Chapter 6 - The Man Who Refused to Stay Dead
They reached St. Agnes Hotel at 11:41 p.m.
The building rose from the darkness like a forgotten monument.
Windows were boarded.
Brick walls were blackened with age.
No cars.
No lights.
No people.
Damian entered through a side door.
Khloe stayed beside him.
Leo and Bruno followed.
The elevator was dead, so they took the stairs.
Third floor.
Room 317.
The key fit.
Inside was a small hotel room.
Nothing special.
A bed.
A table.
A broken lamp.
A mirror.
Khloe looked around.
"There's nothing here."
Damian touched the wall.
"Not nothing."
He knocked twice.
Hollow.
Leo searched the room.
Behind the mirror was a hidden compartment.
Inside was a videotape.
And another letter.
Khloe opened it.
This time the handwriting was unmistakable.
Her mother.
If you reached Room 317, Damian has finally learned enough to be dangerous.
The tape contains what I could not tell you in person.
Damian found an old player beneath the table.
He inserted the tape.
Static.
Then a man's face appeared.
Damian's father.
Alive.
Older.
Thin.
But unmistakably alive.
Damian sat down.
His father's voice filled the room.
"My son."
Damian's throat tightened.
"If you're watching this, then Elena failed at keeping you away."
The video showed his father in what appeared to be a hospital room.
"I am alive."
Damian closed his eyes.
"Your mother saved me after the attack."
The screen shifted.
A date appeared.
Seven years earlier.
"So why did I let you believe I was dead?"
His father looked directly into the camera.
"Because I knew what would happen if the truth became public."
A pause.
"I was not killed by the enemy."
Damian leaned forward.
"I was betrayed by family."
The screen went black.
A moment later, another recording began.
Marianne appeared.
She looked younger.
She was standing beside Damian's father.
"I warned him," she said.
"He refused."
She smiled.
"So I removed everyone standing between me and control."
Khloe whispered.
"She's confessing."
"Not yet," Damian said.
The recording continued.
Marianne turned toward someone outside the frame.
"Do it."
Gunshots echoed.
The video ended.
Damian stood.
"Where is he?"
Khloe shook her head.
"We don't know."
Bruno suddenly pointed toward the wall.
"Boss."
There was movement behind it.
Damian opened the panel.
A passage.
They followed it underground.
The tunnel smelled like damp earth.
At the end was a metal door.
Damian pushed it open.
A man sat beside a medical bed.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Weak.
Damian stopped.
His father looked up.
"Damian."
The son stared.
Neither moved.
Then Damian walked forward.
His father stood with difficulty.
"I'm sorry."
Damian's face twisted.
"You let me think you were dead."
"I thought I was protecting you."
"You abandoned me."
"I loved you."
"You abandoned me."
His father nodded.
"I know."
Damian's voice shook.
"I became everything you wanted me never to become."
His father looked at him.
"No."
He placed a hand against Damian's shoulder.
"You became everything you thought you had to become because you believed you had no family left."
Damian's eyes filled.
His father pulled him into an embrace.
For several seconds, Damian was no longer the head of an empire.
He was sixteen again.
A boy who had lost everything.
Khloe looked away, giving them privacy.
Then the sound of a gun clicking behind her made her freeze.
Marianne stood at the doorway.
"You found him."
Damian turned.
Marianne smiled.
"You always were clever."
Leo raised his weapon.
Marianne shook her head.
"Don't."
Men appeared behind her.
Too many.
Damian's people were surrounded.
Marianne looked toward Khloe.
"You were always the problem."
Khloe stared.
"Why?"
"Because my brother loved you."
Khloe frowned.
"Damian?"
"No."
Marianne looked toward Damian's father.
"Him."
The words hung in the air.
Khloe's mother had not been merely an accountant.
She had been loved by Damian's father.
And Marianne had hated her.
"Your mother was supposed to disappear permanently."
Khloe's voice was icy.
"But she didn't."
"No."
Marianne looked at Damian.
"Because Elena interfered."
Damian stepped forward.
"You destroyed my family."
Marianne smiled.
"Your family destroyed itself."
She raised her gun.
"But I am willing to finish the job."
A shot rang out.
Someone screamed.
Then the room exploded into chaos.
Damian pulled Khloe down.
Leo returned fire.
Bruno attacked the closest gunman.
Damian's father was dragged behind the bed.
Marianne disappeared through a side passage.
When the shooting ended, half the lights were shattered.
Several men were down.
Damian looked toward Khloe.
"You okay?"
She nodded.
Then she noticed something on his father's medical table.
A photograph.
It showed a young Khloe.
Beside her stood a little boy.
Damian.
They had met before.
When they were children.
Neither remembered.
Khloe picked it up.
Her mother had written something on the back.
They were always meant to find each other again.
Khloe looked at Damian.
He looked at her.
For years, they had thought their relationship began when she became his secretary.
Maybe it began long before that.
Then his father spoke.
"Marianne is going to the harbor."
Damian turned.
"Why?"
"She has the original Black Ledger."
Damian's face hardened.
"Then we stop her."
His father grabbed his wrist.
"Damian."
"What?"
"Don't kill her."
Damian stared.
"Why?"
"Because the ledger is bait."
"For what?"
His father looked at Khloe.
"She wants the truth exposed."
Khloe frowned.
"The truth?"
"Everything."
Damian understood.
Marianne wasn't trying to escape.
She wanted to force the entire world to see the Russo empire collapse.
And if the ledger became public, hundreds of people would go to prison.
May you like
Damian looked toward the harbor.
"We end this tonight."
