Chapter 5 - The Sister Who Lied
Isabella refused to answer until they returned to the farmhouse.
Roman nearly refused to wait.
Chloe convinced him.
“She's your sister.”
“Exactly.”
“That's not a normal response.”
“Neither is my family.”
At sunrise, Isabella finally sat across from them.
Marco stood by the fireplace.
Mara joined by encrypted video.
Roman placed Tommy's note on the table.
“Talk.”
Isabella looked exhausted.
“Black Harbor began as Dad’s emergency fund.”
“We know.”
“After he died, Vincent used it.”
“We know.”
She looked at Roman.
“But six months ago, Vincent didn't authorize the payment connected to your hit.”
Silence.
Roman's expression emptied.
“Who did?”
“I did.”
Chloe stared.
Roman didn't move.
“Why?”
“I wasn't paying someone to kill you.”
“The money paid the man who shot at me.”
“I was paying him to miss.”
Nobody spoke.
Marco looked like even he had lost the ability to process the DeLuca family.
Isabella continued quickly.
“Vincent had already contracted the hit. I found out forty-eight hours beforehand.”
“So you paid the shooter?”
“To change the angle.”
“You could have told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Vincent would know I had access to Black Harbor.”
Roman stood.
“You let me walk onto a pier knowing somebody would shoot me.”
“I made sure he wouldn't kill you.”
“You made sure?”
His voice rose for the first time Chloe had heard.
“He hit me two inches below my heart!”
“I know!”
Roman froze.
Isabella's eyes filled.
“I watched from the warehouse roof.”
Her voice broke.
“I thought I'd killed you.”
Anger remained on Roman's face.
But something else entered it.
Pain.
“Why didn't you tell me after?”
“Because then you'd start a war.”
“Maybe he deserved one.”
“And you would become Dad.”
That silenced him.
Isabella wiped her eyes.
“I have spent fifteen years watching you become the man everyone expected you to become.”
“What does that mean?”
“Cold. Feared. Untouchable.”
She looked toward Chloe.
“Then she climbed into your car.”
Roman turned slightly.
“You started asking questions instead of giving orders.”
Isabella gave a bitter laugh.
“You even asked whether I was lying before deciding to kill anyone. It was revolutionary.”
“Very funny.”
“I'm serious.”
She looked back at him.
“I wanted proof strong enough to destroy Vincent legally.”
Chloe leaned forward.
“So you were building a case.”
“Yes.”
“Why surveillance on me?”
“Because you became the first person outside the Kessler family to access their internal accounts.”
Chloe's stomach tightened.
“You knew before I did.”
“I knew Tommy was using you.”
“Why didn't you warn me?”
That hurt.
Isabella looked ashamed.
“I thought warning you would scare you into disappearing.”
“I nearly died.”
“I know.”
“Tommy hurt me for years.”
“I didn't know that.”
“You knew enough.”
Roman's voice became cold.
“She's right.”
Isabella looked at her brother.
“You used her too.”
Chloe turned.
Roman stiffened.
“What?”
“You let her walk into the club tonight because you wanted Tommy talking.”
Chloe opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Isabella continued.
“You told yourself she chose it, so that made it acceptable.”
Roman's face changed.
Chloe hated that Isabella had a point.
Roman looked at her.
“Chloe.”
“I did choose.”
“But?”
She swallowed.
“But you were happy I did.”
Silence.
Roman rubbed his face.
Then he did something nobody expected.
He apologized.
“You're right.”
Isabella blinked.
Marco stared at the ceiling.
Chloe almost laughed.
Roman continued.
“I have spent my entire life thinking protection and control were the same thing.”
His eyes held Chloe's.
“They aren't.”
“No.”
“I'll try to remember.”
“Please do.”
The tension softened.
Only slightly.
Then Mara's voice came from the screen.
“I hate interrupting family therapy, but we have a larger problem.”
She shared a document.
Black Harbor transfers.
Dozens.
Politicians.
Union officials.
Judges.
Police.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Vincent Kessler.
Another appeared beside his.
Councilman Henry Cole.
Roman recognized it immediately.
“Cole is running for mayor.”
Mara nodded.
“And apparently financing it partly with stolen DeLuca money.”
Chloe leaned closer.
“What's this transaction?”
$600,000.
Recipient:
T. MERCER
Her blood went cold.
“Mercer?”
Roman looked at her.
“Relative?”
“My father.”
Everyone went silent.
“Thomas Mercer,” Chloe whispered. “He disappeared when I was seven.”
“Disappeared?” Isabella asked.
“My mother said he left.”
Mara enlarged the transaction.
Date:
Twenty years earlier.
Roman read it twice.
“This payment came from my father.”
Chloe's throat tightened.
“To my father?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Another file opened.
Security services.
Private contract.
Thomas Mercer.
Chloe shook her head.
“My father sold insurance.”
“Maybe.”
“Why would Alessandro DeLuca pay him six hundred thousand dollars?”
Isabella had become pale.
Roman noticed.
“You know.”
“No.”
“Isabella.”
She looked at Chloe.
“I recognize the name.”
Chloe felt sick.
“From where?”
Isabella hesitated.
“Our mother's diary.”
Roman stared.
“You read Mom's diary?”
“She gave it to me.”
“What does Thomas Mercer have to do with our mother?”
Isabella looked almost afraid to answer.
“He helped her escape Dad the first time.”
Chloe's world narrowed.
“My father knew your mother?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Isabella's silence became unbearable.
Chloe stood.
“What happened?”
Roman’s sister looked down.
“Your father didn't abandon you.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
“He disappeared because Alessandro DeLuca found out he helped our mother.”
Roman went completely still.
“No.”
Isabella nodded.
“Dad ordered Vincent Kessler to handle it.”
Chloe stared at Roman.
Roman looked like someone had struck him.
“What does ‘handle it’ mean?”
Nobody answered.
She already knew.
Tears blurred the room.
“My father…”
Roman stepped toward her.
She backed away.
His face broke.
“Chloe.”
“No.”
“My father did this.”
“Your family knew.”
“I didn't.”
“Your sister did.”
“I learned years later,” Isabella said.
Chloe turned on her.
“And you did nothing?”
“I searched.”
“Not hard enough.”
Chloe grabbed her coat.
Roman followed.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from your family.”
“You can't go alone.”
She spun.
“Do not tell me what I can do.”
He stopped instantly.
The hurt on his face nearly weakened her.
Nearly.
She walked outside.
Rain had started again.
Roman remained on the porch.
He did not follow.
For the first time, he honored her boundary even though every instinct inside him fought it.
Chloe reached the gate.
A car waited.
Not Roman’s.
She stopped.
Tommy lowered the driver's window.
His cheek was cut from the club escape.
He smiled.
“Get in.”
Chloe stepped backward.
Tommy held up a phone.
On the screen was an old photograph.
Her father.
Alive.
Older than she remembered.
The timestamp was from three months earlier.
Chloe froze.
Tommy smiled wider.
“You want to know what really happened to Daddy?”
Roman saw the car from the porch and started running.
Tommy unlocked the passenger door.
“Come with me.”
Chloe looked at Roman approaching.
Then back at the impossible photograph.
May you like
Her father was alive.
And for one terrible second, she didn't know which man to trust.
