Chapter 10 - A Name in the Security Log
I remembered every week of my mother’s final illness.
The weight loss.
The exhaustion.
The nausea.
The hospital visits.
The doctors telling us treatment had failed.
Cancer.
That was what we had been told.
Now Sebastian Vale wanted me to believe something else.
“Don’t,” Alexander said.
We were back at the estate.
“Don’t what?”
“Let him rewrite your memories without evidence.”
“What if he’s telling the truth?”
“Then we prove it.”
“And if he killed her?”
Alexander’s eyes turned cold.
“Then he answers for it.”
Not revenge.
Not a threat.
Answers.
Something about that word calmed me.
Dr. Keller arrived under guard.
He looked twenty years older than he had two days before.
His daughter was safe.
Sebastian had released them both.
Which made no sense unless he wanted Keller speaking.
“He told me to tell Claire the truth,” Keller said.
“What truth?”
Keller looked at me.
“Your mother’s cancer was real.”
My shoulders sagged.
Then he continued.
“But somebody accelerated her decline.”
I gripped the chair.
“How?”
“Margaret participated in a clinical pain-management program during her final months.”
I remembered.
A new medication.
Experimental.
Supposedly designed to help her tolerate chemotherapy.
Keller had consulted briefly on the program.
“Sebastian knew which medication she was receiving.”
“Did he alter it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I said her decline was accelerated. Her records showed abnormal levels of a sedative in her blood during the last six weeks.”
My throat closed.
“Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
“The results disappeared from the chart.”
“Who removed them?”
“I tried to find out.”
He looked toward Alexander.
“The electronic log recorded a consultant account.”
“Name.”
Keller hesitated.
“Nathan Cole.”
Alexander’s attorney.
Again.
But Nathan’s recording suggested he had turned against Sebastian.
Was he guilty?
Or had his credentials been used the same way Vincent’s had?
Vincent pulled archived hospital logs.
The access came from Nathan’s account.
But the login location was interesting.
Romano Estate.
Eight years ago.
The night my mother’s record was altered, someone had logged in from Alexander’s home.
“Who was here?” I asked.
Vincent searched old security archives.
Most footage had been overwritten.
Visitor logs remained.
Eight names.
Vittorio Romano.
Sebastian Vale.
Nathan Cole.
Eleanor Calder.
Thomas Reed.
Alexander Romano.
Julian Romano.
And Dr. Keller.
I looked at Alexander.
“You were here?”
“I lived here.”
“How old were you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Do you remember that night?”
“No.”
Julian did.
He entered the room during our discussion.
“Father had one of his ridiculous family dinners.”
Alexander frowned.
“With Sebastian.”
“And Nathan. Keller came because Dad complained about chest pain.”
Eleanor remembered too.
“That was the night Vittorio collapsed.”
Alexander turned.
“What?”
His father had suffered what doctors called a minor cardiac episode.
He recovered.
But from that night onward, Vittorio became convinced someone close to him was trying to kill him.
“He changed after that,” Alexander said quietly.
Vittorio died three years later in what everyone believed was a stroke.
The pattern became impossible to ignore.
My mother.
Vittorio.
Now Alexander.
Three people who threatened Sebastian’s secrets.
Three illnesses that looked natural.
Dr. Keller swallowed hard.
“You need to exhume Vittorio.”
Julian stared.
“You’re serious?”
“If his death involved the same class of medication used against Alexander, there may still be evidence.”
Alexander was silent.
Digging up his father was not merely unpleasant.
It meant confronting the possibility that Vittorio Romano had been murdered while his sons believed he died naturally.
Alexander finally nodded.
“Do it.”
The medical examiner agreed under sealed authority arranged through an attorney Vincent trusted.
Results would take time.
We didn’t have time.
Emily remained with Elena.
Midnight approached.
The shipyard meeting was less than twelve hours away.
Then Vincent discovered a name in the estate security log.
Someone had entered the grounds repeatedly during the months before Alexander became ill.
The visits were hidden under a maintenance company account.
But biometric entry data remained.
The fingerprint belonged to someone we already believed dead.
Sebastian Vale.
He had been entering Alexander’s estate for months.
“How?” Julian asked.
Vincent zoomed into architectural plans.
“Old wine cellar tunnel.”
The same passage where Thomas had been found.
Sebastian could enter without crossing cameras.
Unless someone inside opened the exterior gate.
The log showed exactly who authorized access.
Thomas Reed.
Alexander immediately went to Thomas’s room.
The elderly butler was recovering.
When confronted, he didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
Eleanor looked devastated.
“You let Sebastian inside?”
Thomas’s eyes filled with tears.
“I thought I was protecting Alexander.”
“How?”
“Sebastian threatened Claire.”
I froze.
Thomas explained that Sebastian contacted him months earlier.
He knew Margaret’s daughter had been hired at the estate.
If Thomas refused cooperation, Sebastian promised Claire would disappear.
“So you opened the gate.”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell Alexander?”
“Because Sebastian sent me photographs.”
“What photographs?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Claire leaving work. Claire sleeping. Claire driving. Claire visiting her mother’s grave.”
A chill went through me.
He had watched me for months.
Thomas continued.
“I told Sebastian where Alexander would be. I let him use the passage.”
Alexander’s face hardened.
“Did you switch my medicine?”
“No.”
“Did you know he planned to?”
“No.”
“Then why were you tied in the cellar?”
“Because I finally refused.”
“When?”
“The night Claire stayed beside you.”
Thomas looked at me.
“I heard her talking.”
My embarrassment vanished when he continued.
“I realized Sebastian wasn’t only watching Alexander anymore. He was watching Claire because he understood she mattered to him.”
Alexander said nothing.
Thomas whispered, “I told him I was done.”
Sebastian’s men attacked him.
The pieces finally aligned.
But then Thomas said something unexpected.
“Sebastian never intended Alexander to die this week.”
Keller frowned.
“He ordered me to continue dosing him.”
“To keep him unconscious,” Thomas replied. “Not kill him.”
“Why?”
“Because he needed Alexander alive until the trust transfer.”
Alexander’s gaze sharpened.
“Then who changed the dosage?”
Thomas looked terrified.
“Elena.”
So Elena wasn’t merely trying to steal Gabriel’s inheritance.
She had independently accelerated the poisoning.
Why?
Perhaps she wanted Alexander dead before Sebastian could gain control.
Two conspirators had become enemies.
And Alexander was trapped between them.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
This time I answered immediately.
Emily’s face appeared.
“Uncle Alex?”
Julian grabbed the phone.
“Baby?”
“Daddy!”
Julian’s entire expression broke.
“I’m here.”
“I want to come home.”
“I know.”
Elena took the phone.
“Midnight.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“We’ll be there.”
“One condition has changed.”
“What?”
“Bring Claire.”
Alexander’s eyes darkened.
“No.”
Elena smiled.
“Then Emily stays.”
“Why Claire?”
“Because Claire has something that belongs to me.”
I stared at the screen.
“What?”
Elena looked directly at me.
“The truth about my son.”
The call ended.
Alexander turned toward me.
“You’re not going.”
I picked up my coat.
“Yes, I am.”
“Claire.”
“You said you trusted me.”
“I do.”
“Then trust me now.”
His jaw tightened.
“This isn’t delivering tea.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“It’s bringing a little girl home.”
May you like
And neither Alexander Romano nor all the danger surrounding him was going to make me stay behind.
---
