Chapter 4 - The Family Member Who Wanted Me Dead
We returned to Manhattan under heavy security.
I could not stop thinking about the photograph.
My mother.
My father.
Evelyn.
And Charlotte.
How could all of them have been connected?
How could my mother have known Victor Dane?
How could Charlotte, the glamorous woman standing beside Trevor, be related to me?
And why had Trevor been paid to disappear?
Roman sat across from me in the private study.
“Ask me anything.”
I looked at him.
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“What did you know before we met?”
He took a breath.
“I knew your father had a daughter.”
“You didn't know it was me.”
“I suspected.”
“When did you become certain?”
“The first day you came to work at the townhouse.”
I frowned.
“Because of what?”
“You carried a silver locket.”
I touched my neck.
The locket had belonged to my mother.
“What about it?”
“Your father gave it to her.”
“And?”
Roman paused.
“The symbol engraved inside belonged to an old Vale security division.”
I opened the locket.
Roman had never asked me to.
Inside was a tiny symbol.
Three intersecting lines.
I looked at him.
“What does it mean?”
“It means protection.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
Before I could continue, Arthur entered.
“We have a problem.”
Roman stood.
“What?”
“Victor Dane has issued a public statement.”
He handed Roman a tablet.
The headline was already spreading.
VANCE VALE HEIRESS ACCUSED OF FRAUD, IDENTITY DECEPTION, AND THEFT.
I stared.
“What?”
Arthur continued.
“He claims Sadi Mercer stole millions from a trust belonging to his company.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“I don't even know his company.”
Roman took the tablet.
“The accusations are fabricated.”
“But people will believe them.”
“They already are.”
My phone began exploding with notifications.
Messages.
Unknown calls.
News alerts.
Someone had released old photographs of me working as a cleaner.
In one, I was holding a mop.
In another, I was carrying laundry.
The caption read:
SECRET BILLIONAIRE WIFE HIDES CRIMINAL PAST.
My face burned.
Roman reached for my phone.
“Don't read them.”
“I need to know.”
“No.”
“I need to know what they are saying about me.”
He sat beside me.
“What they say doesn't define you.”
“It defines how they see me.”
Roman's jaw tightened.
“They will change their minds.”
“How?”
“Because we will give them the truth.”
That evening, Roman called an emergency board meeting.
I sat beside him.
The board members looked nervous.
One man, Malcolm Vale, stared at me longer than the others.
Roman’s uncle.
I had met him only twice.
He had always been polite.
Cold, but polite.
He stood.
“This is a serious reputational threat.”
Roman answered.
“Yes.”
“We should distance the company from Mrs. Vale until the allegations are investigated.”
I looked at him.
Roman didn't move.
“Sit down, Malcolm.”
“I am trying to protect the company.”
“You are trying to protect yourself.”
Malcolm smiled.
“That's a serious accusation.”
Roman leaned forward.
“Leave.”
The room went silent.
Malcolm blinked.
“This company belongs to the family.”
“No.”
Roman's voice was quiet.
“It belongs to the shareholders.”
Malcolm left.
I watched the door close.
“Why does he hate me?”
Roman looked at me.
“He doesn't hate you.”
“Then what does he want?”
“He wants what your father stole.”
“My father stole nothing.”
“I know.”
Roman stood.
“But Malcolm believes the Red Ledger belongs to him.”
That night, I woke up to footsteps.
I sat up.
The bedroom door was slightly open.
Roman wasn't there.
I grabbed my phone.
Then I heard a woman's voice downstairs.
Chloe.
I froze.
Why would she be here?
I crept toward the staircase.
I heard her say:
“You promised me I would never have to see her.”
A man's voice answered.
Malcolm.
My heart pounded.
“I told you the plan changed.”
“You used Trevor.”
“Yes.”
“And now Roman knows.”
“He doesn't know everything.”
I held my breath.
Chloe spoke again.
“She can't find her father.”
Malcolm replied.
“She already has.”
Silence.
Then Chloe whispered:
“Then we kill her.”
My blood went cold.
I stepped backward.
The floor creaked.
The voices stopped.
I ran.
I locked myself in the bedroom.
Seconds later, Roman entered through another door.
He saw my face.
“What happened?”
I told him.
His expression became terrifyingly calm.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He stepped toward the window.
Arthur appeared.
“Secure the house.”
Within minutes, every security system activated.
Roman turned to me.
“You're leaving.”
“Where?”
“A safe location.”
“No.”
“Sadi.”
“I won't run.”
“You almost got yourself killed.”
“I overheard them because I was hiding.”
Roman stared.
Then he sighed.
“You're right.”
I stared back.
“I'm going to help you.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You don't know what you're getting into.”
“I've spent my whole life inside it.”
His expression softened.
I took the locket from my neck.
“What is the symbol?”
Roman studied it.
“It may open something.”
“Something?”
“The Red Ledger may not be digital.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father believed paper records were harder to destroy.”
I thought about the letter.
The key.
The locket.
Then something clicked.
“My mother kept an old sewing box.”
Roman frowned.
“What about it?”
“She always told me never to throw it away.”
“Do you still have it?”
I did.
It was in storage.
We found it at midnight.
Inside was a false bottom.
Underneath sat a small metal cylinder.
Roman opened it.
A memory card fell into his hand.
Arthur connected it to a secure computer.
Files appeared.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Names.
And one folder labeled:
VALE FAMILY INTERNAL.
Roman's face went pale.
He opened it.
There were records of payments made fifteen years ago.
One name appeared over and over.
Malcolm Vale.
Then another.
Charlotte Dane.
Then Trevor Hale.
But the final document contained something far worse.
A scanned birth certificate.
I stared.
My name.
But next to my mother's name was a second surname.
Mercer.
And beside mine was another father's name.
Not the man I had spent my life believing was my father.
I looked at Roman.
“This says Gabriel Mercer was not my biological father.”
Roman read the document twice.
I could barely breathe.
“Then who is my father?”
Roman's eyes lifted slowly.
Before he could answer, the secure computer displayed one final file.
The file was marked:
BIOLOGICAL FATHER — ROMAN VALE.
I stared at the screen.
The room went silent.
May you like
Then Roman whispered:
“That can't be possible.”
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