Chapter 2 - The Name Beside Mine
Mara did not move.
Nobody in the room did.
The door opened three inches.
One of Luca’s men immediately stepped between Mara and the entrance.
“Stop there.”
The woman on the other side obeyed.
“Mara?”
That voice again.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Mara gripped the edge of the table.
“No.”
Her own voice cracked.
“No, that’s not possible.”
Luca watched her.
“Do you know her?”
Mara stared at the narrow opening.
“I know a dead woman who sounded like her.”
Luca signaled to his security man.
“Search her.”
The door closed.
Mara turned on him.
“You think my mother somehow came back from the dead carrying a weapon?”
“I think someone used her name to get inside my building ten minutes after you appeared in my elevator.”
“This isn’t your building.”
“I own seventy percent of it.”
That was somehow the least disturbing answer of the day.
Mara pressed both hands against her temples.
“This can’t be happening.”
Luca remained across the table.
He seemed to understand that getting closer would make things worse.
“Sit down.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Then fall down standing.”
Mara glared.
He pulled out a chair.
She sat.
Two minutes later, the door opened again.
A woman entered.
She was fifty-two, maybe fifty-three.
Thin.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
A pale scar ran from her left temple toward her ear.
Mara stared at the scar.
Her mother had never had one.
That was the first thought her mind offered.
The second was worse.
Everything else was Rose.
The shape of her hands.
The slight tilt of her head.
The tiny crease beside her mouth.
Even the way she held her shoulders when she was afraid.
Mara stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
The woman began crying.
“Oh, baby.”
Mara flinched.
“Don’t call me that.”
Rose stopped.
Mara’s voice shook.
“My mother is dead.”
“I know what you were told.”
“I went to her funeral.”
“I know.”
“I watched them lower her coffin.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Rose covered her mouth.
Mara turned away.
Luca remained silent.
For once, his silence helped.
Mara stared through the window at the city far below.
“You have one minute.”
Rose nodded.
“I didn’t die in that accident.”
“Forty-five seconds.”
“The accident was staged.”
“By who?”
“People connected to Anthony Moretti.”
Mara looked sharply toward Luca.
His jaw tightened.
Rose continued.
“Not Anthony himself. Men working around him. Men using his organization.”
Luca spoke.
“Names.”
Rose looked at him with naked fear.
“Victor Saye.”
The room changed.
Not physically.
But every man around Luca became still.
Mara noticed.
“Who is that?”
Luca did not answer immediately.
“My father’s former financial adviser.”
“Former?”
“He disappeared after my father died.”
Rose shook her head.
“No. He didn’t.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“You’ve seen him?”
“He’s been controlling Daniel.”
Mara stopped.
“What?”
Rose looked at her.
“Daniel Mercer.”
“My Daniel?”
Rose winced at the possessive word.
Mara hated herself for saying it.
“Your ex.”
“You know him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He was put near you.”
Mara stared.
“No.”
“Mara—”
“No.”
“It started years before you met him.”
“No.”
“Your mother—”
“Do not tell me things about my life like you were there.”
Rose took the blow without defending herself.
“You’re right.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“I’m right? That’s what you have?”
“I left you.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“For eighteen years.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re standing here telling me my boyfriend was some kind of assignment?”
Rose’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Mara looked away.
She could not cry.
Not yet.
If she started, she was afraid she would never stop.
Luca picked up the ledger.
“What is account 2047?”
Rose looked at the book.
“That’s why I came.”
“What is it?”
“A trust.”
Mara shook her head.
“I don’t have a trust.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Two million dollars?”
“It was two million then.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“When?”
“When Anthony created it.”
“How much now?”
Rose swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
Luca reached for his phone.
Mara snapped.
“No.”
He paused.
“No more calls. No more men. No more people deciding things around me.”
He lowered the phone.
Mara faced Rose.
“Why would Luca’s father leave me money?”
“He didn’t leave it to you.”
Mara frowned.
Rose continued.
“He was holding it for you.”
“For what?”
“Because I gave him something.”
“What?”
Rose looked toward the ledger.
“Evidence.”
Luca’s voice became cold.
“Against whom?”
“Victor.”
Mara looked between them.
“Someone needs to start talking like I’m not already supposed to know this.”
Rose nodded.
“Twenty years ago I worked as an accountant.”
Mara almost laughed.
“You told me you were a receptionist.”
“I lied.”
“Clearly.”
“I handled books for a shipping company Anthony Moretti quietly controlled. I found money moving through shell corporations. Payments to judges. Police officers. Contractors.”
Luca interrupted.
“My father knew?”
“At first, no.”
“At first?”
“Victor was using your father’s businesses.”
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“And when my father learned?”
“He started collecting proof.”
“Why you?”
“Because I found it first.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“And somehow this becomes my problem?”
Rose looked at her.
“Because Victor discovered I had made a copy.”
The silence grew heavier.
“He threatened you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you abandoned me.”
Rose closed her eyes.
“I thought I was saving you.”
“You were twelve.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t save me.”
Mara’s voice broke.
“You left me with Aunt Helen, who spent eighteen years telling me you were buried in Albany.”
Rose’s face crumpled.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Mara took a step toward her.
“You didn’t watch me graduate without a mother. You didn’t watch me work two jobs to pay community college tuition. You weren’t there when Helen got sick. You weren’t there when she died. You weren’t there when Daniel—”
She stopped.
