Chapter 3 - My Brother’s Secret
Roman didn’t move.
Grant did.
He lunged toward me.
Luca stopped him before he made two steps.
“Liar!” Grant shouted.
Roman’s voice remained quiet.
“Let him go.”
Luca hesitated.
“Boss?”
“Let him go.”
Grant straightened his jacket.
Roman stepped between us.
“Now try again.”
Grant didn’t.
Roman looked at me.
“Explain.”
I walked toward the desk.
“Your brother’s death started the war, but Grant was already stealing from our father. He needed chaos to hide it.”
Grant shook his head.
“She’s making this up.”
“You contacted someone inside Roman’s organization,” I continued. “You gave them the route.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“I never found the name.”
Grant laughed nervously.
“Convenient.”
“But I found the payments.”
Silence.
Roman turned toward him.
“What payments?”
“Three transfers made through shell companies two weeks before the ambush.”
“Where are the records?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
I looked at Grant.
He knew.
His eyes filled with something I had waited years to see.
Panic.
“Evelyn,” he whispered.
I smiled.
“Now you care.”
He stepped toward me.
“Whatever you think you know—”
“I know everything.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You paid someone to betray Roman’s brother. Then you convinced Dad that Roman had attacked us first.”
Roman’s hands curled.
Grant pointed at me.
“She’s insane.”
I didn’t react.
He continued.
“She’s always been unstable. Ask anyone.”
Roman looked at him.
“I already know what you do to people who disagree with you.”
Grant’s face reddened.
“This marriage was supposed to end the war.”
“It did.”
Roman walked around the desk.
“Unfortunately for you, I’ve discovered another problem.”
“You can’t touch me.”
Roman raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
“Because the agreement protects me.”
Roman looked at Luca.
“Does it?”
Luca almost smiled.
“No.”
Grant stared at me.
“You planned this.”
“No.”
For once, the truth was satisfying.
“I thought Roman would hurt me.”
Roman’s gaze shifted toward me.
Grant laughed.
“You see? She knows what you are.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
He walked toward Grant.
“But there’s a difference between us.”
Grant swallowed.
“I don’t pretend to love the people I hurt.”
The room went silent.
Roman turned to me.
“Where are the records?”
I hesitated.
“Evelyn.”
“Westchester.”
“The Mercer estate?”
I nodded.
“Dad’s study.”
Grant actually laughed.
“I tore that room apart.”
“I know.”
“Then there’s nothing there.”
“You searched his safe.”
“Yes.”
“You searched the walls.”
“Yes.”
“The floor?”
Grant’s smile vanished.
I looked at Roman.
“My mother played piano.”
Roman waited.
“She died when I was fourteen. After that, nobody touched her Steinway.”
Grant stared at me.
“No.”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
The documents were hidden inside the piano.
Roman called for cars.
Grant was confined to a guest room under guard.
Twenty minutes later, Roman and I were heading toward Westchester with Luca and four security vehicles.
Inside the car, Roman was silent.
Finally, I asked, “What happens if I’m right?”
“To Grant?”
“Yes.”
“That depends on what the records prove.”
“And me?”
Roman looked at me.
“What about you?”
“You married me for revenge.”
“I did.”
“Your revenge was based on a lie.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
He studied me.
“You want out.”
I looked through the window.
“I want a choice.”
Roman was quiet for several seconds.
Then he said, “You have one.”
I turned.
“When this is finished, if you want an annulment, you’ll have it.”
I hadn’t expected that.
“No conditions?”
“One.”
“There it is.”
His eyes held mine.
“You don’t disappear until Grant can’t reach you.”
“Protective already?”
“Practical.”
“Of course.”
But something had changed.
We both knew it.
At the Mercer estate, dust covered my father’s study.
The piano remained exactly where it had stood during my childhood.
Roman watched as I knelt beside it.
My hands shook.
“You remember how to open it?” he asked.
“Yes.”
I removed the lower panel.
Nothing.
My heart sank.
Roman crouched beside me.
“Evelyn?”
“It should be here.”
Then I noticed scratches around one screw.
Fresh scratches.
Someone had already opened it.
Roman saw them too.
“Luca.”
His security chief entered.
“Someone beat us here.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Roman stood instantly.
One of his guards appeared.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found someone downstairs.”
“Who?”
The guard looked at me.
“Your brother’s attorney.”
My stomach tightened.
Roman asked, “Alive?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He says Grant sent him here yesterday.”
I looked at Roman.
Roman’s face darkened.
Grant had known.
May you like
And whatever had been hidden inside that piano was gone.
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