Chapter 2 - The Secret Daughter My Dead Sister Left Behind
I took Lily to my private residence under heavy protection.
No one else entered.
Not even Nolan.
Especially not Nolan.
The little girl sat at the kitchen island with a mug of hot chocolate between her hands.
She looked about seven years old.
Small.
Thin.
Too observant for her age.
She kept checking the doors.
Children were not supposed to know where the exits were.
Children were supposed to ask for cartoons.
Not ask whether the guards outside were armed.
I sat across from her.
“How old are you?”
“Seven.”
“Full name?”
“Lily Anna Mercer.”
“Mercer?”
She nodded.
“That's my mother's name.”
I stared at her.
“Your mother didn't use Vance?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She said our name was dangerous.”
I understood immediately.
“Did your mother ever talk about me?”
“All the time.”
“What did she say?”
Lily smiled faintly.
“She said you were stubborn.”
I almost laughed.
“That sounds like Anna.”
“She said you looked scary.”
“She wasn't wrong.”
Lily shook her head.
“She said you weren't scary to people you loved.”
I went silent.
Anna had always known me better than anyone.
She had been my opposite.
Where I was cold, she was warm.
Where I trusted slowly, she trusted too quickly.
When our parents died, she had been 15.
I had been 19.
I became her protector.
Then she disappeared.
The official story said she died in a car accident.
I had never fully believed it.
But grief had taught me not to dig into graves.
Now a child was sitting in my kitchen telling me she was Anna's daughter.
I asked,
“Show me something that belonged to your mother.”
Lily reached into her backpack.
She pulled out a small velvet pouch.
Inside was a silver locket.
I knew it instantly.
I had given that locket to Anna on her sixteenth birthday.
My initials were engraved on the back.
C.V.
My fingers trembled.
I opened it.
Inside was a faded photograph.
Anna.
Me.
Our mother.
There was one more thing.
A folded paper.
I opened it.
Caleb,
If Lily has reached you, it means I am dead or close to it.
Trust no one.
Not Marcus.
Not Leon.
Not Adrian.
And especially not Nolan.
My chest tightened.
Anna had named every man in my inner circle.
Then the final line.
The poison was never meant to kill you at dinner.
It was meant to make you look dead before the real attack begins.
I looked up.
“Lily.”
“Yes?”
“Did your mother tell you who killed her?”
She nodded.
“Not his name.”
“Then what?”
“A symbol.”
“What symbol?”
She drew a circle on a napkin.
Inside it, she drew a black crow.
I knew it.
The Crow.
A legendary figure in Chicago's underground.
A man who had never shown his face.
Every criminal organization had stories about him.
A broker.
A strategist.
A ghost.
People said he controlled conflicts without ever firing a shot.
I had always assumed he was a myth.
Apparently my sister hadn't.
I called Leon.
“Find everything connected to a black crow.”
He nodded.
Marcus entered.
“You really think Anna survived all these years?”
I turned toward him.
“You knew about her?”
He froze.
That was enough.
“You knew.”
Marcus sat.
“She contacted me once.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
I stepped toward him.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
“Why?”
“Because she said you would go after the people hunting her.”
“She was right.”
Marcus sighed.
“She said Lily would only be safe if nobody knew she existed.”
“Then why send her now?”
“Maybe she had no choice.”
I looked toward the hallway.
Lily stood there.
“Caleb?”
I knelt.
“What?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“Did my mother tell you about my father?”
I stared.
“No.”
Lily looked down.
“She said you were the only man she trusted to find him.”
My heart sank.
“Do you know who he is?”
She nodded.
“His name is Jack.”
“Jack what?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“No.”
“Then how does your mother know he's your father?”
“She had a picture.”
Lily reached into her backpack.
The photograph showed Anna beside a man.
I didn't recognize him.
But Marcus did.
He went pale.
“Who?”
Marcus whispered,
“Damien Cross.”
My entire body went still.
Damien Cross had once been my closest ally.
He vanished three years ago after stealing millions from one of my operations.
I believed he was dead.
Marcus stared at the photograph.
“He isn't her father.”
Lily frowned.
“My mother said he was.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Then someone lied to Anna.”
Leon came running in.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“A warehouse registered to an old company connected to your father.”
“My father died twenty years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then why is the property active?”
Leon handed me a file.
“Because someone has been paying taxes on it.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
“Anna Vance.”
I stared at the name.
My dead sister had been paying taxes on a property in Chicago for eight years.
We went there before midnight.
The warehouse was empty.
But behind a false wall, we found a room.
Inside were photographs.
Of me.
Of Nolan.
Of Marcus.
Of Leon.
And dozens of photographs of Lily.
Someone had been watching her for years.
There was also a map.
Red lines connected shipping routes.
At the center was a single name.
VANCE.
Underneath:
THE REAL KING.
I looked at Lily.
She was staring at a photograph on the wall.
I followed her gaze.
It was Anna.
Beside her was another woman.
An older woman with dark hair.
Lily whispered,
“That lady was with Mommy when I was little.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
I walked closer.
Then I recognized the face.
My mother's younger sister.
My aunt Clara.
A woman who had supposedly died before I was born.
I touched the photograph.
Three generations of my family had been lying to me.
I turned toward Marcus.
“How deep does this go?”
He looked at me.
“Deeper than you think.”
Then all the lights went out.
May you like
A second later, the emergency lights came on.
Lily was gone.
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