Rose whispered, “When Daniel what?”
Mara’s mouth closed.
Rose saw enough.
Her face changed.
“What did he do to you?”
“Nothing.”
Luca looked at the bandage.
Rose followed his gaze.
“Mara.”
“I said nothing.”
Rose took one step.
Mara stepped back.
“Don’t.”
Rose stopped immediately.
That hurt more.
Mara sat down again.
“Tell me about Daniel.”
Rose wiped her face.
“Victor needed access to you.”
“Why?”
“The trust requires biometric verification.”
Luca opened the ledger.
“Confirmation of identity.”
Rose nodded.
“Anthony designed it so no one could move the assets without proof Mara was alive.”
“What assets?” Mara asked.
Rose looked at Luca.
“Not cash anymore.”
Luca flipped deeper into the ledger.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Mara demanded.
He turned the page.
A list of corporate holdings.
Warehouses.
Land.
Investments.
Mara stared.
“I don’t understand.”
Luca did quick calculations in his head.
“Neither do you.”
“How much?”
He hesitated.
“How much?”
“Possibly thirty-eight million.”
Mara laughed.
Nobody else did.
She looked around.
“You’re serious?”
Rose nodded.
Mara leaned back.
“I make four dollars and thirty-five cents an hour before tips.”
Luca said, “That’s absurd.”
“Thank you for your financial analysis.”
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Rose continued.
“Victor has spent years trying to access those holdings.”
“And Daniel?”
“Daniel got close to you to obtain documents.”
Mara remembered every time Daniel had asked for her Social Security card.
Every time he volunteered to handle taxes.
Every time he became furious when she would not combine bank accounts.
Her stomach turned.
“He proposed a joint account.”
Rose nodded.
“He needed your signature.”
Mara stared at nothing.
“When I refused, he punched a hole through the bedroom door.”
Luca’s voice became very quiet.
“Did he ever hit you?”
Mara did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Rose cried silently.
Luca looked toward his men.
“Find Mercer.”
Mara stood.
“No.”
Luca’s attention returned to her.
“You don’t get to decide what happens to him.”
“If he’s working for Victor—”
“Then prove it.”
“We will.”
“We?”
Luca leaned forward slightly.
“Your name is in my father’s ledger. My father died under circumstances I stopped questioning years ago. Your mother says the same man is connected to both our families.”
Mara swallowed.
“So?”
“So whether either of us likes it or not, our problems appear to have the same name.”
Rose suddenly said, “There’s something else.”
Mara turned.
“Of course there is.”
“Daniel doesn’t know I’m alive.”
“Good for him.”
“But Victor does.”
Luca’s head lifted.
“How?”
Rose reached beneath her coat.
Every guard moved.
She froze.
“It’s paper.”
Luca nodded.
She removed an envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Rose handed it to Mara.
It showed Daniel standing beside an older man outside a restaurant.
Daniel looked relaxed.
The older man wore a charcoal overcoat and held a silver cane.
Mara had seen him before.
Her chest tightened.
“That’s Victor?”
Rose nodded.
Mara looked closer.
“I know him.”
Luca became still.
“From where?”
“He came to the restaurant last month.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked for my section.”
“And?”
“He tipped me five hundred dollars.”
Rose closed her eyes.
“What?”
Mara whispered.
“He said…”
She struggled to remember.
“He said I looked like someone he used to know.”
Luca took the photograph.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Ask questions?”
“About my mother.”
Rose paled.
“What questions?”
“He asked if she had left me anything.”
Luca swore under his breath.
Mara stared at Rose.
“I told him no.”
“What did he do?”
“He smiled.”
Rose sat down heavily.
Luca’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His face hardened.
“What?”
Mara asked.
One of Luca’s security men entered from the hall.
“We found Mercer’s car.”
“And?”
“Empty.”
“Search the hotel.”
“We already are.”
The man looked toward Mara.
“There was something in the trunk.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“A box containing photocopies of her identification.”
Mara went cold.
Luca held out his hand.
The security man gave him a clear evidence bag.
Inside were copies of Mara’s driver’s license.
Passport.
Birth certificate.
Documents she had never given Daniel.
And one sheet she had never seen.
Luca removed it carefully.
It was an application.
At the top:
ACCOUNT 2047 — BENEFICIARY AUTHORIZATION.
Mara stared at the signature.
Her name had been forged.
Rose whispered, “He was almost ready.”
“Ready for what?” Mara asked.
Luca read the final line.
His expression changed.
“Mara.”
“What?”
“The transfer needs two signatures.”
“Mine and whose?”
He did not answer.
“Luca.”
Rose looked toward the door.
Footsteps were coming down the hallway.
Fast.
One of the guards touched his earpiece.
His face drained.
“Mr. Moretti, we have a breach.”
Luca closed the ledger.
“Who?”
The guard looked directly at Mara.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Mara’s phone buzzed.
A new message appeared.
I KNOW YOUR MOTHER IS UP THERE.
Then another.
AND I KNOW WHAT SHE DID.
A gunshot-like crack sounded from the hallway—not a weapon, but the sharp explosion of a security door being forced open.
Rose stood.
Luca moved in front of Mara.
The private suite door shuddered.
Once.
Twice.
Then Daniel’s voice came from the other side.
“Mara, ask your mother who really killed Anthony Moretti.”
Luca slowly turned toward Rose.
The lock clicked.
May you like
Someone had entered the override code.
The door began to open.
