Chapter 4 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Elliot Kane had once been Adrian's father's most trusted advisor.
Ten years earlier, he had disappeared.
Officially, he was dead.
Unofficially, Adrian had suspected otherwise.
Kane had helped build the DeLuca empire's financial structure before turning against the family.
He had betrayed Luca DeLuca.
Then he vanished.
And everyone assumed he had been killed.
Adrian didn't.
He had simply never found proof.
Now Vivian's memory gave him the final piece.
“He was there,” she said.
Adrian paced across the room.
“With your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“Did he say your name?”
“He said it wasn't Vivian.”
Adrian stopped.
“What did he call you?”
“I don't remember.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
A girl's voice.
Her mother's voice.
The red door.
Then one word.
“Lia.”
Adrian turned.
Gabriel looked confused.
“Lia?”
“That was my nickname,” Vivian whispered.
“My mother called me Lia.”
Adrian sat down.
“That wasn't a nickname.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“It was an identity.”
He explained.
The Black Rose had created false identities for people they wanted hidden.
Lia Hayes had been the daughter of a woman who never officially existed.
Vivian Hayes was the public identity.
Her real records had been erased.
“Why?”
“To keep Kane from finding you.”
“And what is in the vault?”
Adrian looked at the two halves of the coin.
“Evidence.”
“Against Kane?”
“Against everyone.”
The next morning they went to an abandoned train station beneath Chicago.
Adrian had discovered the location through an old coded message.
The red door was there.
Exactly as Vivian remembered.
Her hands trembled.
“This is it.”
Adrian stood beside her.
“Do you want to go in?”
“No.”
She took a breath.
“Yes.”
The coin opened the door.
Inside was a narrow chamber.
At the center sat an old steel box.
Vivian touched it.
A recording started automatically.
Her mother's voice filled the room.
“If Vivian is watching this, then Kane has found her.”
Vivian covered her mouth.
Her mother continued.
“You need to know the truth about your father.”
Adrian looked at Vivian.
The recording continued.
“Vivian, your father was not absent because he didn't love you.”
A pause.
“He was killed.”
Vivian's eyes filled.
“His name was Samuel Hayes.”
She knew the name.
Her mother's old marriage certificate had listed him.
“He was an investigator.”
The recording revealed that Samuel had uncovered Kane's network.
He had tried to expose the Black Rose.
Kane had him murdered.
Luca DeLuca helped Vivian's mother hide.
But Kane discovered the plan.
So Vivian was given a new identity.
And one final secret.
“Your father hid the ledger inside the vault.”
Adrian's eyes sharpened.
A ledger.
The financial records proving the Black Rose had infiltrated Chicago's government.
Judges.
Police.
Bankers.
Politicians.
Everything.
The evidence could destroy Kane.
Vivian opened the box.
Inside was a black ledger.
And beneath it—
a wedding photograph.
She stared.
Her mother.
Samuel.
Luca DeLuca.
And Adrian's mother.
Four people.
One family secret.
Adrian looked shocked.
“What?”
Vivian turned the photograph over.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
The children must never know they are family.
Vivian's pulse stopped.
She looked at Adrian.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't answer.
They heard footsteps.
Dominic Luces appeared in the doorway.
Gun drawn.
“You shouldn't have opened that box.”
Adrian stepped between Dominic and Vivian.
“You killed Matthew Hale.”
Dominic smiled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he talked.”
“About what?”
“About the girl.”
Vivian stepped forward.
“Who am I?”
Dominic looked at her.
For the first time, his expression softened.
“You're the reason your mother died.”
Vivian's face went pale.
Adrian's voice became lethal.
“Explain.”
Dominic lowered his gun.
“She knew Kane would come after her.”
“So why didn't you stop him?”
“Because I was ordered not to.”
“By whom?”
Dominic looked toward Vivian.
“By Adrian's father.”
Silence.
Adrian stared at him.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Dominic took a step closer.
“Luca knew the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That your father, Samuel Hayes, wasn't just an investigator.”
Vivian's heart stopped.
“What was he?”
May you like
Dominic whispered:
“He was the original leader of the Black Rose.”
