Chapter 10 - Lily Receives a Warning
Lily wanted to go home.
That was her response to discovering our family had been watched, lied to, financially manipulated and somehow connected to two powerful business dynasties.
“I have a chemistry final in three weeks.”
I stared at her.
“You could have been kidnapped.”
“And I could fail organic chemistry.”
Roman, standing near the window, almost smiled.
“Your sister is terrifying.”
“She gets worse when hungry.”
“I heard that,” Lily said.
It was the first normal moment we'd had in days.
It lasted twelve seconds.
Then Lily's phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Her college campus.
Taken that morning.
Beneath it:
Tell Claire to stop.
Roman took the phone.
Marco was called.
The temporary apartment transformed instantly.
Security moved.
Curtains closed.
Phones traced.
The sender used an overseas routing service.
No location.
But the threat changed the rules.
Until then, everything had been about Dad's evidence.
Now Lily had become leverage.
Again.
I looked at Roman.
“I stop.”
“No.”
“I stop.”
“That's what they want.”
“I don't care.”
“You will when they do this again.”
“That's my sister.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
Roman's face hardened.
I regretted the words before they finished leaving my mouth.
His younger brother had died at twenty-two.
Car accident.
Roman rarely spoke about him.
Everyone in the house knew.
“I know exactly what it feels like,” he said quietly, “to think you'd trade anything for someone you love.”
I swallowed.
“Then you understand.”
“Yes.”
He stepped closer.
“And I also understand people who use that love against you never stop because you cooperate.”
I hated that he was right.
Lily came between us.
“Stop deciding things about me while I'm standing here.”
I turned.
“Lily—”
“No. Dad did that.”
The words hit hard.
“He protected us with secrets. Look where that got us.”
She pointed toward the encrypted files.
“If Dad had told you what was happening, maybe you wouldn't have spent eight years paying fake debt.”
I flinched.
Lily's anger broke.
“I'm sorry.”
“No.”
She was right.
Secrets had become our family's inheritance.
Roman agreed to increase protection.
Lily agreed not to leave without security.
Nobody agreed to stop.
Meanwhile, Roman's forensic accountants examined DVA Holdings.
The company had been dormant since his father's stroke.
But years earlier, it processed Mercer transfers.
Roman called Alessandro DeLuca.
His father lived in Palm Beach.
Seventy-three.
Partially disabled.
Still mentally sharp.
Roman put him on video.
“Did you know Howard Mercer used DVA Holdings?”
Alessandro stared at the screen.
“I haven't heard that name in years.”
“Answer me.”
His father sighed.
“Yes.”
Roman went silent.
Adrian looked away.
I watched Roman absorb the betrayal.
“For what?”
“Temporary settlements.”
“What settlements?”
“Investments.”
“Medical debt?”
Alessandro's eyes sharpened.
“What are you talking about?”
Roman explained.
By the end, his father looked genuinely shaken.
“Howard told me those accounts were municipal development bonds.”
“They weren't.”
“I didn't know.”
“James Bennett did.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
That reaction told us everything.
“You knew James?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough to owe him an apology.”
Dad had confronted Alessandro.
Told him Mercer was using DeLuca access systems to move fraudulent financial records.
Alessandro didn't believe him.
Howard had been a trusted adviser for fifteen years.
Dad was a contractor.
Alessandro fired Dad from DeLuca projects.
My throat tightened.
“My father tried to warn you.”
Alessandro looked at me through the screen.
“Yes.”
“And you ignored him.”
“Yes.”
Roman said nothing.
Neither did Adrian.
Alessandro continued.
“Three months later, I discovered irregularities. By then James was dead.”
“You didn't investigate?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“Evidence disappeared.”
“Who handled it?”
A pause.
“My accountant.”
Roman's expression changed.
“Dominic Vale.”
“Yes.”
The missing man.
D. Vale.
Dad's final note.
“Where is he?” Roman asked.
“I don't know.”
“Why did he disappear?”
Alessandro hesitated.
“Because I told him to.”
Roman stood.
“What?”
Dominic Vale hadn't vanished because Mercer chased him.
Alessandro sent him away with copies of the evidence.
To protect it.
“Where?”
“He had family in Montana.”
Marco was already searching.
Alessandro gave one final piece of information.
Before Dominic left, James Bennett contacted him.
They met once.
Privately.
“What did James give him?”
“I don't know.”
Roman ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, Marco located a Dominic Vale living under the name Daniel Vincent near Bozeman, Montana.
Age sixty-seven.
Same birth date.
Same face.
Alive.
Roman arranged contact.
Dominic answered on the third ring.
He listened to Roman introduce himself.
Then said nothing for several seconds.
Finally:
“Is Claire Bennett alive?”
I took the phone.
“This is Claire.”
The man's breathing changed.
“Oh, thank God.”
My knees weakened.
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Silence.
“Mr. Vale.”
“Claire…”
His voice cracked.
“Your father survived the poisoning.”
I closed my eyes.
Roman stood beside me.
“Then where is he?”
Dominic's next words changed everything.
“I don't know.”
“What do you mean?”
“He disappeared before we could move him to safety.”
“Who took him?”
“I spent eight years trying to find out.”
Then Dominic said something even worse.
“Claire, James wasn't the only Bennett targeted that week.”
I looked at Lily.
“What?”
“The people behind Mercer were also planning to take one of his daughters.”
My blood turned cold.
“Which one?”
Dominic hesitated.
“You.”
May you like
My father hadn't disappeared to save himself—he disappeared because someone had already chosen me as the next target.
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