Chapter 3 - The File With Her Name on It
Bella refused to enter Blake’s SUV.
“Bella.”
“No.”
“We shouldn’t remain exposed.”
“Then start talking.”
Blake glanced around the garage.
“Not here.”
“You’ve had eight months.”
His jaw tightened.
Bryce remained several steps away.
Bella held up the photograph.
“You had me followed.”
“For your protection.”
“I didn’t know I needed protection.”
“That was intentional.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Because you sound insane.”
Bryce almost smiled.
Blake shot him a look.
The smile vanished.
Bella pointed toward Bryce.
“And apparently he knows more about my life than I do.”
“Get in the car.”
“No.”
“Bella.”
“No.”
Blake stepped closer.
His voice softened.
“Someone accessed your home address last night.”
That silenced her.
“If you want to hate me,” he continued, “do it somewhere secure.”
Bella looked at the photograph again.
Finally, she entered the SUV.
Blake followed.
Bryce took the front passenger seat.
The privacy partition rose.
Bella turned immediately.
“Start.”
Blake loosened his tie slightly.
“Nine months ago, Romano’s organization experienced an internal leak.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“A ledger disappeared.”
Bella waited.
Blake continued.
“The ledger contained names, payments, shell companies, officials, properties—information capable of destroying half of Romano’s operation.”
“And?”
“Three days after it disappeared, intelligence indicated Romano was searching for several people.”
Blake looked directly at her.
“Your name was one.”
Bella laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the alternative was panic.
“That’s impossible.”
“I thought so too.”
“I’m an administrative assistant.”
“An exceptionally capable one.”
“Blake.”
He leaned forward.
“Did your father ever mention Vincent Romano?”
Bella’s expression changed.
“My father died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“Of course you know.”
Blake ignored the accusation.
“What did he do?”
“He was an accountant.”
“For?”
“Different companies.”
“Names?”
Bella tried to remember.
Her father had rarely discussed work.
He had been quiet.
Methodical.
Protective.
And frequently worried during the final year of his life.
“He did consulting.”
“For whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Blake and Bryce exchanged a look.
Bella caught it.
“What?”
Bryce answered.
“Your father worked for Romano.”
The world seemed to tilt.
“No.”
“Indirectly,” Bryce said. “Through a financial services company.”
Bella shook her head.
“He would have told me.”
“Maybe he was trying to protect you,” Blake said.
Bella stared out the window.
Memories surfaced.
Her father locking his study.
Late-night phone calls.
Arguments she could never hear clearly.
The strange fear in his eyes during the months before his death.
“He died in a car accident.”
Neither man spoke.
Bella slowly turned back.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Blake’s face revealed nothing.
“Because we’re not certain it was an accident.”
Bella’s stomach dropped.
“No.”
“Bella—”
“No.”
She moved toward the door despite the moving vehicle.
Blake caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
“Let go.”
He immediately did.
That surprised her.
She pressed herself against the opposite seat.
“You knew this?”
“I suspected.”
“For eight months?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I had no proof.”
“You hired me because of my father.”
“I hired you because keeping you where I could protect you was safer.”
Bella laughed bitterly.
“Protect me? You manipulated my entire life.”
“I gave you a job.”
“You put surveillance on me.”
“Because Romano had already done the same.”
That stopped her.
“What?”
Blake’s voice became quieter.
“When we first noticed your name, Romano already had photographs of you.”
Bella looked at the picture in her hand.
“This is theirs?”
“A copy.”
Her anger suddenly collided with fear.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why now? Why access my personnel file?”
Blake’s eyes shifted toward the window.
“Because something changed.”
“What?”
“The missing ledger resurfaced.”
Bella stared.
“Where?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Blake held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Bella.”
“It’s my phone.”
The ringing stopped.
A message arrived.
Bella looked down.
Her face drained of color.
Blake saw it.
“What?”
She turned the screen toward him.
