Chapter 6 - THE AUNT WHO BUILT THE LIE
Sebastian moved in front of Amara.
Helena smiled.
“Still doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Protecting the person everyone else overlooks.”
Her gun remained steady.
Brooke stood beside her, wrists bound.
Celeste leaned against the doorframe.
A dark stain spread across the side of her cream dress.
Amara could not tell whether the blood was hers.
Sebastian’s voice went cold.
“Where’s Dominic?”
Helena laughed softly.
“You still think Dominic is in charge.”
Grant angled himself toward the wall.
Helena noticed.
“Don’t.”
Grant stopped.
“Your father is outside,” Helena said. “My men have him.”
Grant’s face tightened.
“You’re lying.”
“Perhaps.”
She looked toward the cassette player.
“Turn that off.”
Nobody moved.
Evelyn’s voice continued.
“Helena discovered the accounts years before the rest of us. She didn’t steal because she needed money. She stole because money buys dependency.”
Helena’s smile vanished.
“Turn it off.”
Amara reached toward the player.
Sebastian caught her wrist.
“No.”
Helena pointed the gun at Amara.
Sebastian stepped directly into its path.
“Then shoot me.”
“Sebastian,” Amara whispered.
He did not look back.
Helena stared at her nephew.
For one moment, something almost maternal crossed her face.
“You were always Isabella’s son.”
“And you were always jealous of her.”
Helena’s expression hardened.
The tape continued.
“Richard Warren discovered what Helena was doing. She convinced Dominic that Vittorio planned to blame him. Then she convinced Vittorio that Dominic was stealing. She kept brothers watching brothers while she moved millions.”
Celeste’s eyes closed.
Her father had been right.
He had not been destroyed by Vittorio.
He had been used by Helena.
Helena snapped, “Enough.”
She fired.
The cassette player shattered.
Brooke screamed.
Amara flinched.
Sebastian did not.
“You just answered the question.”
Helena stared at him.
“What question?”
“Whether the tape was real.”
For the first time, Helena lost control.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Grant saw it too.
Helena recovered.
“You have no idea what that recording means.”
“It means my mother died protecting the truth.”
“It means Isabella died believing lies about her own family.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“You hated her.”
“I loved her.”
“No.”
Helena’s mouth tightened.
“I loved all of you.”
Amara said quietly, “People who love you don’t spend twenty years arranging your fear.”
Helena looked at her.
“You sound like your mother.”
“I hope so.”
Helena’s face changed.
There it was.
Old hatred.
Personal hatred.
“You have her arrogance too.”
Amara felt Sebastian tense.
She understood suddenly.
This was not about her being a maid.
Not really.
Helena had known who Amara was from the day she entered the Romano estate.
“You hired me.”
Helena smiled.
“I recommended you.”
“Why?”
“To watch you.”
Sebastian turned slightly.
Helena continued.
“I spent years wondering whether Evelyn told you anything before she died.”
“I was nine.”
“Children remember strange things.”
“The blue birds.”
“Yes.”
Amara felt sick.
Every kind conversation.
Every gift Helena sent to the staff at Christmas.
Every question about Amara’s childhood.
All of it had been surveillance.
Sebastian’s voice lowered.
“You brought her into my house because you were searching for evidence.”
“And because I knew Celeste could be useful.”
Celeste opened her eyes.
Helena glanced toward her.
“Poor Celeste.”
Celeste’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
“Her father went to prison. Her mother lost everything. And all I had to do was let Dominic tell her Vittorio was responsible.”
Celeste whispered, “You forged the letters.”
“Some.”
Sebastian looked toward Celeste.
She could barely meet his eyes.
Helena continued cruelly.
“You were so desperate to avenge your father that you never wondered why the evidence arrived whenever your doubts about Sebastian weakened.”
Celeste’s lips trembled.
Amara almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Then she remembered the candlestick.
The bruises on her arm.
The necklace planted in her pocket.
Manipulated did not mean innocent.
Celeste seemed to understand that too.
She looked at Amara.
“I’m sorry.”
Helena rolled her eyes.
“How moving.”
Amara did not answer.
Not yet.
Helena pointed toward the metal box.
“Give me the documents.”
Sebastian said, “No.”
“I’m not asking you.”
She aimed at Brooke.
Celeste moved instinctively.
Helena smiled.
“There. That is why hostages are useful.”
Brooke began crying harder.
“Celeste, please.”
Celeste whispered, “It’s okay.”
It clearly was not.
Amara looked down at the brass key from the box.
Something bothered her.
Her mother had hidden records, a tape, and a key.
A key to what?
Helena wanted the documents.
Maybe the most important evidence was not here at all.
Amara asked, “What does the key open?”
Helena’s eyes flicked toward her hand.
Tiny reaction.
Enough.
Sebastian noticed.
“So you don’t know.”
Helena’s jaw tightened.
Amara looked at the key.
Her mother had expected someone to find the box.
The key had a number engraved into one side.
Grant saw it.
“Safe-deposit box.”
Helena raised the gun.
“No.”
Amara smiled despite herself.
“That’s it.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“Bank?”
“My mother used First National.”
Helena’s composure cracked.
“Give me the key.”
Sebastian took it from Amara and slid it into his pocket.
“Come get it.”
Helena’s face went cold.
Then a voice sounded behind her.
“Drop the gun.”
Dominic stood in the hallway.
His weapon was aimed at Helena.
Sebastian stared.
Helena did not turn.
“You disappointing little brother.”
Dominic laughed.
“You were going to kill the girls.”
“You were supposed to keep them downstairs.”
“And you were supposed to let me leave the country after this.”
“You believed that?”
“No.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I stopped believing you about six years ago.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew Father was alive.”
Dominic glanced at him.
“I suspected.”
Vittorio’s attack.
The funeral.
The missing body.
Helena had orchestrated more than anyone understood.
Dominic looked at Celeste.
“I’m sorry about your father.”
Celeste’s face twisted.
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I learned too late what Helena did to Richard.”
Helena laughed.
“And now you want absolution?”
“No.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“I want you dead.”
The tension snapped.
Helena turned.
A gunshot exploded.
Brooke screamed.
Sebastian pulled Amara down.
Grant fired toward the ceiling to force separation.
Celeste lunged at Brooke.
Dominic crashed into Helena.
The weapon slid across the floor.
For three violent seconds, nobody could tell who had control.
Then Helena broke free.
She grabbed Celeste by the wounded side.
Celeste cried out.
Helena dragged her toward the stairs.
“Follow me and she dies.”
Sebastian rose.
Dominic aimed.
“Let her go.”
Helena smiled.
“You always were weak when women cried.”
Then she disappeared down the stairs with Celeste.
Brooke collapsed against Amara.
Grant ran after them.
Sebastian started to follow.
Dominic caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
Sebastian swung toward him.
“My fiancée is bleeding.”
“Your former fiancée,” Dominic said.
Sebastian’s face became dangerous.
Dominic raised both hands.
“Wrong time.”
He looked toward the window.
“Helena isn’t trying to escape.”
“What?”
“She wants the key.”
“She can’t get it.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“She doesn’t need to.”
He looked at Amara.
“She already knows which bank.”
Amara’s stomach dropped.
Dominic continued.
“And if Evelyn used box 317, Helena knows something you don’t.”
“What?”
“The box was never in Evelyn’s name.”
Amara stared.
“Whose name?”
Dominic looked directly at Sebastian.
“Isabella Romano.”
The room fell silent.
Sebastian’s dead mother had owned the safe-deposit box.
May you like
And if Helena knew that—
she could already have access.
