Chapter 3 - “Boss… They Found Out”
Lily took the photograph from Charles with both hands.
For several seconds she could not speak.
The woman in the picture was younger than Lily remembered her, probably twenty-four or twenty-five.
But there was no mistaking Evelyn Harper.
Same soft brown eyes.
Same crooked smile.
Same tiny scar above her left eyebrow from a childhood accident Lily had heard about a hundred times.
Her mother stood beside a dark-haired man Lily had never seen.
In Evelyn’s arms was a baby wrapped in a pale blanket.
Lily.
She knew because the corner of the blanket had been kept in a memory box beneath her mother’s bed.
Her mother had shown it to her when Lily was twelve.
“That’s me.”
Damian moved closer.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
She flipped the photograph over.
There was handwriting.
Evelyn, Michael and Lily. May 1999.
Lily read the name twice.
“Michael.”
Damian went perfectly still.
Charles looked at him.
Lily noticed.
“What?”
Damian did not answer.
“Who is Michael?”
Charles quietly closed the library door.
That frightened Lily more than the gunfire had.
She looked between them.
“Somebody needs to start talking.”
Damian took the photograph.
The moment his eyes landed on the handwritten name, his expression hardened.
“Michael Vale.”
Lily stared at him.
“Vale?”
“My uncle.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My mother never knew anyone named Vale.”
“The photograph suggests otherwise.”
“She would have told me.”
Damian’s gaze remained steady.
“Perhaps she was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
His silence answered enough.
Lily stepped backward.
“No.”
She pressed one hand against her forehead.
“My father’s name was Daniel Harper.”
“You knew him?”
“He died before I was born.”
“Did you ever see photographs?”
“A few.”
“Was his face clear?”
Lily stopped.
Her mother had kept only three pictures of Daniel Harper.
One showed him from behind beside a lake.
One was distant.
One had been damaged by water.
As a child, Lily had never questioned it.
Why would she?
Her mother had said her father died in a construction accident when Evelyn was seven months pregnant.
Lily whispered, “What are you saying?”
Damian looked at Charles.
Charles understood.
“I’ll verify the photograph.”
“No,” Lily said sharply. “You’ll tell me what you already know.”
Charles hesitated.
Damian answered instead.
“Michael Vale disappeared twenty-seven years ago.”
Lily glanced at the date on the photograph.
1999.
“Twenty-seven years.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“According to my grandfather, Michael stole from the family.”
“What?”
“He discovered money was being diverted through several shipping companies. He accused members of the family. Three days later, he disappeared.”
“Was he killed?”
“We never found a body.”
“And you think my mother knew him?”
Damian looked at the baby in the photograph.
“I think she knew him very well.”
Lily felt nauseated.
“No.”
She turned away.
The room suddenly seemed too warm.
Too dark.
Too full of men who knew things about her life that she did not.
“My mother hated secrets.”
Damian said nothing.
“She raised me by herself. Worked two jobs. Sometimes three.”
Still nothing.
“We lived in a one-bedroom apartment until I was eleven.”
Lily looked back at him.
“If she had some connection to your billionaire family, why would she live like that?”
“Maybe because money was not what she wanted.”
“Or maybe because your theory is wrong.”
“That is possible.”
She appreciated that he did not pretend certainty.
Charles examined the photograph beneath a desk lamp.
“There’s a photographer’s stamp.”
Damian looked over.
“Where?”
“Bottom corner.”
Charles read it.
“Saint Vincent Hospital.”
Lily froze.
“That’s where I was born.”
Charles checked his phone.
“The maternity wing used to offer family photographs.”
Lily sat down slowly.
Everything was becoming too real.
Damian closed the briefcase.
“Enough tonight.”
She looked up.
“Enough?”
“You’re exhausted.”
“I’m not sleeping until I know why a picture of my mother is inside your secret mafia suitcase.”
Damian’s expression shifted.
“Mafia?”
“I read the articles.”
Charles coughed again.
Damian looked mildly annoyed.
“Vale International is a legitimate company.”
“I’m sure the men with machine guns were from accounting.”
Charles turned his face away.
Lily pointed at him.
“You keep laughing.”
“I apologize.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No.”
Damian almost smiled.
The moment passed quickly.
His phone vibrated.
He answered.
“Speak.”
Silence.
Then his face changed.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Alive?”
Lily watched.
“Where?”
Damian straightened.
“I’m coming.”
He ended the call.
“Adrian?” Charles asked.
“They found his car.”
“Where?”
“Old Pier Nineteen.”
Charles’s expression darkened.
“That’s Romano territory.”
Damian moved toward the door.
Lily stood.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“What about me?”
“You’ll stay here.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“No?”
“The answers are connected.”
“This is not a discussion.”
“You cannot drag me into your house and then order me around.”
“I can if leaving gets you killed.”
Lily approached him.
“Your uncle is in a photograph with my mother and me. Somebody was watching me before I even found your briefcase. Your brother gave you that photograph hours before disappearing.”
Damian said nothing.
“You think I’m staying in this room while you go find the one person who might know what this means?”
“Yes.”
“That was not a question.”
“It remains the answer.”
Lily folded her arms.
Damian turned to Charles.
“She stays.”
