Chapter 4
I returned to the Romano estate at two in the morning.
My father might be alive.
That sentence should have filled me with hope.
Instead I felt angry.
Hope after twenty years felt like another person making decisions inside my body.
Lucia Romano waited in Adrian’s study.
She was sixty-eight.
Silver hair.
Elegant black coat.
Same eyes as Adrian.
Noah’s gray-haired lady.
She stood when I entered.
“Hannah.”
I stopped.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
She looked at Adrian.
He said:
“Answer her.”
Lucia flinched.
Interesting.
Mother and son had their own war.
“Vermont.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“He has been living under another name.”
“For twenty years?”
“Seventeen.”
“What happened the other three?”
Lucia closed her eyes.
“Hospital. Rehabilitation. Hiding.”
My father survived burns and injuries after Building Six.
Vincent got him out before Salvatore’s men reached him.
Lucia arranged false records.
The body identified as Daniel belonged to an undocumented worker whose identity had been lost in the fire.
That sentence made me sick.
Another family lost a person while mine buried him.
“What was his name?” I asked.
Lucia stared.
“The other man.”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
She nodded.
Good.
Noah entered from the hall before anyone could stop him.
“Mom!”
I knelt.
Held him.
Then he saw Lucia.
“That’s the lady.”
Adrian looked at his mother.
“You took him into the nursery.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Camille’s father’s people were inside the house.”
Adrian froze.
“Étienne Laurent is dead.”
Lucia looked at him.
“No.”
Of course.
I laughed.
Everyone stared.
“Sorry.”
I wiped my face.
“I’m just done with dead people being alive.”
Noah nodded seriously.
“Me too.”
Lucia almost smiled.
Then continued.
Étienne Laurent had staged his death after a financial investigation.
He now operated through shell companies.
Camille knew.
Her engagement to Adrian gave Laurent Human Capital access to Romano contracts.
Adrian’s face hardened.
“She used me.”
“Yes.”
“Did she love me?”
Lucia paused.
“That I don’t know.”
Good answer.
Adrian looked away.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Then I remembered my bruises.
Noah’s waiter vest.
The debt.
Love did not matter more than behavior.
Lucia explained why she sent the roses.
She had been communicating with Daniel Brooks for years.
My father refused to contact me directly because he believed Laurent was monitoring old victims’ families.
Then Camille began targeting me inside the Romano house.
Why?
Because she discovered my identity.
“Hannah Brooks,” Lucia said. “Your application used your married name.”
I had married Noah’s father briefly.
Evan Miller.
Dead in a car accident when Noah was two.
I used Miller professionally.
Camille only learned my birth name after payroll audit.
Then she connected me to Daniel.
That was when the deductions started.
The threats.
Keeping me financially trapped.
Making Noah work.
Not random cruelty.
Control.
I stared at Lucia.
“You knew?”
“Not until two weeks ago.”
“You were watching?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come?”
Fear crossed her face.
“My son.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Me again?”
Lucia looked at him.
“Laurent threatened you.”
“You let Hannah get hurt because someone threatened me?”
“No.”
“That is exactly what happened.”
Silence.
Adrian’s anger was not theatrical.
It was wounded.
Old.
Lucia whispered:
“I thought I could handle it quietly.”
There.
The Romano family disease.
Privately.
Quietly.
Protectively.
Adrian looked at Noah.
Then at me.
“No more.”
Lucia nodded.
“Good.”
He almost laughed.
“You don’t get credit.”
“I know.”
Then I asked:
“What happened at Building Six?”
Lucia sat.
Not protecting Salvatore.
Not exactly.
She had discovered the debt labor system through Daniel.
They planned to destroy original contracts while preserving copies.
Small fire.
Empty building.
But Salvatore learned.
He ordered workers kept inside to create witnesses against Daniel?
No.
Worse.
He wanted deaths.
Chaos would discredit any records found.
Insurance would pay.
Workers without documented status would be difficult to identify.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“My father ordered it.”
“Yes.”
“Did Vincent know?”
“Not until too late.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“But you helped cover it afterward.”
Lucia cried.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because Salvatore said he would kill you.”
Adrian laughed.
Again.
Protection.
No one had to say it.
I asked:
“Where is my father?”
Lucia gave an address.
Private clinic near Burlington.
He had pancreatic cancer.
My anger paused.
Not disappeared.
Paused.
“How long?”
“Months.”
“Is he dying?”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Twenty years alive.
