Chapter 2 - The Promise Hidden in Her Father’s Photograph
Nora did not sleep.
By sunrise, three cups of coffee had become four, the rain had stopped, and the photograph was still lying on the workbench exactly where she had placed it.
She had examined it from every angle.
She had scanned it.
She had searched the date printed on the back.
She had even dug through an old box of photographs she kept in the attic of her apartment above the shop.
Nothing explained why her father had been standing beside Julian's family.
Nothing explained the note.
And absolutely nothing explained why Julian had never mentioned knowing her father.
Her father, Daniel Bennett, had been a ship carpenter.
At least, that was what everyone had believed.
He had built boats along the Maine coast, restored antique furniture on the side, and once spent six months repairing the interior of an old schooner instead of taking a better-paying commercial job because, as he told Nora, “Some things are worth saving even when nobody else sees it.”
He had died in an accident.
At least, that was what the police report said.
A fall from scaffolding.
Broken neck.
Instant death.
Nora had been sixteen.
She had spent twelve years believing that was the whole story.
At eight twenty-three that morning, a black sedan stopped outside the workshop.
Nora saw it through the blinds.
Julian stepped out.
He was not alone.
Two men remained near the car.
Nora's pulse quickened.
She considered locking the door.
Instead, she opened it.
Julian entered quietly.
He glanced at the photograph on the workbench.
His expression changed.
For the first time since Nora had known him, the controlled man looked genuinely shaken.
“Where did you get that?”
“So you know my father.”
Julian looked at her.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than a lie would have.
“How?”
“I need to explain.”
“Start with the part where you lied to me.”
“I never lied.”
“You let me believe you barely knew anything about my family.”
“That was different from lying.”
“That's lawyer language.”
“I’m not a lawyer.”
“You should have been.”
Julian removed his coat.
Nora noticed his right hand was bleeding.
“You're hurt.”
“It doesn't matter.”
“Everything matters when someone is bleeding on my floor.”
She grabbed a clean cloth.
Julian accepted it.
Nora pointed to the chair.
“Sit.”
He did.
That, more than anything, unsettled her.
Julian Kang was a man people obeyed.
Apparently, he obeyed her too.
She knelt and wrapped his hand.
“Who shot you?”
“No one shot me.”
“Then what?”
“A knife.”
“Who?”
“Someone who wasn't supposed to know where I was.”
Nora tightened the bandage deliberately.
He barely flinched.
“What was my father to you?”
Julian was silent.
“Answer me.”
“Your father worked for my grandfather.”
Nora stopped.
“Doing what?”
“Restoration.”
“That doesn't explain the photograph.”
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
Julian looked away.
“My grandfather had properties all over the East Coast. Your father restored historical interiors for some of them.”
“That's all?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Julian met her eyes.
“Your father also helped us move money.”
Nora felt as if the floor had tilted.
“My father was a criminal?”
“He was not what you think.”
“Everybody says that right before telling me something worse.”
“He believed the organization could be controlled.”
“Could it?”
“No.”
The honesty made her angrier.
Julian continued.
“Daniel Bennett discovered that someone inside the family was stealing from us. Millions of dollars. He kept records.”
Nora looked at the leather notebook.
“That?”
“Yes.”
“What's inside?”
“Names.”
“Whose?”
Julian's voice dropped.
“People who would kill to keep those names buried.”
Nora stared at him.
“Why bring it to me?”
“I didn't.”
“The man last night said you sent him.”
“I didn't.”
Her blood ran cold.
Julian stood immediately.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“What did he look like?”
Nora described him.
Julian listened.
Then his face hardened.
“That man is dead.”
Nora's stomach dropped.
“What?”
“He was killed six months ago.”
She stared.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Julian pulled out his phone and showed her a photograph.
It was the same man.
But the photograph had been taken beside a gravestone.
A gravestone bearing the name Min-Jae Han.
Nora backed away.
“No.”
Julian slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“You need to leave.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere protected.”
“I have a business.”
“You won't have a business if you stay here.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“This is insane.”
“You think I don't know that?”
“You've been following me?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
“How long?”
“Since before the auction.”
Her anger became something sharper.
“You said you noticed my work.”
“I did.”
“You approached me because of my work?”
“At first.”
“And after that?”
Julian looked at her for several seconds.
“After that, I couldn't stop.”
Silence.
Nora looked at the man she had tried not to desire.
The man who had sat through boring antique auctions.
The man who remembered how she took her coffee.
The man who seemed to know every expression on her face.
The man who had never once mocked her body.
And the man who had apparently been keeping secrets about her family from the moment they met.
“Why me?”
“Because your father asked me to.”
Nora froze.
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
Her knees weakened.
“That's impossible.”
“No.”
“He was dead.”
“Not then.”
Nora looked at him.
“What?”
Julian's voice became quiet.
“Your father didn't die twelve years ago.”
The workshop seemed to disappear around her.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Daniel Bennett was alive when the accident happened.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Nora—”
“No.”
She grabbed the edge of the table.
“You don't get to rewrite my childhood.”
“I’m not.”
“The police identified the body.”
“Someone wanted you to believe it was him.”
Her breathing became shallow.
“Why?”
“Because your father was trying to get out.”
“Out of what?”
“My family's organization.”
Julian stepped closer.
“He stole something before he disappeared.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“An operation so dangerous that three people are dead because of it.”
Nora stared at the leather notebook.
“What's the brass key for?”
Julian's face changed.
“I don't know.”
That was the first answer he had given her that sounded like fear.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“You always know.”
“Not this time.”
He reached toward the notebook.
Nora pulled it away.
“Don't.”
“I need to see it.”
“Why?”
“Because if it's what I think it is, then your father left something hidden.”
“Where?”
Julian looked at the brass key.
Then at her.
“Somewhere only you would think to look.”
The bell above the front door rang.
Both of them turned.
A woman walked inside.
She was elegant, blonde, perfectly dressed, and looked completely out of place among unfinished furniture and sawdust.
Julian went rigid.
The woman's smile was soft.
“Julian.”
Nora looked between them.
Julian's expression became unreadable.
“Grace.”
The woman walked directly toward him.
“I've been calling.”
“I know.”
“You disappeared.”
“I had business.”
Grace looked at Nora.
“Oh.”
Something about the way she said it made Nora's skin prickle.
“You must be Nora.”
Nora's stomach tightened.
“You know who I am?”
Grace smiled.
“Everyone in Julian's world knows who you are.”
Julian stepped between them.
“Leave.”
Grace blinked.
“I'm not finished.”
“You are now.”
Her smile disappeared.
She looked at Nora.
Then back at Julian.
“You're making the same mistake your father made.”
Julian's eyes hardened.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“I know exactly what I'm talking about.”
She walked to the door.
Before leaving, she turned.
“Ask him why your father trusted the one man who was supposed to kill him.”
Nora stopped breathing.
Julian said nothing.
Grace smiled.
Then she left.
Nora turned slowly.
“What does she mean?”
Julian's jaw tightened.
“Nothing.”
“Don't.”
“Nora—”
“Don't protect me with another lie.”
Silence.
Then Julian said the words that broke whatever remained of her trust.
“My father ordered your father's death.”
Nora's eyes widened.
“And you?”
May you like
Julian looked straight at her.
“I was the man who was sent to carry it out.”
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