Chapter 5 - THE DAUGHTER WHO WITNESSED MURDER
Lauren Vale had been seventeen years old when Anthony Romano died.
That detail changed everything.
Hannah had imagined Lauren as a calculating adult hiding some ancient conspiracy.
Now the recording suggested something more complicated.
A teenager had been present.
Terrified.
Possibly trapped by the same man who had spent years hunting Sarah Parker.
Victor Vale.
Dominic listened to the audio three more times.
Each replay became worse.
Anthony’s voice.
The gunshot.
Julian Cross.
Lauren crying.
Finally Dominic turned off the recorder.
“No assumptions.”
Hannah looked at him.
“She watched my father get killed.”
“She said she didn’t know Victor was going to kill him.”
“That doesn’t make her innocent.”
“No.”
Dominic slipped the recorder into an evidence bag.
“But it means we need the whole recording.”
“It ended.”
“No.”
He pointed at the file information.
“Twenty-six minutes.”
Hannah stared.
They had heard less than four.
The remaining audio had been corrupted.
Leo said, “I know someone who can recover it.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Somebody outside our circle.”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
By sunrise, the mansion had become a fortress.
Lauren was still missing.
Caleb woke asking whether Hannah was leaving.
She sat beside him while he ate cereal in the kitchen.
“No.”
“You promise?”
Her throat tightened.
“I promise I’m here today.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
She looked at him.
Eight years old.
Too perceptive.
Too accustomed to adults disappearing.
Hannah understood that better now.
“I’m not planning to leave.”
Caleb nodded.
Then slid something across the table.
A drawing.
Three stick figures.
One tall man.
One woman.
One small boy.
Above them he had written:
DAD + HANNAH + ME.
Hannah nearly dropped her spoon.
“Caleb…”
He looked worried.
“Do you not like it?”
“I love it.”
She folded the paper carefully.
Then he whispered, “Are you really my cousin?”
Hannah blinked.
“Who told you?”
“I heard Mrs. Alvarez talking.”
Of course he had.
“Technically, yes.”
Caleb smiled for the first time since the terrace.
“So you can’t quit.”
“That isn’t exactly how families work.”
“It should be.”
Dominic stood unnoticed in the doorway.
Hannah saw him.
Their eyes met.
Something quiet passed between them.
Then he entered.
“Your grandmother wants to talk.”
Hannah’s mood changed.
Evelyn waited in the library.
She held a small wooden box.
“I should have given you this years ago.”
Hannah sat across from her.
“Probably.”
Evelyn accepted the anger.
Inside the box were letters.
Dozens.
Every envelope addressed to Hannah.
None opened.
All written by Anthony Romano.
Hannah’s hands shook.
“He wrote to me?”
“From the time you were born.”
“Why didn’t I get them?”
“Your mother was afraid.”
Hannah unfolded the first.
Dear Hannah,
You slept on my chest for two hours today and ruined a perfectly good shirt. I have decided to forgive you.
She laughed through tears.
The next letter was written when she was three.
Then four.
Five.
Seven.
The last was dated one week before Anthony died.
My sweet girl,
I have spent too long believing keeping you hidden was the same as keeping you safe. It wasn’t. It only made me absent. I intend to change that.
Hannah could barely continue.
You have an uncle named Dominic. He looks angry even when he is happy. Do not let that scare you. He is better than he thinks he is.
A broken laugh escaped her.
Dominic stood near the library door.
He had heard.
For once, he looked uncomfortable.
Hannah continued reading.
Someday I hope the three of us can sit at one table and argue about something ordinary.
She pressed the letter to her chest.
“He wanted to tell you,” Evelyn whispered.
“Then why didn’t he?”
“Because he died seven days later.”
Hannah looked up.
“And my mother?”
“Sarah disappeared deeper into hiding. She believed Victor had killed Anthony because of her.”
“Did she know Lauren was there?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Evelyn hesitated.
“But Rose did.”
Hannah stared.
“How?”
“Rose called me the morning after Anthony died. She said there had been a witness.”
“Lauren.”
“She never gave me a name.”
“Why protect her?”
“Because the witness was a child.”
Hannah’s anger twisted.
Lauren had been cruel to Caleb.
Had locked him outside.
Had threatened Hannah.
But eighteen years earlier, someone had apparently protected Lauren because she was seventeen and terrified of her father.
Life refused to make villains simple.
Dominic entered.
“Recovered audio is ready.”
