Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER WHO WAS NEVER BURIED
“Daniel, if that's really you, tell me what I put inside your coffin.”
Alessandro Romano stood at the foot of the grand staircase, gripping his phone so tightly that his fingers hurt.
Upstairs, the man who had spoken behind Vanessa remained silent.
Then came a quiet answer.
“Dad's silver pocket watch. The one he gave you before he died.”
Alessandro stopped breathing.
Nobody outside the family knew about that watch.
It had belonged to their father, Giuseppe Romano, who had worn it every day for forty years. After Daniel's supposed boating accident, Alessandro had placed it inside the coffin because he couldn't bear to keep looking at it.
“You were supposed to keep that,” Daniel said.
Alessandro closed his eyes.
For seven years, he'd visited a grave believing his younger brother rested beneath it.
Now the voice he'd mourned was waiting upstairs.
“Where are you?”
“Vanessa's sitting room.”
“I'm coming.”
“Alone, Alessandro.”
The connection ended.
Alessandro turned toward his security chief, Marco Bellini.
“Secure the grounds. Nobody leaves without speaking to you. But don't touch Sophie, and don't let Richard near her.”
Marco nodded.
“What about the upstairs rooms?”
“Stay outside unless I call.”
As Alessandro climbed the staircase, memories struck him harder than any enemy ever had.
Daniel laughing at sixteen while stealing his car keys.
Daniel at twenty-five, arguing that the Romano family needed legitimate businesses instead of another generation of violence.
And Daniel at twenty-eight, supposedly lost when his boat caught fire off the Massachusetts coast.
They'd recovered wreckage.
They'd recovered a damaged identification bracelet.
They'd never recovered a body.
Alessandro had accepted the official explanation because the alternative was unbearable.
At the top of the stairs, Vanessa stood outside the sitting room.
Her makeup had run down her cheeks.
“Before you go inside,” she whispered, “you need to understand that I didn't know everything.”
“Move.”
“Alessandro, please.”
“You watched me grieve.”
She recoiled.
“For five years of our relationship, you watched me visit his grave. You held my hand at the cemetery.”
“I know.”
“And all that time, your mother was alive.”
Vanessa looked toward the closed door.
“Yes.”
The single word hurt more than Alessandro expected.
He opened the door.
A man stood beside the fireplace, one hand resting on a wooden cane.
He was thinner than Alessandro remembered.
His dark hair had gray at the temples, and an old scar crossed his left eyebrow.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
“Danny?”
The man smiled sadly.
“Nobody's called me that in a long time.”
Alessandro crossed the room.
For one terrible second, he wanted to hit him.
Then he saw the way Daniel leaned against the cane.
Instead, he wrapped his arms around his brother.
Daniel stiffened before returning the embrace.
“You got old,” Daniel whispered.
Alessandro laughed once, painfully.
“You look terrible.”
“Good to see you too.”
They stood together until Alessandro finally stepped back.
“Why?”
Daniel's expression changed.
“That's not a question with a short answer.”
“Seven years. Seven birthdays. Seven Christmases. You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I tried to come back.”
“When?”
“Three months after the accident.”
Alessandro stared.
“Where?”
“Your office.”
“I never saw you.”
“I know.”
Daniel reached into his jacket and produced a folded piece of paper.
It was a copy of an old security log.
Across the top was the Romano family company's address.
Under VISITOR DENIED, someone had written:
DANIEL ROMANO — ENTRY PROHIBITED BY EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Below it appeared Alessandro's authorization code.
“I didn't authorize this.”
Daniel studied his face.
“That's what I needed to know.”
Alessandro looked up.
“Who used my code?”
“That's one of the reasons I finally came back.”
He lowered himself into a chair.
“The accident wasn't an accident. I'd discovered something involving Richard Sinclair's development company and our shipping operations.”
“Richard?”
“His company was moving money through properties that didn't exist. When I confronted him, he told me to stop asking questions.”
“So he tried to kill you?”
“He arranged for me to be on that boat. Someone had tampered with the fuel system. I survived because I jumped before the fire spread.”
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
“Who pulled you out?”
“A fisherman. Margaret found me at the hospital.”
“Margaret Sinclair?”
Daniel nodded.
“She was Richard's wife. She knew enough to understand what her husband would do if he discovered I was alive.”
Alessandro looked toward the door.
“And then she disappeared.”
“Not immediately. She tried to help me recover evidence. Richard discovered what she was doing.”
“Five years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Why let Vanessa believe her mother died?”
Daniel looked away.
“She didn't.”
Alessandro felt another piece of his life break.
Daniel continued.
“Vanessa knew Margaret was hiding. But Richard convinced her that if she told anyone, her mother would be killed.”
“Why marry me?”
“I don't know how much of that was her decision.”
Before Alessandro could answer, the sitting-room door opened.
Vanessa entered carrying a small black jewelry case.
“I can answer that.”
Alessandro turned.
“I told you to stay outside.”
“I know. But if you're going to hate me, at least hate me for what I actually did.”
She placed the case on the table.
Inside lay a delicate gold bracelet.
A tiny engraved letter R hung from its clasp.
Daniel went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me before she disappeared.”
Daniel reached for it but stopped.
“That belonged to Rebecca.”
Alessandro frowned.
“The housekeeper?”
Daniel nodded.
“Margaret told me Rebecca was helping her gather proof against Richard.”
Vanessa wiped her face.
“Rebecca worked at our family home before she came here. My father kept accusing her of stealing.”
Alessandro remembered the complaint.
The unwanted advances.
The threats.
The reference to Margaret witnessing everything.
“Why was Rebecca working in my house?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Because my father wanted to know whether Daniel had contacted you.”
Silence filled the room.
Daniel stood abruptly.
“Where is Rebecca now?”
“Nobody knows,” Vanessa whispered.
Daniel's hand tightened around his cane.
“Then Richard found her.”
A sharp sound came from downstairs.
Not a gunshot.
A woman's cry.
Alessandro rushed into the hallway.
Below, Sophie stood near the dining-room entrance.
Richard Sinclair had one hand clamped around her wrist.
In the other, he held a cream envelope.
“Tell your employer what you stole from me!” Richard shouted.
Marco was already approaching.
Alessandro descended the staircase.
“Take your hand off her.”
Richard released Sophie.
“She was carrying confidential family property.”
Alessandro looked at the envelope.
“Give it back.”
Richard smiled bitterly.
“You have no idea what she's involved in.”
Sophie rubbed her wrist.
“I didn't take anything.”
Richard pointed at her.
“Ask her about her mother.”
Alessandro stopped.
“What about her mother?”
Richard looked directly at Sophie.
“Tell him why your mother changed her name twenty-six years ago.”
Sophie stared at him.
“My mother was married. That's why her name changed.”
Richard shook his head.
“No, sweetheart.”
He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a faded hospital photograph.
It showed a much younger Margaret Sinclair standing beside a woman holding a newborn baby.
The woman was Sophie's mother.
Richard turned the photograph over.
On the back, in faded blue ink, were five words.
SOPHIA. KEEP HER AWAY FROM RICHARD.
And beneath them was Margaret Sinclair's signature.
Alessandro slowly raised his eyes.
“Richard,” he said, “why would Margaret write that about a newborn baby?”
May you like
Richard's smile vanished.
“Because Sophie Miller isn't who she thinks she is.”
