Chapter 3 - THE SECRET ROMAN HAD KEPT FROM LILYLily heard him.
Claire knew immediately.
The girl's face changed.
“What?”
Roman closed his eyes.
Too late.
Lily stepped outside.
“What did you say?”
“Lily.”
“You told me Mom died in a car accident.”
Roman looked toward Claire.
She understood.
This wasn't her conversation.
She started toward her car.
Lily grabbed her hand.
“Don't leave.”
Claire stopped.
Roman looked at her.
She stayed.
They went inside.
The family gathered in the library.
Roman stood near the fireplace.
Lily sat beside Claire.
Her hand remained wrapped around Claire's.
Roman began.
“Your mother was involved with someone dangerous.”
Lily laughed bitterly.
“We are the dangerous people.”
Margaret flinched.
Roman didn't.
“His name was Vincent Hale.”
Claire recognized the surname.
Victoria.
“Related to Victoria?”
Roman nodded.
“Her uncle.”
Lily stared.
“What happened?”
Roman explained.
His sister, Elena, had discovered Vincent was using Duke-controlled shipping companies to move stolen pharmaceuticals.
Roman had refused to allow drugs through any Duke businesses.
Vincent went around him.
Elena found records.
She planned to expose him.
Three days later, her car went over an embankment.
The official investigation called it an accident.
Roman never believed it.
“Did you prove it?”
“No.”
“Then why are you saying he killed her?”
“Because two days after the funeral, her apartment was searched.”
Lily's face drained.
“What were they looking for?”
“Evidence.”
“Did they find it?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Vincent spent the next year looking.”
Lily stood.
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
“No.”
She shouted.
“You lied.”
Roman took the words without defending himself.
Lily ran upstairs.
Claire started after her.
Roman said quietly:
“Give her a minute.”
Claire turned.
“No.”
He blinked.
“She asked me to stay.”
Claire followed Lily.
She found her sitting on the floor beside her bed.
Crying.
“I don't know anything about her.”
Claire sat beside her.
“That's not true.”
“Everybody decides what I can handle.”
Claire didn't defend Roman.
“He was wrong.”
Lily looked at her.
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“He loves you.”
“I know.”
“That doesn't make every choice correct.”
Lily cried harder.
Claire held her.
Downstairs, Roman stood alone.
An hour later, Claire found him in the kitchen.
“You were wrong.”
“I know.”
“You should have told her.”
“I know.”
“She isn't a little girl.”
“I know.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“You're agreeing too easily.”
Roman looked exhausted.
“Would you prefer an argument?”
“Usually.”
He leaned against the counter.
“I promised Elena I'd protect her.”
“You did.”
“I failed.”
Claire softened.
“You were twenty-nine.”
“I was supposed to know.”
“Nobody knows everything.”
“I should.”
There it was.
Roman's version of control.
Different from Claire's insecurities.
Same root.
Fear.
“Roman.”
He looked at her.
“You can't protect Lily from every painful truth.”
“I can try.”
“No.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You can teach her that when painful things happen, she won't face them alone.”
Roman stared.
That landed.
The investigation began immediately.
The photograph had been printed recently.
Security footage showed a man near Lily's school.
But then Claire remembered something.
“Victoria.”
Roman looked at her.
“What?”
“Her surname.”
“Hale.”
“Could she know?”
Roman's expression darkened.
He called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Security checked Victoria's apartment.
Empty.
Closets partially cleared.
Passport gone.
She had left.
Why?
The answer arrived the next morning.
Susan found an old photograph inside Elena's storage boxes.
Elena.
Lily as a toddler.
Victoria.
And Vincent Hale.
On the back, Elena had written:
V says she can help. Don't trust her uncle.
Victoria had known Elena.
More closely than Roman realized.
They located Victoria at Pittsburgh International Airport.
She wasn't fleeing Roman.
She was fleeing Vincent.
Federal investigators intercepted her.
Victoria asked for protection.
Then she told them everything.
Vincent had killed Elena.
Not personally.
But he ordered the crash.
Victoria knew because she overheard him confess years later.
“Why didn't you tell Roman?” Claire asked when they eventually met.
Victoria looked ashamed.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Then why come back into his life?”
Victoria looked toward Roman.
“Because Vincent asked me to.”
Silence.
Roman's face went cold.
“Our engagement?”
“Started honestly.”
Victoria's voice broke.
“But after Elena died, Vincent pressured me to stay close.”
“Why?”
“To learn whether Elena gave you evidence.”
Roman looked sick.
Four years of memories rewritten.
Then Victoria looked at Claire.
“I treated you terribly.”
Claire said nothing.
“I was jealous.”
“Of what?”
“The way he looked at you.”
Roman glanced at Claire.
Victoria continued.
“He never looked at me like that.”
Claire's heart jumped.
Bad timing.
Extremely bad timing.
Then Victoria revealed the real danger.
Vincent believed Elena had hidden evidence somewhere before she died.
He recently learned Lily had started visiting Claire's bakery.
“Why does that matter?” Claire asked.
Victoria looked confused.
“Your bakery used to be a photography studio.”
Claire froze.
Yes.
Before Claire bought the building, it belonged to a photographer.
Elena Duke.
Lily's mother.
Roman slowly turned toward Claire.
“You never told me.”
“I didn't know.”
Claire had purchased the bakery from an estate sale four years earlier.
She had renovated almost everything.
Almost.
Then she remembered.
“The basement.”
Roman looked at her.
“What?”
“There was a wall safe.”
“Was?”
“I covered it.”
“You opened it?”
“No. I couldn't.”
Roman stood.
Claire grabbed her keys.
They drove to the bakery.
Security came with them.
Behind storage shelves in the basement, Claire showed Roman the old section of brickwork.
They removed the panel.
The safe remained.
Roman called a locksmith.
Twenty minutes later, it opened.
Inside were photographs.
Documents.
A flash drive.
And a letter.
For Lily.
Roman didn't touch it.
Claire noticed.
“You open it.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Roman.”
“It belongs to her.”
He had learned.
That evening, Lily opened her mother's letter herself.
She read silently.
Then began crying.
Roman sat beside her.
He didn't take the letter.
Didn't tell her what to feel.
He simply waited.
Finally Lily leaned against him.
“I miss her.”
Roman wrapped his arms around her.
“So do I.”
The flash drive contained enough evidence to implicate Vincent in trafficking, fraud, and Elena's death.
But there was one additional file.
A video.
Elena speaking directly into the camera.
“If anything happens to me, Roman needs to know there is someone inside the Duke family helping Vincent.”
Everyone went silent.
Elena named the person.
Roman's mother gasped.
Susan dropped her glass.
And Roman stared at the screen in disbelief.
Because the person Elena named was sitting in the room.
May you like
His cousin.
Michael Duke.
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