Chapter 4 - The Dead Man’s Notebook and the Name No One Expected
Roman’s father had been dead for eight years.
The entire city knew it.
His grave was in a private cemetery outside Blackridge.
He had built the original Hail empire.
He had also left Roman with one instruction:
Trust no one who smiles too easily.
Roman had spent years believing that advice was simply a lesson from a hard man.
Now Daniel’s notebook suggested it had been a confession.
We met in the underground archive beneath the estate.
The notebook was old.
Leather-bound.
Its corners were damaged by water.
The first pages contained shipment codes.
Then dates.
Then names.
Victor.
Marcus.
Three businessmen.
Two politicians.
A judge.
And finally:
“R.H.”
Roman stared at the initials.
“Richard Hail.”
His father.
I looked at him.
“Could he really have ordered Daniel’s death?”
Roman didn’t answer.
Instead, he turned the page.
There was another note.
“If Roman finds this, do not trust the story he was told.”
Roman froze.
The next line was worse.
“Father knows Lily exists.”
My hands shook.
“He knew about her?”
Roman nodded.
A third note:
“He will use her against Roman.”
Roman closed the book.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“He would never.”
“You loved your father.”
“I respected him.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
That afternoon, Roman visited his father’s grave.
I went with him.
He stood there for nearly ten minutes.
Finally he whispered:
“What did you do?”
The wind moved through the trees.
No answer.
Then Darius arrived.
“Boss.”
Roman turned.
“We found the original financial records.”
“Where?”
“In Daniel’s old storage unit.”
Roman frowned.
“My father bought that unit.”
Darius shook his head.
“Daniel rented it under another name.”
Inside the unit was a second notebook.
A key.
And an old photograph.
The photograph showed my daughter’s mother, me, Daniel, and Roman’s father.
I stared at it.
“I’ve never seen this.”
Roman looked at me.
Neither had he.
On the back, written in Daniel’s handwriting:
“She deserves the truth.”
Underneath was a date.
The day Lily was conceived.
My face burned.
Roman saw the date.
Everything clicked.
“You were already pregnant when you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You knew you were carrying Daniel’s child.”
“Yes.”
“And my father knew.”
“Yes.”
Roman walked away.
Then stopped.
He turned.
“Why did Daniel leave?”
“Because he found the money.”
“What money?”
“The money being diverted from your father’s companies.”
“To whom?”
I pointed at the notebook.
“The names.”
Roman read them.
Then stopped.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Darius Cole.
Roman’s right hand.
I looked at Darius.
“No.”
Darius’s face hardened.
“I didn’t know.”
Roman stared at him.
“Your initials are here.”
“They’re forged.”
Daniel had written a code beneath the name.
A four-digit number.
Darius recognized it.
“So did Roman.”
“It’s the old security code from before you took over.”
Roman looked at him.
“Who else knew it?”
Darius shook his head.
“Myself. Your father. Victor.”
Roman’s expression darkened.
“And Marcus?”
“No.”
That meant Victor had access.
But there was still something wrong.
The truck attack required modern security access.
Victor alone could not have done it.
Unless someone inside Darius’s team had helped.
That night, Roman gathered everyone.
Twenty-two men.
All armed.
Nobody spoke.
Roman stood at the head of the table.
“Someone in this room tried to kill me.”
Silence.
“They also tried to frame a child.”
No one moved.
Roman placed Daniel’s notebook on the table.
“Some of you are innocent.”
A pause.
“Some of you are not.”
Victor laughed nervously.
“This is absurd.”
Roman looked at him.
“Is it?”
He placed the financial records on the table.
Then the truck contract.
Then the security logs.
Then the draft alibi.
One by one.
The story became impossible to deny.
Suddenly, a gunshot exploded.
Darius dropped.
Chaos erupted.
Roman dragged me behind a concrete pillar.
Lily had been left upstairs with a nurse.
My heart stopped.
Roman shouted:
“Lock the upper floor!”
The shooting lasted seventeen seconds.
Then silence.
When Roman emerged, Victor was gone.
Marcus was dead.
Darius was wounded but alive.
And Lily’s room was empty.
I screamed.
“Lily!”
Roman’s face changed completely.
No calculation.
No coldness.
Only terror.
He grabbed the first car key he saw.
“Find her.”
Darius struggled to stand.
“The south gate…”
Roman turned.
“What?”
“Someone opened the south gate from inside.”
Roman looked at me.
I knew.
May you like
They had never intended to kill only Roman.
They had been coming for Lily all along.
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