Chapter 4 - Richard’s Dangerous Secret
Penelope replayed the recording three times.
Not because she doubted the words.
Because she doubted herself.
David Hayes had been dead for twenty years.
She remembered the funeral.
A closed coffin.
Her mother crying.
Penelope had been six.
She remembered asking when Daddy was coming home.
Her mother had pulled her close and said he wasn't.
Yet the voice on Richard's recorder sounded unmistakably like him.
Adrian stopped the recording.
“Enough.”
Penelope looked at him.
“No.”
“You're hurting yourself.”
“I decide when it's enough.”
He released the device.
She appreciated that he did not argue.
Gabriel examined the file metadata.
“Recorded six weeks ago.”
Penelope felt sick.
Richard had met David recently.
Or someone who sounded exactly like him.
Adrian sent Marco to bring Richard from the guest room where he had been placed under guard.
Five minutes later Richard entered.
The arrogance was gone.
He saw the recorder.
Stopped.
Penelope stood.
“When?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Penelope.”
“When did you meet him?”
He remained silent.
She walked closer.
“Six weeks ago?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“My father's office.”
“You knew David was alive.”
“I wasn't sure it was him.”
“You recorded him.”
“Because I didn't trust him.”
“But you didn't tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Richard looked toward Adrian.
“Because I was told if I did, she'd die.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“By David?”
Richard nodded.
Penelope laughed bitterly.
“This is incredible.”
“He said your mother's killers had been watching you for years.”
“And you believed him?”
“He knew things.”
“What things?”
“About you.”
Penelope's face tightened.
“What?”
“Your childhood. The apartment on Belmont. The scar on your knee from falling off your bicycle. The song your mother sang when you couldn't sleep.”
Penelope stopped.
Only family knew those things.
Richard continued.
“He was David.”
Penelope turned away.
The library windows overlooked the black water of Lake Michigan.
Her reflection stared back.
Golden dress.
Disheveled hair.
A woman standing in a stranger's home while her life became a crime scene.
“Why did he fake his death?”
Richard said, “He didn't tell me.”
“Why contact you?”
“He wanted the ring.”
Adrian looked at the velvet box in Penelope's hand.
Again.
The ring.
Always the ring.
Gabriel frowned.
“Why?”
Richard swallowed.
“He said Catherine hid something inside it.”
Penelope examined the ring.
Adrian took it carefully.
“May I?”
She nodded.
He turned it under the library light.
Nothing obvious.
Then Gabriel leaned closer.
“The setting.”
Adrian pressed a tiny section beneath the diamond.
A click.
The black stones surrounding the diamond shifted.
Penelope stared.
A compartment opened inside the ring.
Adrian removed something smaller than a fingernail.
A microfilm capsule.
Gabriel whispered, “Catherine.”
Adrian carried it to an old magnifying reader stored in the library.
Penelope stared at him.
“You have equipment for microfilm?”
“My family distrusts modern technology.”
“Apparently with good reason.”
He placed the tiny strip under magnification.
Numbers appeared.
Accounts.
Names.
Dates.
Then one word repeated beside multiple transfers.
HOLLOWAY.
Richard went pale.
Gabriel turned slowly.
“Your father.”
Richard shook his head.
“I don't know anything about this.”
Adrian continued scanning.
Arthur Holloway had moved millions through shell companies linked to the original attempt on Vittorio Moretti's life.
Penelope's mother had documented everything.
Then another line appeared.
CATHERINE HAYES TERMINATION — APPROVED.
Penelope stopped breathing.
Beside it were initials.
A.H.
Arthur Holloway.
Richard's father.
Richard stared.
“No.”
Penelope looked at him.
“Your father ordered my mother's death.”
“No.”
“It's right there.”
“This could be forged.”
Gabriel's face darkened.
“It isn't.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Catherine created the code.”
Richard backed away.
Penelope felt something strange.
She had expected rage.
Instead she felt emptiness.
Years of questions had condensed into two initials.
Arthur Holloway.
The father of the man she once loved.
The man who had ordered Richard to date her.
Adrian stepped closer to Penelope.
Not touching.
Simply there.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“We verify everything.”
“And Arthur?”
“We find him.”
Richard looked terrified.
“You don't understand.”
Adrian turned.
“What don't I understand?”
“My father isn't running this anymore.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Who is?”
Richard hesitated.
Then said, “David.”
Penelope spun around.
“What?”
Richard nodded slowly.
