Chapter 5 - The Man Roman Trusted
Roman had trusted Victor Mercer for thirty-one years.
That was what made betrayal difficult.
Not the act.
The history before it.
Victor had taught Roman to drive.
To negotiate.
To recognize when a man at a conference table was lying.
When Roman's adoptive father died, Victor helped him stabilize the companies.
He had been adviser.
Uncle.
Family.
And apparently, according to Elaine Bennett, something else.
The man who had spent decades hiding Roman's identity.
They didn't confront him immediately.
That was Lydia's idea.
“You're angry.”
Roman looked toward her from the passenger seat.
They were parked outside Margaret's brownstone.
“I don't get angry.”
“You're crushing your phone.”
Roman looked down.
The metal frame was bending beneath his grip.
He loosened his fingers.
Lydia lifted an eyebrow.
“Very emotionally balanced.”
For some reason, Roman laughed.
It was the first real laugh she'd heard from him.
Short.
Quiet.
Unexpected.
The sound changed his entire face.
Lydia looked away too quickly.
That bothered her.
A great deal.
Because learning the terrifying Roman Mercer might secretly belong to her family should have eliminated every inappropriate flicker of attraction.
Instead it had made everything confusing.
Roman noticed her discomfort.
“You're worried we're related.”
Lydia nearly choked.
“Excuse me?”
“You've been avoiding looking at me since your father said it.”
“I am trying to process my life.”
“You looked at me constantly before.”
“I absolutely did not.”
“You did.”
“You are unbearably arrogant.”
Roman's faint smile returned.
Then disappeared.
“We aren't siblings.”
“How do you know?”
“I don't.”
“Then that's not reassuring.”
“We'll verify it.”
They did.
Quietly.
Roman's physician arranged genetic testing using Elaine's preserved hair from an old family keepsake Gary still possessed and Roman's DNA.
The preliminary relationship analysis came back the following afternoon.
Roman was not Elaine Bennett's son.
Lydia was not his sister.
But something else appeared.
Roman shared paternal genetic markers with Gary Bennett's family line.
A distant but unmistakable connection.
Roman's biological father had been a Bennett.
Not Gary.
Gary's older brother.
Daniel Bennett.
A man Lydia had been told died before she was born.
Roman read the report twice.
“My father was Daniel Bennett.”
Gary nodded slowly.
“I think so.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Elaine?”
“Eventually.”
The implications became clear.
Daniel Bennett had been a co-owner of the maritime company that later became Mercer Maritime.
When Daniel disappeared, Victor Mercer falsified records transferring his stake.
Then Roman, Daniel's infant son, somehow ended up being raised as a Mercer.
The perfect solution.
Take the heir.
Erase the father.
Control both.
Lydia felt ill.
“Where is Daniel?”
Gary closed his eyes.
“Nobody knows.”
Roman's face became unreadable.
Lydia understood the question he wasn't asking.
Was Daniel dead?
Had Victor caused it?
There was no proof.
And that mattered.
Because Lydia refused to let suspicion become certainty.
“We find documents,” she said.
Roman looked at her.
“We don't accuse anybody until we know.”
“You sound like a lawyer.”
“I restore paper. Paper has fewer emotional breakdowns.”
“Usually.”
The key from Elaine's letter led them to a safe-deposit box.
Inside were three things.
Daniel Bennett's original partnership agreement.
Roman's birth certificate.
And a recorded statement from Elaine.
Lydia pressed play.
Her mother's voice filled the small private bank room.
Older than Lydia remembered.
Tired.
But unmistakably hers.
“If you're hearing this, then I failed to finish what Daniel started.”
Lydia gripped the table.
Roman sat beside her.
Elaine explained everything.
Daniel Bennett discovered Victor Mercer had been siphoning money through shell companies.
Daniel threatened to expose him.
Then Daniel vanished.
Isabella Mercer secretly took Daniel's infant son, Roman, and raised him as her own to protect him.
But Victor later discovered Roman's identity.
He couldn't remove Roman without creating suspicion.
So instead he shaped him.
Mentored him.
Kept him close.
Controlled the companies through him.
Until Roman became too powerful to control.
Elaine had hidden the proof.
Carter Voss eventually learned portions of the story and tried to obtain the documents for leverage.
That explained Lydia.
The false debt.
Tyler.
Everything.
Then Elaine's recording changed.
“There is one thing Roman must understand.”
Roman leaned closer.
“Victor didn't steal Daniel Bennett's company because he wanted money.”
Lydia looked at Roman.
“He wanted something Daniel had discovered.”
The recording crackled.
“A private ledger documenting decades of fraudulent transactions involving people far beyond the Mercer family.”
Roman's face hardened.
Elaine continued.
“I hid that ledger where Victor would never search.”
Lydia held her breath.
Her mother's final words arrived.
“I gave it to Gary.”
Lydia slowly turned toward her father.
Gary Bennett went white.
Roman stood.
“You said you didn't know where it was.”
Gary began backing away.
“I didn't.”
“Elaine says otherwise.”
“I forgot.”
Lydia almost laughed from disbelief.
“You forgot about evidence people have been searching for twenty-seven years?”
Gary's eyes filled with tears.
Then he whispered something neither expected.
“I didn't forget.”
Roman's voice became quiet.
“Where is it?”
Gary looked at Lydia.
“I sold it.”
Her stomach dropped.
“To whom?”
Gary swallowed.
“Carter Voss.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Lydia stared at her father.
“When?”
May you like
Gary's answer destroyed the room.
“Three weeks ago.”