And I might get days.
I hated everyone.
Him too.
Maybe especially him.
Noah looked at me.
“Grandpa is alive?”
I looked at Lucia.
Then Adrian.
Then my son.
“Yes.”
“Can I meet him?”
I could not answer.
Because the child had not been abandoned by this man.
I had.
Adrian said:
“That’s Hannah’s decision.”
Good.
Lucia continued.
“Daniel sent the photo because he found evidence Camille and Étienne plan to move records tomorrow.”
“What records?” Adrian asked.
“Current worker debt files.”
“Where?”
“Romano River Warehouse.”
Adrian froze.
His new luxury development storage facility.
Hundreds of subcontractor employment records inside.
Laurent had been using Romano property.
Again.
Adrian called federal agents.
Lucia reached for his arm.
“Adrian—”
He stepped away.
“No private fixes.”
Good.
Marco entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
“What now?”
“Camille is gone.”
Of course.
“How?”
“Security camera loop.”
“Vincent?”
“Gone too.”
Lucia stood.
“Together?”
Marco nodded.
Then his phone buzzed.
A live security image appeared.
Romano River Warehouse.
Camille.
Vincent.
And an older man in a wheelchair.
Étienne Laurent.
Alive.
Camille’s supposedly dead father.
On a table beside them sat stacks of files.
And a gasoline can.
They were not moving evidence.
They were about to burn it.
Lucia showed investigators the communication method she used with Daniel: classified ads, prepaid mail drops, and later encrypted accounts. Hannah listened with growing anger. The sophistication proved how much effort adults had spent maintaining distance. Survival had been real, but so had choice.
Adrian asked Lucia whether she ever checked on Hannah as a child. Lucia admitted she did, through school records and public files. Hannah told her quietly that watching from far away was not the same as helping. Lucia accepted that without defense.
Noah wanted to know why everyone kept hiding things in flowers, walls, and lockers. Adrian said his family had an unhealthy relationship with direct conversation. Noah said that seemed obvious.
Lucia showed investigators the communication method she used with Daniel: classified ads, prepaid mail drops, and later encrypted accounts. Hannah listened with growing anger. The sophistication proved how much effort adults had spent maintaining distance. Survival had been real, but so had choice.
Adrian asked Lucia whether she ever checked on Hannah as a child. Lucia admitted she did, through school records and public files. Hannah told her quietly that watching from far away was not the same as helping. Lucia accepted that without defense.
Noah wanted to know why everyone kept hiding things in flowers, walls, and lockers. Adrian said his family had an unhealthy relationship with direct conversation. Noah said that seemed obvious.
Lucia showed investigators the communication method she used with Daniel: classified ads, prepaid mail drops, and later encrypted accounts. Hannah listened with growing anger. The sophistication proved how much effort adults had spent maintaining distance. Survival had been real, but so had choice.
Adrian asked Lucia whether she ever checked on Hannah as a child. Lucia admitted she did, through school records and public files. Hannah told her quietly that watching from far away was not the same as helping. Lucia accepted that without defense.
Noah wanted to know why everyone kept hiding things in flowers, walls, and lockers. Adrian said his family had an unhealthy relationship with direct conversation. Noah said that seemed obvious.
Lucia showed investigators the communication method she used with Daniel: classified ads, prepaid mail drops, and later encrypted accounts. Hannah listened with growing anger. The sophistication proved how much effort adults had spent maintaining distance. Survival had been real, but so had choice.
Adrian asked Lucia whether she ever checked on Hannah as a child. Lucia admitted she did, through school records and public files. Hannah told her quietly that watching from far away was not the same as helping. Lucia accepted that without defense.
Noah wanted to know why everyone kept hiding things in flowers, walls, and lockers. Adrian said his family had an unhealthy relationship with direct conversation. Noah said that seemed obvious.
Lucia showed investigators the communication method she used with Daniel: classified ads, prepaid mail drops, and later encrypted accounts. Hannah listened with growing anger. The sophistication proved how much effort adults had spent maintaining distance. Survival had been real, but so had choice.
May you like
Adrian asked Lucia whether she ever checked on Hannah as a child. Lucia admitted she did, through school records and public files. Hannah told her quietly that watching from far away was not the same as helping. Lucia accepted that without defense.
Noah wanted to know why everyone kept hiding things in flowers, walls, and lockers. Adrian said his family had an unhealthy relationship with direct conversation. Noah said that seemed obvious.