“David wasn't hiding from them.”
His voice dropped.
“They were hiding him.”
A phone began ringing somewhere outside the library.
Nobody moved.
Then Marco entered.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“We have a visitor.”
“At this hour?”
Marco's face was grim.
“He says his name is Samuel Hayes.”
Penelope's entire body went still.
Gabriel stood.
Adrian reached for the drawer where Penelope suspected he kept a weapon.
Marco continued.
“He came alone.”
“Search him.”
“Already did.”
“Who verified his identity?”
Marco looked at Penelope.
“He has Catherine Hayes's original marriage certificate.”
Penelope's heartbeat thundered.
Adrian looked at her.
“You don't have to meet him.”
“Yes.”
“Penelope.”
“Yes, I do.”
They walked downstairs.
Samuel Hayes stood in the drawing room.
He was in his late sixties.
Tall.
Thin.
Silver hair.
Tired eyes.
Penelope knew instantly.
Not because she remembered him.
Because she saw herself in his face.
The shape of his eyes.
The line of his mouth.
He looked at her and began crying.
“Penny.”
She froze.
Only her mother had called her Penny gently.
Richard had used it like possession.
Samuel said it like grief.
Penelope's voice came out barely audible.
“Are you my father?”
Samuel nodded.
“Yes.”
She did not move toward him.
“Where have you been?”
His face collapsed.
“Trying to stay alive long enough to come back.”
“For twenty-seven years?”
“I thought you were safer without me.”
Penelope laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
“Did you know my mother was killed?”
“Yes.”
“Who killed her?”
Samuel looked toward Richard.
Richard stiffened.
“Arthur ordered it.”
Penelope's jaw tightened.
“And David?”
Samuel's expression changed.
“David tried to stop it.”
“He's alive.”
Samuel looked genuinely shocked.
“What?”
Richard stepped forward.
“I heard him.”
Samuel stared at the recorder.
Adrian watched him carefully.
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
Penelope studied Samuel.
“Then why did David fake his death?”
Samuel whispered:
“He didn't.”
Silence.
“What?”
Samuel looked at her.
“David Hayes died when you were six.”
Penelope's skin chilled.
“Then whose voice is on that recording?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Richard protested.
“I saw him.”
Samuel turned.
“You saw someone who looked like David?”
“Yes.”
“Impossible.”
“He had the scar.”
Samuel's eyes widened.
“What scar?”
“Right side of his neck.”
Samuel staggered backward.
Gabriel caught the change.
“You recognize it.”
Samuel sat slowly.
“That wasn't David.”
Penelope approached.
“Who was it?”
Samuel looked terrified.
“My brother.”
Penelope stared.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
“Name.”
Samuel's mouth trembled.
“Thomas.”
Gabriel froze.
Adrian looked toward him.
“You know that name?”
Gabriel's face had drained of color.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Gabriel whispered:
“Thomas Hayes worked for my brother.”
“Vittorio?”
“No.”
Adrian's expression sharpened.
Gabriel looked at him.
“Your brother.”
The room went silent.
Adrian's older brother, Luca Moretti, had supposedly died eleven years earlier.
Penelope remembered Gabriel mentioning him only indirectly.
“What does Thomas have to do with Luca?”
Gabriel looked toward the windows.
“They built something together.”
“What?”
“A second network.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What kind?”
“One designed to replace both our families.”
Penelope felt the scale of the conspiracy widening again.
Samuel suddenly stood.
“We need to go.”
“Why?” Penelope asked.
“Because if Thomas knows the ring has been opened, he knows I came here.”
“How?”
Samuel looked toward the ceiling.
“Your security system.”
Adrian frowned.
“What about it?”
“Who installed it?”
Adrian's expression changed.
Marco answered.
“Moretti Strategic.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No. Before that.”
Marco thought.
“Eleven years ago? Luca supervised the original system.”
Adrian became very still.
Gabriel whispered, “Oh, God.”
Every light in the mansion went out.
A second later, steel shutters slammed over the windows.
The security system began locking doors automatically.
Marco reached for his radio.
Nothing.
Adrian pulled Penelope close.
A voice emerged from hidden speakers throughout the house.
Calm.
Male.
Familiar to Adrian.
“Hello, little brother.”
Adrian's face went white.
Penelope whispered, “Luca?”
The voice laughed softly.
“I'm glad Catherine's daughter finally came home.”
May you like
Then the library door behind them unlocked by itself.
The handle began to turn.
