Chapter 3 - Nora Learned the Woman Behind the Black Rose Had Raised Her for One Summer, and Vincent Had Been Protecting Her From the Truth
The police station was compromised.
Vincent moved Nora to a private estate outside Chicago.
The house belonged to his grandmother.
It had survived decades of violence.
For the first time, Nora understood why.
The walls were thick.
The windows reinforced.
The grounds were enormous.
But she didn't care about the security.
She cared about the question Vincent had avoided.
“What happened to your father?”
He stood beside the fireplace.
“My father was supposed to meet yours.”
“When?”
“The night they disappeared.”
“What happened?”
“I was nineteen.”
“And?”
“He told me to stay away from the harbor.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He had never asked me to do that before.”
Nora waited.
“The next morning, he was gone.”
“Dead?”
“No body.”
“Then why did everyone say he died?”
“To protect me.”
“From what?”
Vincent looked at her.
“From the people who believed he had betrayed them.”
Nora's heart tightened.
“Did he?”
“I don't know.”
The answer hurt.
“But now,” Vincent continued, “I think he was trying to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because he and your father had found the Black Rose.”
Nora whispered:
“Rose.”
“Yes.”
“She wasn't dead.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Gabriel entered.
“We found an old photograph.”
He placed it on the table.
Rose.
Alive.
Three years ago.
In Paris.
Nora stared.
“Why would she be watching me?”
Gabriel pointed to another photograph.
Nora at age five.
Standing beside Rose.
The date was written underneath.
Summer of 2003.
Nora remembered.
A summer at a house near Lake Michigan.
A woman who taught her to paint.
A woman who smelled like roses.
A woman who told her stories about brave little girls.
Rose.
“She raised me for three months.”
Vincent stared.
“You remember?”
“Now.”
Nora's eyes filled.
“She was kind.”
Gabriel frowned.
“That doesn't fit.”
“People aren't one thing.”
Vincent looked at her.
“You believe she isn't evil?”
“I don't know.”
Then another memory surfaced.
Rose whispering to her father:
“Give her to me.”
Her father replied:
“Never.”
Nora's body went cold.
“She wanted to take me.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel found the old records.
Rose had attempted to abduct Nora.
Nora's father stopped her.
Then he disappeared.
But the file contained another line.
Rose believed Nora carried a genetic marker connected to the original Rourke trust.
Vincent stared.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No idea.”
They searched deeper.
Nora's father had been part of a secret family trust.
The trust had been established by Vincent's grandfather and Nora's grandfather.
It connected the two families.
The Black Rose wanted control.
But the key could only be activated by someone from both bloodlines.
Nora.
Vincent.
Together.
Nora whispered:
“That’s why she wants me.”
“Yes.”
“And why she wants you.”
“Yes.”
Then Vincent received a call.
A woman spoke.
“Vincent.”
He froze.
The voice was familiar.
“Who is this?”
“Someone you should have listened to.”
“Rose.”
Nora looked at him.
Rose laughed softly.
“You finally found her.”
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“No.”
“Then your wife.”
Vincent's eyes hardened.
“She stays out of this.”
Rose laughed.
“Everything is already about her.”
The call ended.
A location appeared.
An abandoned church.
Nora looked at Vincent.
“We go.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I won't take you into a trap.”
“She knows where we are.”
“She does.”
“Then waiting won't help.”
He stared at her.
“You're not afraid?”
“I am terrified.”
He touched her cheek.
“Then don't go.”
She shook her head.
“I spent years being afraid of men who told me what I could and couldn't do.”
Her voice softened.
“I'm not doing that anymore.”
Vincent nodded.
“Then we go together.”
The church was empty.
At least it appeared so.
Rose emerged from the shadows.
Older.
Elegant.
Calm.
Nora stared.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vincent's father.”
“Yes.”
“Why did they disappear?”
Rose looked at Vincent.
“Because they were planning to destroy the Crown.”
Vincent's face changed.
“What Crown?”
“The network your family built.”
“Our fathers built it.”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
“I tried to control it.”
Nora whispered:
“Why me?”
Rose looked at her stomach.
“You're carrying the final key.”
Silence.
Vincent stepped in front of Nora.
“You won't touch her.”
Rose smiled.
“I don't need to.”
She held up a photograph.
An ultrasound.
Nora froze.
“You've been watching us.”
“For months.”
Rose continued.
“I know everything.”
Then she gave them the truth.
The child was not the reason she wanted Nora.
The baby was proof that the bloodlines had finally joined.
Vincent's grandfather had designed the original trust so that no single family could control it.
Two descendants.
Two signatures.
One key.
Nora and Vincent.
Rose wanted them to activate it.
Then she could seize everything.
Vincent looked at Nora.
“We destroy it.”
Rose laughed.
“You think you can.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“We will.”
Rose disappeared into the darkness.
Before leaving, she said:
“You still haven't asked where your fathers are.”
Nora's heart stopped.
“They're alive?”
Rose smiled.
“One of them is.”
May you like
Then she was gone.
---
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