Chapter 4 - The Lie Beneath the Name
Lydia didn't open the door.
Not immediately.
Roman knocked once more.
“Lydia.”
Gary grabbed her wrist.
She pulled away.
“Don't.”
“You don't understand.”
“No, Dad. That's becoming painfully obvious.”
She opened the door.
Roman stood alone in the hallway.
No entourage.
No threatening posture.
Dark coat.
Rain on his shoulders.
His gaze went first to Lydia.
Then Gary.
Something changed.
“Gary.”
Gary stepped backward.
Roman entered only after Lydia moved aside.
“You followed me.”
“No.”
“Then how did you know I was here?”
“Your father called Carter Voss twelve minutes after you left Bellamy's.”
Lydia turned toward Gary.
“You called Carter?”
Gary looked trapped.
Roman continued.
“Carter then called someone inside Mercer Maritime.”
“Who?”
“My chief financial officer.”
Roman's jaw tightened.
“That means the problem is closer to me than I thought.”
Lydia didn't care about Mercer Maritime.
Not yet.
She looked directly at Roman.
“My father says you're my brother.”
Roman went completely still.
For the first time since Lydia met him, his composure fractured.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“You said what?” he asked Gary.
Gary swallowed.
“I told her what Elaine believed.”
Roman's eyes returned to Lydia.
“And what did Elaine believe?”
“That you're a Bennett.”
Silence.
Roman slowly removed his coat.
Not because he was staying.
Because he suddenly seemed to need something to do with his hands.
“My mother was Isabella Mercer.”
“Are you sure?”
Roman's stare sharpened.
“Yes.”
Gary shook his head.
“Elaine wasn't.”
Roman approached him.
No threat.
No raised voice.
Somehow the room still became smaller.
“Explain.”
Gary finally did.
Elaine Bennett had discovered irregular adoption paperwork from thirty-eight years earlier.
A baby registered under a private Manhattan clinic.
Male.
Birth mother unidentified.
Legal guardian transferred to Alessandro Mercer and Isabella Mercer.
The child's original surname had been partially redacted.
But Elaine believed she had reconstructed it.
Bennett.
Roman listened without moving.
Lydia watched him.
This wasn't the powerful man from Bellamy's anymore.
For a few seconds he looked like somebody whose childhood had just developed a hidden door.
“Where are the records?” Roman asked.
“Elaine hid them.”
“With the certificate?”
“I think so.”
Roman looked at Lydia.
She already understood.
“The backing.”
He nodded.
The stolen maritime document.
The hidden layer.
Whatever Elaine had discovered had been concealed inside the restoration piece Lydia unknowingly handled.
Which meant Carter hadn't manipulated Gary because of Lydia's appearance.
Or even because Tyler wanted her.
He needed access to the person who had physically touched the evidence.
Lydia thought back through every restoration step.
Humidity chamber.
Japanese tissue.
Paste.
Backing.
Then she remembered.
One small thing.
Something she had dismissed at the time.
“Margaret.”
Roman frowned.
“My restoration mentor.”
“What about her?”
“When the document arrived, there was an envelope attached to the crate.”
“Addressed to whom?”
“Not Margaret.”
Lydia's pulse accelerated.
“It was addressed to me.”
Roman stared.
“What did it say?”
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Margaret said it had been included by mistake.”
Gary stood abruptly.
“No.”
Both looked at him.
Gary's face was pale.
“Elaine arranged that.”
Lydia slowly turned.
“My dead mother mailed me something ten years later?”
“No.”
Gary swallowed.
“She left instructions.”
Roman's expression sharpened.
“To whom?”
Gary whispered.
“Margaret Hale.”
Lydia's heart fell.
Margaret had known her mother.
For six months she'd said nothing.
“Where is the envelope?” Roman asked.
Lydia already had her phone out.
She called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Roman picked up his own phone.
“Give me the address.”
“No.”
“Lydia.”
“I'm going.”
“So am I.”
“I don't need—”
“Yes,” Gary interrupted.
Lydia stared at him.
Her father looked more frightened than before.
“You do.”
Twenty minutes later, Lydia and Roman stood outside Margaret's brownstone.
The front door was unlocked.
Roman stopped Lydia before she entered.
He went first.
The lights were on.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
No broken furniture.
No obvious signs of trouble.
“Margaret?” Lydia called.
No response.
They reached the restoration room.
The table was empty.
Except for one envelope.
Lydia's name was written across it.
In handwriting she recognized immediately.
Her mother's.
Her fingers shook.
Roman noticed.
This time he didn't comment on her hands.
He simply stood beside her.
Lydia opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter.
And a key.
She unfolded the paper.
The first sentence made her stop.
Lydia, if Roman Mercer is standing beside you when you read this, then I was wrong about him.
Roman looked at her.
Lydia continued.
And if I was wrong about Roman, then the person you must fear is the man who taught him everything.
Roman's face changed.
He already knew the answer.
Lydia whispered:
“Who taught you everything?”
Roman stared at the letter.
“My uncle.”
“Name?”
“Victor Mercer.”
Then Lydia reached the final line.
May you like
Her mother's warning was brutally simple.
Victor knows Roman is not his brother's son.
