Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Inside the Vale Family
The next morning, Ronin canceled every meeting.
He stayed in his office.
I sat across from him.
Neither mentioned the kiss.
Until he finally said, "I meant what I said."
"About?"
"You."
My heart jumped.
He looked at me.
"I shouldn't have let it happen."
"Do you regret it?"
He was silent.
"No."
I smiled.
"Then don't apologize."
He looked away.
"You make things difficult."
"Apparently."
For a few days, life felt almost normal.
Then Wade discovered a mole inside the security team.
Someone had been leaking our movements.
The leak came from a man named Darren Cole.
Ronin's most trusted guard.
Darren disappeared before they could question him.
That night, we found Calvin Mercer.
Alive.
He was hiding in an abandoned church.
When he saw me, he cried.
"I didn't betray anyone."
"I know."
Ronin stepped forward.
"What happened?"
Calvin handed him an envelope.
"Elias gave me this."
My father's handwriting covered the front.
Inside was a map.
The Blue Room was not a physical room.
It was a phrase for a network of hidden accounts.
The original ledger had been divided into pieces.
One piece with Elias.
One with Salvatore.
One with another person.
A person named Adrian Vale.
Ronin stared.
"My grandfather."
Calvin nodded.
"He started the network."
Ronin's face hardened.
"So the entire Vale family knew."
"Not all of them."
Calvin looked at me.
"Your father wanted to destroy it."
"Why?"
"Because people began disappearing."
I thought of my mother.
"Was my mother involved?"
Calvin looked away.
"She knew."
I couldn't breathe.
"What did she know?"
"That Elias planned to expose Salvatore."
Ronin looked at me.
"And?"
"He failed."
"Who stopped him?"
Calvin whispered.
"Your mother."
Silence.
I couldn't move.
"Why would she do that?"
"Because Salvatore threatened you."
Ronin's expression changed.
He understood before I did.
My mother had turned against my father to save me.
I had spent seventeen years thinking she had lied because she didn't trust me.
She had lied because she loved me.
I began crying.
Ronin took my hand.
He didn't say anything.
He simply held it.
Calvin continued.
"After that, your father disappeared."
"Why?"
"He wanted to stay alive long enough to bring the network down."
Ronin's phone rang.
Evelyn.
She was whispering.
"Ronin, get out of the church."
"Why?"
"Father knows where you are."
We heard engines outside.
Ronin grabbed my hand.
"Move."
We escaped through the back.
Cars surrounded the building.
Gunfire followed.
We ran through the cemetery.
Ronin kept me behind him.
A bullet struck his shoulder.
"Ronin!"
"I'm fine."
Blood spread across his shirt.
"You are not fine."
He kept moving.
We reached the car.
Wade drove.
I pressed a cloth against Ronin's wound.
He looked at me.
"I'm okay."
"You're bleeding."
"I've had worse."
"That's not comforting."
He smiled faintly.
"You care."
I glared.
"Obviously."
His smile disappeared.
"So do I."
He closed his eyes.
I held his hand.
The next morning, he woke in a private clinic.
I was beside his bed.
He looked at me.
"You stayed."
"Obviously."
"Why?"
I smiled.
"Because you fell asleep on me once."
He frowned.
"What?"
I laughed.
"You don't remember?"
"No."
"You nearly fell asleep during a board meeting three months ago."
"I did not."
"You did."
He smiled.
"Maybe you imagined it."
"Maybe."
Then the door opened.
Salvatore walked in.
Ronin's face became cold.
"Leave."
Salvatore ignored him.
He looked at me.
"Your father is coming back."
I stood.
"Where?"
"Tomorrow."
"Why?"
"To take you."
Ronin sat upright.
"He won't."
Salvatore looked at his son.
"You don't understand what Elias wants."
"Then explain."
Salvatore stared at him.
"The Blue Room."
Ronin's eyes narrowed.
"The network."
Salvatore shook his head.
"No."
He looked at me.
"Your father believes the Blue Room contains the names of the men who killed your mother."
My heart stopped.
"My mother wasn't killed by illness?"
"No."
Salvatore's voice was quiet.
"She was poisoned."
I felt the room disappear.
Ronin looked at his father.
"Who did it?"
Salvatore answered.
"I don't know."
But something in his face told me he was lying.
Ronin saw it too.
"Father."
Salvatore turned toward the door.
Then he stopped.
"I did not kill her."
"Who did?"
Salvatore looked at me.
"Someone who wanted both families to blame each other."
Then he left.
Ronin stared at the door.
And I realized the truth was bigger than any of us had understood.
May you like
Someone had spent seventeen years creating a war between the Vale and Whitlock families.
And now that Ronin loved me, that person had one reason more than ever to finish it.