Charles nodded.
Lily waited until Damian reached the door.
Then she said, “If you leave without me, I’ll walk out the front entrance five minutes later.”
Damian stopped.
Charles closed his eyes.
Damian turned slowly.
“You wouldn’t.”
“You’ve known me for approximately two hours. How confident are you?”
Their eyes locked.
Lily saw frustration.
Then calculation.
Finally Damian exhaled through his nose.
“You stay in the vehicle.”
“Fine.”
“You do exactly what my security team says.”
“Within reason.”
“Exactly.”
“Within reason.”
He looked as though nobody had negotiated with him in years.
Charles quietly said, “Take the victory.”
Damian ignored him.
Twenty minutes later, Lily sat inside another armored SUV.
Damian was beside her.
Three security vehicles surrounded them.
The silver briefcase remained locked in the mansion vault.
Rain had weakened to a mist.
Downtown lights slipped past the windows.
Lily looked at Damian.
“You really think Michael Vale might be my father.”
Damian’s gaze stayed forward.
“I think we need evidence.”
“If he was your uncle…”
“Yes.”
“That would make us…”
“Related.”
Lily shook her head.
“This is insane.”
Damian looked at her.
“I agree.”
“Good.”
Another minute passed.
“What was he like?”
“My uncle?”
“Yes.”
“I barely remember him. I was nine when he disappeared.”
“But you remember something.”
Damian stared through the windshield.
“He was the only person in the family who spoke to children like we were adults.”
Lily listened.
“He taught me chess.”
A pause.
“He hated losing.”
“Did you beat him?”
“Once.”
“How?”
“He let me.”
Lily smiled faintly.
“Then you didn’t beat him.”
“I know that now.”
Something softened in Damian’s face.
“He was my father’s younger brother. My grandfather considered Michael reckless. Idealistic.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought he was brave.”
They entered the industrial district.
Warehouses replaced skyscrapers.
The harbor rose ahead.
Shipping cranes stood against the dark sky like enormous skeletons.
Damian’s radio crackled.
“Convoy approaching Pier Nineteen.”
His body changed instantly.
The reflective conversation ended.
The boss returned.
They stopped behind a warehouse.
Damian opened his door.
Lily caught his sleeve.
He looked back.
“Be careful.”
For one second both seemed surprised she had said it.
Then Damian nodded.
“You too.”
He disappeared with the guards.
Lily remained inside with a driver named Marco.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Lily watched shadows move between warehouses.
Her nerves climbed.
“Do you know Adrian?” she asked.
Marco kept his eyes forward.
“Since he was seventeen.”
“Is he like Damian?”
Marco smiled slightly.
“No.”
“What’s he like?”
“Talks too much.”
“That sounds healthier.”
Marco laughed.
Then his smile vanished.
Someone stepped into the road ahead.
A man wearing a Vale security jacket.
Marco lowered his window slightly.
“What happened?”
The man approached.
“Boss wants the girl brought inside.”
Lily immediately frowned.
“Damian said I stay here.”
“He changed his mind.”
Marco reached for his radio.
Static.
The man outside moved closer.
“Communications are down.”
Lily’s heart accelerated.
Something was wrong.
Marco must have felt it too.
His hand moved toward his weapon.
The man fired first.
The window exploded inward.
Marco collapsed against the steering wheel.
Lily screamed.
The door opened beside her.
Someone grabbed her arm.
She kicked wildly.
“Get off me!”
A cloth covered her mouth.
She bit through it.
The man cursed.
Lily drove her elbow backward.
Another attacker appeared.
Together they dragged her from the SUV.
She saw Marco moving weakly inside.
Alive.
Thank God.
“Let me go!”
The attacker twisted her wrist.
“Stop fighting.”
Lily kicked his knee.
He nearly fell.
“You little—”
A third man emerged from the warehouse.
Older.
Gray coat.
Sharp face.
He looked at Lily almost with curiosity.
“So,” he said.
“Michael’s daughter finally returns to the Vale family.”
Lily stopped fighting.
“What?”
The man smiled.
“You really don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Your mother hid you well.”
Lily stared at him.
“Who are you?”
“Victor Romano.”
The name struck her from Damian’s conversations.
Romano shipment.
Romano territory.
Victor stepped closer.
“You drove forty miles to return a briefcase.”
He laughed softly.
“Your mother would appreciate the irony.”
“You knew my mother?”
“Oh, yes.”
Lily felt cold.
“What happened to Michael Vale?”
Victor studied her.
“Wouldn’t you rather ask what happened to Evelyn?”
Lily’s breath caught.
“My mother died of cancer.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“No, Lily.”
He leaned closer.
“Your mother was murdered.”
The world went silent.
“No.”
“She discovered who betrayed Michael.”
“You’re lying.”
“And that person has been standing beside you all night.”
Lily shook her head.
Victor smiled again.
“Damian Vale knows far more about your mother’s death than he told you.”
Before Lily could respond, gunfire erupted from the warehouse.
Victor’s men turned.
Damian’s voice thundered somewhere in the darkness.
“LILY!”
Victor grabbed her.
A gun pressed against her ribs.
May you like
“Now,” he whispered, “we find out whether Damian values the truth more than he values you.”
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