Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WASN'T SUPPOSED TO EXIST
Gabriel Romano had spent thirty-two years believing his mother was dead.
He did not run toward the front entrance when Marcus said her access code had opened the east gate.
He did something that frightened Mia more.
He became completely still.
The mansion alarm screamed through the halls.
Guests outside the library were beginning to notice. Security personnel were already moving through the estate, quietly directing donors toward the ballroom while pretending there was nothing unusual happening.
Gabriel's eyes remained on Marcus.
“Lock the house.”
Marcus touched his earpiece. “Already happening.”
“No one leaves.”
Cassandra looked toward the door.
Gabriel noticed.
“You especially.”
Her face tightened. “This is insane.”
Arthur Bell still stood near the desk, pale and shaking.
The old butler looked as though the alarm had dragged him backward through decades he had spent trying to forget.
Mia glanced at him.
“You know who's in that car.”
Arthur didn't answer.
Gabriel turned.
“Arthur.”
The old man closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
That one word altered everything.
Gabriel moved toward him.
“You told me my mother died.”
“I told you what your father ordered me to tell you.”
“My father told me she died.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel's jaw hardened.
“And now a car is coming up my driveway using her security code.”
Arthur swallowed.
“I prayed I would never see that code again.”
Cassandra gave a humorless laugh.
“This is ridiculous. Anyone could have stolen an old access code.”
Marcus looked at her.
“That code hasn't existed in the active system for thirty years.”
Silence.
Mia felt the hair rise along her arms.
Gabriel looked at Marcus. “Then how did the gate accept it?”
“That is what concerns me.”
Marcus held up his phone.
“The code was restored to the system forty-three minutes ago.”
Gabriel's gaze went cold.
“From where?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Inside the house.”
Cassandra stopped breathing for half a second.
Mia saw it.
So did Gabriel.
“Which terminal?” he asked.
Marcus answered quietly.
“Your private study.”
Everyone looked toward the laptop.
Toward the flash drive.
Toward Cassandra.
She shook her head immediately.
“No.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“I was here with all of you.”
“Not forty-three minutes ago.”
Her expression hardened.
“You cannot seriously think I brought some stranger here pretending to be your dead mother.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“I don't know what to think yet.”
“Then don't look at me like I'm guilty.”
“I am looking at you like someone who lied to me twice in one hour.”
Her cheeks flushed.
Outside, tires rolled across gravel.
Marcus looked at the security feed.
“The vehicle is stopping.”
Gabriel moved first.
“Stay here.”
Mia took one step after him.
He looked back.
“You stay too.”
She hated how relieved she felt.
Then Arthur spoke.
“She should come.”
Gabriel turned.
Arthur was staring at Mia.
“Why?”
“Because if it is who I think it is, Mia may be the reason she came.”
Mia's stomach dropped.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Arthur looked toward the phone in her hand.
“The recording.”
Cassandra suddenly spoke too quickly.
“This is absurd.”
Arthur ignored her.
“Your father designed contingencies, sir. Layers. If anyone ever accessed the Romano trusts improperly, certain people would be notified.”
Gabriel's stare sharpened.
“Which people?”
Arthur shook his head.
“I don't know all of them.”
“But you know her.”
“I knew her once.”
Gabriel waited.
Arthur finally said, “Your mother.”
Nobody moved.
Then the front doorbell rang.
Once.
A perfectly ordinary sound.
Mia thought it was somehow worse than the alarm.
Gabriel walked into the hall.
Marcus followed with two security men.
Mia came next despite Gabriel's earlier instruction.
Arthur followed her.
Cassandra remained behind for three seconds.
Then she came too.
The mansion's grand entryway still glittered from the gala.
Crystal chandeliers.
White marble.
Fresh orchids.
Through the glass-paneled doors stood a woman in a cream coat.
She looked to be in her late sixties.
Silver threaded through dark hair pulled into a low knot.
She carried no luggage.
No purse.
Only a narrow leather folder held against her side.
Two guards stood between her and the door.
She didn't seem afraid of them.
Gabriel stopped ten feet away.
The woman looked through the glass.
Her face changed.
Not shock.
Pain.
Recognition.
Her lips moved.
Gabriel could not hear through the door.
But Mia saw the word.
Gabriel.
Marcus looked at his boss.
Gabriel's expression was unreadable.
“Open it.”
“Boss—”
“Open the door.”
Marcus gave the signal.
One lock disengaged.
Then another.
The door opened.
Warm Miami air entered the marble foyer.
The woman stepped inside.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
She looked at Gabriel as if trying to memorize a face she had been denied for decades.
He stared back.
Finally:
“What is your name?”
The woman almost smiled.
Not because the question was funny.
Because it hurt.
“Isabella Romano.”
Gabriel's face did not change.
“My mother was Isabella Romano.”
“I know.”
“She died in 1994.”
“No.”
Arthur lowered his head.
Gabriel saw it.
His eyes turned toward the old man.
“You knew.”
Arthur looked broken.
“I knew she lived.”
Gabriel crossed the space between them.
Mia had never seen him move with so much anger.
“You watched me bury an empty coffin?”
Arthur's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You stood beside me.”
“Yes.”
“I was nine years old.”
“I know.”
Gabriel grabbed the back of a chair instead of Arthur.
His knuckles went white.
Isabella spoke softly.
“Don't blame him.”
Gabriel turned on her.
“Don't tell me who to blame.”
She flinched.
It was small.
Real.
“You're right.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because someone opened something that your father buried.”