ASK CARUSO WHAT YOUR FATHER GAVE HIM BEFORE HE DIED.
Bella looked at Blake.
He didn’t appear confused.
He appeared angry.
And guilty.
Her voice shook.
“What did my father give you?”
Blake said nothing.
“Answer me.”
Bryce turned around.
“Boss.”
“Not now.”
Bella’s eyes burned.
“What did he give you?”
Blake slowly reached inside his jacket.
He removed a key.
Small.
Old.
Brass.
Bella recognized it instantly.
Her father had worn that key on a chain around his neck for years.
She hadn’t seen it since the day he died.
Bella stared at Blake.
“How do you have that?”
“Your father gave it to me.”
“When?”
“The night before his accident.”
Her chest tightened.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“You looked me in the face every day for eight months and never told me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because his final request was that I keep you away from this world.”
Bella’s voice cracked.
“You are this world.”
Something painful flashed across Blake’s face.
“I know.”
The SUV entered the underground garage beneath Caruso Holdings.
Nobody moved after it stopped.
Bella stared at the key.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve had six years.”
“Your father said I’d know when the time came.”
“And you think that time is now?”
Blake looked at the message on her phone.
“Yes.”
They returned upstairs.
Bella spent the next hour in Blake’s private office while Bryce coordinated security.
She barely heard them.
Her father had known Blake.
Her father had worked for Romano.
Her father might have been murdered.
Everything she believed about her life had shifted in less than a day.
Blake placed a glass of water before her.
Bella didn’t touch it.
“You should eat.”
“Stop trying to take care of me.”
“I’m not particularly good at stopping.”
She looked at him.
“Why did my father trust you?”
Blake was silent.
Then he sat across from her.
“Because once, a long time ago, I owed him my life.”
Bella frowned.
“How?”
“Romano discovered someone was moving money out of his accounts. He blamed me.”
“You worked for Romano?”
“My family and his had business connections.”
Blake’s voice hardened.
“Your father found the real thief and proved I had nothing to do with it. Romano would have killed me otherwise.”
Bella looked at the key.
“And years later?”
“Your father came to me terrified. He said he had discovered something Romano could never allow to become public.”
“The ledger.”
“I assume so.”
“Why didn’t he give it to you?”
“He said possessing it would make me a target.”
Bella laughed bitterly.
“You already sound like a target.”
“I was twenty-six and considerably less patient.”
Despite herself, Bella almost smiled.
Then the office door opened.
Bryce entered.
“We found something.”
He placed a tablet on the desk.
Security footage appeared.
A man wearing a maintenance uniform entered the building at 2:13 that morning.
He used an employee credential.
Bella leaned closer.
“Who is that?”
“We don’t know,” Bryce said.
The footage changed.
The man entered the records room.
Then another camera captured him leaving twenty minutes later.
But before he disappeared, he looked directly at the camera.
Bella’s blood turned cold.
She knew him.
Blake noticed.
“You recognize him.”
Bella couldn’t speak.
“Bella?”
She pointed toward the screen.
“That man came to my father’s funeral.”
Blake stood.
“What?”
“He introduced himself as one of Dad’s old coworkers.”
“Name?”
Bella searched her memory.
Then it came back.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Bryce immediately began typing.
Seconds later his expression changed.
“There’s no Daniel Mercer matching that description.”
Blake moved beside him.
“Run facial recognition.”
Bryce did.
The result appeared.
A name.
Bella read it aloud.
“Anthony Romano.”
Blake’s face hardened.
Bryce looked at Bella.
“Vincent Romano’s younger brother.”
Bella felt sick.
Then Bryce’s computer chimed.
Another file had appeared.
A scanned document.
He opened it.
Bella recognized her father’s handwriting.
At the top were five words:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME.
Below that was a single instruction.
Bella knows where the ledger is. She just doesn’t know that she knows.
Bella stared at the sentence.
May you like
And somewhere deep inside her memory, a door she had kept closed for six years began to open.
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