They went to his study.
Leo remained under guard.
Not as a prisoner exactly.
But not free either.
Dominic connected the restored recording.
The missing section began after the gunshot.
Lauren crying.
Victor Vale shouting.
“You weren’t supposed to come downstairs!”
“I followed you!”
“Go to the car.”
“You shot him!”
“Lauren. Now.”
Julian Cross interrupted.
“Victor, we need to move.”
Then another sound.
Anthony coughing.
Alive.
Hannah lunged closer to the speaker.
Her father had survived the gunshot.
Anthony whispered, “Dominic…”
Victor said, “He’s still breathing.”
Lauren sobbed.
“Call an ambulance!”
A slap.
Hannah closed her eyes.
Then Cross spoke.
“If he reaches a hospital, this is over.”
Lauren screamed.
“No!”
Footsteps.
A struggle.
Then a third male voice appeared.
Older.
Powerful.
“Enough.”
Dominic went completely still.
Leo whispered, “Frank.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Who?”
Dominic answered.
“My father.”
Frank Romano.
Anthony’s father.
Dominic’s father.
On the recording, Victor Vale said, “He knows everything.”
Frank Romano replied, “He is my son.”
Cross said, “Then make a choice.”
Silence.
Anthony’s breathing remained audible.
Then Frank spoke.
“Get Lauren out of here.”
Victor argued.
Frank shouted, “Now!”
Footsteps receded.
A car door slammed.
Then Frank knelt near Anthony.
His voice broke.
“Why couldn’t you leave it alone?”
Anthony whispered, “Hannah.”
“I’ll protect her.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.”
“And Sarah.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic can’t know.”
Frank started crying.
“No.”
“He’ll come after you.”
“No, Anthony.”
“Promise me.”
Then Anthony said one final sentence.
“Don’t become them.”
The recording rustled.
Then Cross’s voice.
“We need to finish this.”
Frank said, “Nobody touches my son.”
A struggle followed.
A gunshot.
Then chaos.
The recording ended.
Everyone in the study stared at Dominic.
Hannah whispered, “Your father didn’t kill him.”
“No.”
Leo slowly stood.
“Cross did.”
Dominic’s face was unreadable.
“And my father covered it up.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Leo answered.
“To protect you. To protect Hannah. To protect the entire organization.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“So he buried Anthony instead.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
“Talk.”
Lauren’s voice filled the speaker.
“You heard it.”
“Where are you?”
“You heard my father.”
“Yes.”
“And yours.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“You locked my son in the snow.”
Lauren was silent.
“That has nothing to do with 2008.”
“I needed the key.”
“You could have asked.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“Because then Cross would know I had failed.”
Hannah leaned closer.
“Julian Cross is alive?”
Lauren heard her.
“Hannah.”
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
Everyone froze.
“He’s alive.”
Dominic said, “Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He’s been controlling this for eighteen years.”
Lauren began crying.
“My father died six months ago. Before he died, he told me Cross would come for me if Rose’s evidence surfaced.”
“Why did you get engaged to Dominic?”
Silence.
Hannah felt sick.
Lauren finally whispered, “Because Cross ordered me to.”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
“Why?”
“So I could find Rose’s evidence before you did.”
“Seven months ago Hannah was hired.”
“I didn’t arrange that.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Lauren breathed shakily.
“But Cross knew she was Anthony’s daughter.”
Dominic looked at Hannah.
Lauren continued.
“And he wanted her inside the mansion.”
“Why?”
“Because Rose hid the final evidence somewhere only Anthony’s child could retrieve.”
Hannah frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will when you understand Locker 217.”
Dominic picked up the gold key.
“Tell me where it is.”
Lauren whispered:
“It isn’t a locker.”
Silence.
“It’s a safe-deposit number.”
“Where?”
“First Philadelphia Trust.”
Leo frowned.
“That bank closed in 2010.”
Lauren said, “The vault didn’t.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Where is it?”
“Beneath the old courthouse annex.”
Then Lauren gasped.
A sound came through the phone.
A door breaking.
She screamed.
“Dominic—”
The call shifted.
A man spoke.
Older.
Smooth.
“Good morning.”
Dominic went still.
Julian Cross.
“Miss Parker,” Cross said, “your father left you something.”
Hannah clenched her hands.
“What?”
May you like
Cross laughed softly.
“The reason powerful men have spent eighteen years waiting for you to come home.”
