Chapter 4 - The Man in the PhotographJonathan Carter was alive.
For twenty-two hours, that was the only fact Simone could think about.
Her father had not died.
He had disappeared.
He had been hiding.
Watching.
Waiting.
And someone had spent twenty years making sure Simone believed the opposite.
The photograph had been taken outside a clinic in Montreal three days earlier.
Daniel’s source claimed Jonathan had been receiving treatment under an assumed name.
But the man in the photograph had not been alone.
Standing beside him was an old Romano family lieutenant.
Elliot Vance.
Adrian knew the name.
“My father trusted him.”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
“That's what makes this worse.”
Adrian nodded.
“We go to Montreal.”
Simone looked at him.
“We?”
Adrian stared back.
“Yes.”
“You don't have to.”
“I know.”
They flew that night.
At the clinic, the receptionist denied knowing Jonathan.
Adrian left a photograph on the desk.
The woman behind the counter went pale.
“Room 308.”
They found the room empty.
The bed had been stripped.
The closet was open.
Jonathan had left minutes earlier.
On the pillow was another envelope.
This one was addressed to Adrian.
Inside was a handwritten note.
I don't blame you for not knowing.
Your father tried to stop what was coming.
You inherited his enemies.
Simone inherited his secret.
Adrian's hands tightened.
“What secret?”
The final line answered him.
The Romano fortune was never meant to belong entirely to the Romano family.
Adrian looked at Simone.
She looked terrified.
A sound came from the hallway.
A nurse screamed.
Gunfire erupted.
Adrian pushed Simone into the stairwell.
Marco and Daniel returned fire.
The four of them escaped through the parking garage.
Jonathan was gone.
But someone had left another clue.
A security camera image.
Jonathan meeting Adrian's father twenty-four years earlier.
Between them stood an infant carrier.
Simone stared.
“I was born twenty-eight years ago.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
The photograph was dated September.
Her birthday was November.
“This isn't you.”
“No.”
Daniel zoomed in.
A small hospital bracelet was visible.
The name read:
Carter-Forbes.
Simone froze.
“Who is Forbes?”
Adrian's face changed.
“Isabella Forbes.”
His grandmother’s name.
Daniel stared.
“You think Simone…”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
He looked again.
The date.
The hospital.
The child.
Something didn't add up.
Then he remembered a document from his father's private archive.
A birth record had been removed from the family ledger.
A female heir.
Name withheld.
Adrian suddenly felt cold.
“Simone.”
“What?”
“Your mother had another child?”
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
“She never said.”
Adrian called Marco.
“Search sealed Romano family records from twenty-eight years ago. Female child. Birth at St. Vincent's.”
Twenty minutes later, Marco called.
His voice was quiet.
“We found something.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“What?”
“A birth certificate.”
“For?”
“Adrian Romano.”
He looked at Simone.
The name registered was his.
Then Marco continued.
“Father: Lorenzo Romano.”
“Mother?”
Silence.
“Evelyn Carter.”
Adrian went completely still.
Simone whispered.
“Who is Evelyn Carter?”
Adrian's face drained of color.
“My grandmother.”
The implications were impossible.
But the evidence was undeniable.
Simone and Adrian were not blood relatives.
Yet Simone’s mother had used an altered identity connected to the Romano family.
Someone had hidden her true parentage.
Why?
Because the baby on that hospital bracelet had never been Simone.
There had been another child.
A daughter.
The true heiress.
And Simone’s identity had been constructed around a secret she had never known existed.
Then another message arrived.
A text from an unknown number.
Stop searching for Jonathan Carter.
Or Simone dies before midnight.
Adrian looked up.
“She’s being watched.”
A black SUV accelerated toward them.
Adrian shoved Simone against the concrete wall.
The SUV crashed through the garage barrier.
Men jumped out.
Gunfire erupted.
Daniel tackled Simone behind a concrete pillar.
Adrian fought his way through two attackers.
Marco disabled the vehicle.
One man escaped.
Adrian chased him into the alley.
He caught him.
Pinned him against the wall.
“Who sent you?”
The man laughed through blood.
“You still don't understand.”
Adrian tightened his grip.
“Understand what?”
“The girl.”
“What girl?”
“The girl you're protecting.”
The man's smile widened.
“She's not Simone Carter.”
Adrian froze.
Then the attacker swallowed a capsule.
He died before Adrian could get another answer.
Back at the safe house, Simone sat in silence.
“Do you believe him?”
Adrian looked at her.
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You hesitated.”
“I was thinking.”
“That’s worse.”
She stood.
“I have spent my entire life believing one story.”
She pointed to herself.
“I am Simone Carter.”
Adrian walked toward her.
“I know.”
“You don't know anything.”
“I know you.”
“Do you?”
He stopped.
She looked broken.
“For years, you called me your secretary.”
Her voice cracked.
“Maybe that's all I ever was.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“No.”
He reached for her hand.
“You were the person I trusted most.”
She looked at him.
“And now?”
He held her gaze.
“Now you're the woman I cannot lose.”
She stared at him.
Neither moved.
Then Simone whispered.
“Adrian…”
He kissed her.
It was not planned.
It was not careful.
It was the kind of kiss born from fear, relief, regret, and five years of feelings neither had named.
When they separated, Simone rested her forehead against his.
“What are we doing?”
May you like
Adrian answered honestly.
“Finally paying attention.”
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