Chapter 4 - My Father Betrayed Me—And Roman Had to Choose Between Revenge and Me
I didn't sleep.
I couldn't.
The image of my father beside the mayor kept replaying in my head.
Roman sat across from me in the safe house.
“You think he's guilty?”
“I don't know.”
“He might be protecting someone.”
“Or he might be protecting himself.”
We found my father three hours later.
He didn't run.
That frightened me.
“You saw the photograph.”
“Yes.”
“You think I'm working with The Chairman.”
“Are you?”
He sighed.
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
He finally told us the truth.
The mayor was not The Chairman.
He was an intermediary.
My father had infiltrated the organization under orders from a federal task force.
The photograph had been staged.
But there was one problem.
The task force itself had been compromised.
My father had been operating alone for years.
He had been hiding because the people he reported to were corrupt.
“The Chairman isn't a single person,” he said.
“What?”
“It's a council.”
Seven people.
Seven powerful people.
They controlled the city.
Vincent Moretti was only one.
My father had been trying to identify all seven.
He had finally discovered the seventh.
The person who had arranged my mother's death.
The person who had ordered the restaurant humiliation.
The person who wanted the Black Ledger.
His name was Daniel Hale.
Preston's father.
I remembered the charity gala.
His calm expression.
His polite smile.
His hand on my shoulder.
He had been close to me.
Roman immediately mobilized his men.
But I stopped him.
“We need evidence.”
“We have enough.”
“Not enough to survive.”
He listened.
Together, we built a plan.
Use the flash drive.
Send false information.
Force Daniel Hale to reveal himself.
The plan worked.
He came after me.
He sent men to kidnap me.
But Roman had anticipated it.
The warehouse became a battlefield.
I escaped.
Daniel was captured.
And then he laughed.
“You think you won.”
I looked at him.
“You poisoned Preston.”
“He was weak.”
“You killed my mother.”
“He was an accident.”
“Then why erase her?”
He smiled.
“Because she found something.”
“What?”
He leaned closer.
“The person who funded The Chairman.”
Then he whispered:
“Your mother.”
I froze.
He claimed my mother had been secretly working to control the network.
I didn't believe him.
Roman did.
For the first time, doubt entered our marriage.
“You're not telling me everything,” Roman said.
I stared.
“I swear I'm not.”
He walked away.
That night, I found a second file hidden inside my mother's necklace.
It contained evidence.
Daniel had lied.
My mother had never betrayed anyone.
She had been the mastermind behind the operation to destroy The Chairman.
And the reason she disappeared was simple.
She had gone undercover.
She was still alive.
The file contained one location.
A lake house in Wisconsin.
I went alone.
Roman followed.
I found my mother sitting by the window.
She looked at me.
“Anna.”
I cried.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you let me think you were dead?”
“To keep you alive.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I hugged her.
Then she said:
“I need to tell you something about Roman.”
I pulled away.
“What?”
“His father wasn't the man who built the empire.”
“Then who?”
May you like
She looked terrified.
“The woman who built it was mine.”
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