”
“We're alive.”
“We?”
She looked at Liam.
“Liam. Elaine. Someone else.”
“Who?”
“Liam's father.”
Silence.
Then Dominic said something she did not expect.
“Thank God.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“Everyone knew except Liam?”
“No. I didn't know. I hoped.”
Clara stared into darkness outside.
“Dominic, who is the Russo insider?”
He went silent.
“Dominic.”
“I don't know.”
She knew he was lying.
“That's why you rejected me.”
Another silence.
“The Mercers were watching you.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Victoria knew about Blackwood.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“So you told her I meant nothing.”
“Yes.”
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
Clara closed her eyes.
It should have changed everything.
It didn't.
“You could have told me.”
“I couldn't trust anyone.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“I know.”
His voice broke slightly.
It was the first time Clara had ever heard Dominic Russo sound defeated.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Clara, please.”
The word stunned her.
Dominic Russo did not say please.
“I need to find Archive 17.”
“How do you know about that?”
She opened her eyes.
“You know it exists.”
“Clara—”
“Where?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“Don't go there.”
“Where?”
He exhaled.
“Blackwood Lodge.”
The lodge.
Of course.
“What is Archive 17?”
“A room beneath the wine cellar.”
“And what's inside?”
“I've never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Because your father sealed it.”
Clara looked at the key in her palm.
“I can.”
Dominic understood.
“No. Clara, listen to me—”
She ended the call.
Two hours later, they reached Blackwood Lodge.
The place where her life had changed.
Liam found the concealed cellar door.
Below it, behind shelves of old wine, they found a steel door.
Clara inserted the key.
It turned.
Inside were shelves filled with records.
Photographs.
Audio tapes.
Bank documents.
And one sealed envelope bearing Clara's name.
She opened it.
My darling Clara,
If you are reading this, your father and I failed to come home.
Clara's vision blurred.
She kept reading.
We discovered who is betraying the Russos. But money is not the worst thing they are hiding.
Her hands shook.
Liam looked over her shoulder.
At the bottom was another sentence.
Dominic Russo must never learn the truth about his mother until you find the photograph in Box 17-B.
Clara looked toward the shelves.
Box 17-B sat directly behind her.
She reached for it.
The lid was already open.
May you like
Someone had arrived before them.
And the photograph was gone.