“The trusts?”
“No.”
Cassandra stepped into the foyer.
Isabella saw her.
Everything changed.
Fear vanished from Isabella's face.
Something colder replaced it.
“You.”
Cassandra stopped.
They clearly knew each other.
Gabriel noticed immediately.
“You've met?”
Cassandra recovered.
“No.”
Isabella laughed once.
Quietly.
“You've always lied badly when frightened, Caroline.”
Mia's breath caught.
Gabriel looked at Cassandra.
“Caroline?”
Cassandra's face went colorless.
Mia remembered the final words from Gabriel's father's recording.
Her real name is—
Gabriel took one slow step toward Cassandra.
“What did she call you?”
Cassandra stared at Isabella.
“She's confused.”
Isabella's expression hardened.
“No. I am old. I am tired. But I am not confused.”
Gabriel looked between them.
“Explain.”
Isabella held up the leather folder.
“I will.”
“Now.”
“Not with eighty people in your house.”
Gabriel glanced toward Marcus.
“Clear the gala.”
Cassandra snapped, “Gabriel, you cannot throw out your donors because some stranger appeared at the door.”
He didn't look at her.
“Marcus.”
His security chief nodded.
“It'll be done.”
Isabella watched Cassandra closely.
Then she looked at Mia.
Her eyes stopped.
Mia felt it immediately.
Recognition again.
Not the same kind she had shown Gabriel.
Something stranger.
“How do you know me?” Mia asked.
Isabella said nothing.
Cassandra stepped backward.
Arthur saw her.
“Don't.”
She turned sharply.
“Don't what?”
“Run.”
That was when Cassandra moved.
She sprinted toward the west corridor.
Marcus's men reacted instantly.
But the lights went out.
Every chandelier.
Every lamp.
Every security screen.
Darkness swallowed the mansion.
Someone screamed from the ballroom.
Mia heard footsteps.
Fast.
Then a hand grabbed her wrist.
She gasped.
A voice whispered beside her.
“Don't move.”
Gabriel.
Seconds later, emergency lights flickered on.
Red illumination filled the foyer.
Marcus drew his weapon.
The main doors were still locked.
Arthur stood against the wall.
Isabella was beside the staircase.
Gabriel still held Mia's wrist.
But Cassandra was gone.
Marcus cursed under his breath.
“How did she get past us?”
Then one of the security guards shouted from the library.
“Mr. Romano!”
They ran back.
The study door stood open.
Gabriel's laptop remained on the desk.
The flash drive was gone.
So was Cassandra.
Marcus checked the window.
Locked.
“The house is sealed.”
Gabriel looked around.
“She knows another way out.”
Arthur went pale.
Gabriel saw it.
“What?”
Arthur whispered, “The service tunnels.”
Mia stared.
“What service tunnels?”
Arthur looked toward Isabella.
She answered.
“The ones beneath this mansion.”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“You're telling me there are tunnels under my house that I don't know about?”
“Your father sealed them after I disappeared.”
Marcus turned toward the floor plan on his tablet.
“There are no tunnels on current architectural records.”
Isabella looked at him.
“They wouldn't be.”
Gabriel stepped closer to his mother.
“You have about thirty seconds before I stop accepting partial answers.”
She opened the folder.
Inside were old photographs.
Documents.
One showed Gabriel as a little boy beside Isabella.
Another showed Isabella standing beside Gabriel's father.
A third showed a much younger Arthur.
Then Gabriel saw the final photograph.
Cassandra.
Except she was younger.
Maybe sixteen.
And underneath the picture, someone had written a different name.
CAROLINE VALE.
Gabriel read it twice.
“Who is Caroline Vale?”
Isabella looked toward the empty hallway Cassandra had disappeared into.
“The daughter of the woman who tried to destroy this family thirty-two years ago.”
Mia whispered, “Why?”
Isabella closed the folder.
“Because Caroline believes the Romano fortune belongs to her.”
Gabriel's stare hardened.
“It doesn't.”
Isabella looked directly at him.
“No.”
Then she glanced at Mia again.
“But some of it might belong to her.”
Mia frowned.
“Why are you looking at me?”
Isabella's face softened with terrible sadness.
“Because it might belong to you too.”
Mia stared at her.
Gabriel turned sharply.
“What does that mean?”
Before Isabella could answer, Marcus's phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
“Boss.”
Gabriel was visibly losing patience.
“What now?”
Marcus's expression changed.
“We found Cassandra.”
“Where?”
“Security camera in the underground garage.”
Gabriel took the phone.
The footage showed Cassandra entering a black SUV.
She was carrying the flash drive.
She opened the passenger door.
Someone was already inside.
Mia leaned closer.
The man turned toward the camera for only a second.
Arthur made a broken sound behind them.
Gabriel looked at him.
“You know him?”
Arthur whispered, “No.”
Isabella did.
Her hand went to her mouth.
Gabriel turned.
“Who is he?”
Her answer came barely above a whisper.
“The man who helped your father fake my death.”
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Isabella continued.
“And the man your father told me was dead twenty years ago.”
The SUV accelerated toward the garage gate.
Marcus started issuing orders.
But Mia kept staring at the frozen image of the stranger.
Because on his left hand was a heavy silver ring.
The same ring her father kept hidden in an old photograph inside his bedroom drawer.
The same man had once been standing beside Mia's father.
And suddenly she understood something far worse.
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This story had not begun when Cassandra threatened her.
It had begun before Mia was born.
