Chapter 2 - The Dictionary Everyone Was Willing to Kill ForToby was not at Mercy Northside.
Raphael discovered that within twelve minutes.
The hospital records had been altered.
The transfer authorization was forged.
The ambulance had been rented under a false company.
Someone had planned the kidnapping carefully.
Dela sat in Raphael's car with both hands clasped together.
“Find him.”
“We will.”
“Not we.”
She looked at him.
“You.”
Raphael nodded.
“Yes.”
She hated how much she trusted the confidence in his voice.
They arrived at a private clinic on the south side.
A doctor met them.
“Tobias isn't here.”
Dela's knees weakened.
Raphael caught her elbow.
“Where did they take him?”
The doctor looked terrified.
“I don't know.”
Raphael's voice became colder.
“Try again.”
“I truly don't.”
Dela stepped forward.
“You saw the transfer record.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what you saw.”
The doctor hesitated.
“A man.”
“What man?”
“Older.”
“Name?”
“I don't know.”
“Anything else?”
“He wore a silver ring.”
Dela froze.
She looked at Raphael.
“Gideon.”
Raphael shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Someone inside the family.”
He made one call.
Within twenty minutes, a name appeared.
Ethan Ror.
Raphael stared at the screen.
“My father's brother.”
“He's alive?”
“Apparently.”
Dela looked at him.
“How many people in your world have died and then come back?”
Raphael almost smiled.
“Too many.”
They tracked Ethan to an old warehouse.
He was gone.
But a message had been left.
Bring the dictionary.
Dela's hand moved to her coat.
Raphael noticed.
“You have it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My father.”
“Then don't let anyone take it.”
“What's inside?”
“I don't know.”
“We should find out.”
They returned to Dela's apartment.
The building was empty.
Doors broken.
Furniture overturned.
Toby's room had been searched.
Dela stood in the doorway.
Her childhood photographs were scattered.
She picked up one.
Her father holding her at age five.
Her mother beside them.
Dela's throat tightened.
Raphael stood quietly behind her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
She sat on the floor.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“I know.”
“My father changed after that.”
“How?”
“He became paranoid.”
“Because he knew someone was watching.”
“Yes.”
Dela pulled out the dictionary.
“We should open it.”
The leather cover was old.
The pages looked ordinary.
Then Dela remembered something.
A loose thread near the spine.
She pulled it.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny metal key.
A microfilm strip.
And a letter.
Her hands shook.
She opened it.
My dearest Dela,
If you are reading this, then I did not get the chance to explain.
Tears blurred the page.
Trust no man who tells you he can protect you.
She looked at Raphael.
Then continued.
Except the man who asks you to protect yourself first.
Dela stared.
Below was another line.
The key opens the room beneath the old Castellanos chapel.
Raphael read over her shoulder.
“My family's chapel.”
Dela looked at him.
“You know what's there?”
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
They drove through the storm.
The chapel had been abandoned for twenty years.
Snow covered the steps.
Raphael found the keyhole beneath the altar.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with ledgers.
Documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
The truth.
Dela's father had been part of a secret alliance.
He had worked with Raphael's mother.
Camille's mother.
And Gideon Marsh's father.
They had created a legitimate investment network designed to protect small businesses from predatory financiers.
Then money corrupted it.
Gideon wanted control.
Ethan wanted power.
Victor Ror wanted the entire network.
And Dela's father discovered them all.
He tried to expose them.
They tried to kill him.
He disappeared.
But he left the trust.
And the trust belonged to Dela.
Raphael found a recording.
A woman appeared.
His mother.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Raphael, if you are seeing this, don't trust your father.”
Raphael stopped breathing.
His mother continued.
“He will tell you the trust was stolen.”
“He will say Dela's father betrayed us.”
“It's a lie.”
Raphael sat down.
Dela touched his shoulder.
“What happened?”
“My mother knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That my father was corrupt.”
The recording continued.
“The only person who can expose him is Matteo Delaor's daughter.”
Dela froze.
“Me.”
Raphael nodded.
The recording ended.
Then another voice came from behind them.
“Yes.”
They turned.
Gideon Marsh stood in the doorway.
Dela stepped back.
“Where's my brother?”
Gideon smiled.
“Alive.”
“Bring him here.”
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
He raised a phone.
A video showed Toby tied to a chair.
Dela's heart broke.
“Toby!”
His eyes opened.
“Dela?”
She stepped forward.
Gideon stopped her.
“Key.”
She looked down.
The key was in her hand.
Raphael whispered:
“Don't.”
Dela looked at him.
“What?”
“It's what he wants.”
Gideon smiled.
“She understands.”
Dela squeezed the key.
Then she dropped it.
It landed on the floor.
Gideon's smile vanished.
“What did you do?”
Dela stepped back.
“I learned something.”
“What?”
“My father never told me to surrender.”
She looked directly at him.
“He taught me to translate.”
Gideon frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Dela smiled.
“It means you should have read the whole letter.”
She lifted the microfilm.
“The key was a decoy.”
Gideon's face went white.
“What did you activate?”
Dela answered:
“The original trust.”
Every light in the underground chamber turned on.
Cameras.
Screens.
Recording devices.
Gideon's face appeared on every monitor.
His own words from previous meetings.
Every threat.
Every confession.
Every illegal transaction.
Raphael looked at Dela.
She smiled.
“My father taught me well.”
Sirens approached.
Gideon looked at the exits.
He realized there was nowhere to run.
But before police entered, he smiled.
“You think this ends me?”
Dela stared.
“No.”
Gideon laughed.
“It starts something worse.”
He looked at Raphael.
“Ask your father about the child.”
Then he disappeared into the chaos.
Raphael turned.
“What child?”
Dela didn't know.
May you like
Neither did he.
But somewhere in the city, another secret had already begun moving.
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