Chapter 3 - Someone Inside the Family
By sunrise, the Romano estate had become a fortress.
Damian doubled security.
No deliveries entered unchecked.
No employee moved through the house without clearance.
Claire hated every second of it.
“This isn’t living,” she said.
Damian stood beside the dining room windows.
“It’s temporary.”
“You have armed guards outside Sophie’s bedroom.”
“Yes.”
“She asked me if she was a prisoner.”
“That guard took a bullet for me in Chicago.”
“That doesn’t make him less terrifying to a four-year-old.”
Damian turned.
“What would you have me do?”
“Talk to her.”
“I’m not good with children.”
Claire raised an eyebrow.
“She seems to disagree.”
As if summoned, Sophie appeared.
She carried two plastic tea cups.
“Uncle Damian.”
Damian looked at Claire.
She smiled.
“You’re being called.”
Sophie climbed onto a chair.
“We having tea.”
“I have a meeting.”
“No.”
Damian blinked.
“No?”
“You have tea.”
Claire bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.
Damian checked his watch.
“I can give you five minutes.”
Sophie frowned.
“Ten.”
“Seven.”
“Okay.”
Claire stared.
“Did you just negotiate with a preschooler?”
Damian sat.
“She’s a Romano.”
The moment of normalcy lasted thirty seconds.
Then Vincent Romano entered.
Damian’s uncle was sixty-two, silver-haired and impeccably dressed.
He stopped when he saw Claire.
Then Sophie.
His smile vanished.
“Damian.”
“Uncle.”
Vincent looked at the child.
“So it’s true.”
Claire immediately moved closer to Sophie.
Damian noticed.
Vincent approached.
“She has Lucas’s eyes.”
Sophie stared at him.
“Who are you?”
“Vincent Romano.”
“Are you my uncle too?”
Vincent smiled faintly.
“Great-uncle.”
Sophie frowned.
“That sounds old.”
Damian almost choked on his coffee.
Vincent ignored it.
He turned toward Claire.
“You should have contacted us.”
“Lucas told me not to.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Lucas was confused after the shooting.”
“You knew he survived?”
Silence.
Damian slowly stood.
“What did you say?”
Vincent realized his mistake.
Too late.
Damian’s voice changed.
“You knew.”
Vincent sighed.
“Not immediately.”
“How long?”
“Damian—”
“How long?”
Vincent looked at him.
“Six months.”
Claire stepped backward.
Damian did not move.
“You knew my brother was alive for six months.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From Lucas.”
Damian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My dead brother?”
“He became paranoid.”
Claire snapped, “He was being hunted.”
Vincent looked at her.
“You knew him for two years. I knew him his entire life.”
“And apparently abandoned him.”
Vincent’s eyes flashed.
Damian stepped between them.
“Explain.”
Vincent took a slow breath.
“Lucas discovered financial irregularities inside the organization.”
“What irregularities?”
“Money disappearing.”
“How much?”
“Millions.”
“Who was responsible?”
“We never found out.”
Damian stared.
“And Lucas believed the thief arranged his shooting?”
“Yes.”
“Why hide that from me?”
“Because Lucas suspected everyone.”
“Including you?”
Vincent said nothing.
Damian understood.
“Yes.”
Claire looked at Vincent differently.
“You were the man closest to Damian.”
Vincent turned.
“What?”
“Lucas’s warning.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
Claire said, “Before he died, Lucas told me not to trust the man closest to Damian.”
Vincent looked stunned.
Then angry.
“You think that means me?”
“I think it could.”
Vincent stepped forward.
Damian stopped him with one look.
“Enough.”
Sophie had become very quiet.
Damian saw fear in her face.
His voice softened immediately.
“Sophie.”
She looked at him.
“Go upstairs with your mother.”
“Are you going to fight?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Damian looked at Vincent.
“Promise.”
After Claire and Sophie left, Damian closed the doors.
Then he turned toward his uncle.
“Start at the beginning.”
Vincent sat.
Seven years earlier, someone had been stealing from Romano businesses through fake shipping contracts.
Lucas discovered it.
Before he could expose the person, his car was attacked.
Everyone believed he died.
But Vincent learned six months later that Lucas had survived.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Damian asked again.
“Because I received a message.”
Vincent removed an old folded paper from his wallet.
Damian read it.
IF DAMIAN LEARNS LUCAS IS ALIVE, BOTH BROTHERS DIE.
Damian looked up.
“Who sent this?”
“I never knew.”
“You kept this for seven years?”
“Yes.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I was trying to save you.”
“You robbed me of two years with my brother.”
Vincent’s expression broke.
“I know.”
Damian walked toward the window.
“Where was Lucas when you found him?”
“A clinic in Queens.”
“Did you visit?”
“Once.”
“What did he say?”
Vincent looked toward the door.
“He asked me whether you had changed your security chief.”
Damian turned sharply.
“Security chief?”
“Yes.”
“At the time…”
They both knew.
Anthony Vescari had controlled Romano security before Marco.
The man found dead beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
Damian’s mind moved quickly.
“So Vescari was involved.”
“Probably.”
“But someone killed him last night.”
Vincent nodded.
“Meaning Vescari wasn’t the top.”
Damian’s phone rang.
Marco.
“Talk.”
“We found something in Vescari’s burner phone.”
“What?”
“A scheduled message.”
“To whom?”
“You.”
Damian frowned.
“Read it.”
Marco hesitated.
“Boss, you should see this yourself.”
Thirty minutes later, Damian stood inside the security office.
On the monitor was Vescari’s final recorded video.
His face appeared exhausted.
“If you’re watching this, I’m dead.”
Damian said nothing.
Vescari continued.
“I helped hide Lucas Romano after the shooting.”
Claire entered behind Damian.
The video played on.
“I thought I was protecting him. I was wrong. I was working for the man who ordered the attack.”
Damian leaned forward.
“Give me the name.”
Vescari looked directly into the camera.
“The man who betrayed Lucas is still inside the Romano family.”
Claire grabbed Damian’s arm.
Then Vescari said:
“And he knows the child is alive.”
The screen went black.
Damian slammed his fist against the desk.
“No name.”
Marco looked uncomfortable.
“There’s another file.”
“Play it.”
A photograph appeared.
Sophie outside a playground.
Taken two months earlier.
Before Claire had started working at the estate.
Damian stared.
“They knew about her before she came here.”
Claire whispered, “Then my getting this job…”
“Wasn’t luck.”
Damian turned toward Marco.
“Who approved Claire’s hiring?”
Marco checked.
His face changed.
“What?”
“The application bypassed normal review.”
“Whose authorization?”
Marco looked up.
“Your uncle Vincent’s account.”
Claire went still.
Damian slowly turned toward the doorway.
Vincent was standing there.
May you like
And for the first time in his life, Damian Romano no longer knew whether the man who raised him was family—
or the enemy.
