Chapter 4 - THE FATHER AT HER BEDSIDE
Dalia reached for the call button.
Daniel caught her wrist.
Not hard.
He never needed to use much force.
That was part of what had made him frightening.
“You don’t want to do that.”
Her entire body went cold.
“How did you find me?”
“You’ve always underestimated how much of your life passed through systems I controlled.”
“I disappeared three months ago.”
“And yet here you are.”
His gaze traveled over the bruises on her face.
Someone else’s violence irritated him.
That almost made Dalia laugh.
“You didn’t put me in that cistern.”
“No.”
She believed him.
Daniel preferred clean methods.
Burial in a storm was emotional.
Messy.
“You know who did.”
“I have suspicions.”
“Tell me.”
“Give me the key.”
Dalia’s hand instinctively moved toward her chest.
The necklace was gone.
Rowan had it.
Daniel noticed.
“Where is it?”
She looked away.
His face changed.
“Who has it?”
She said nothing.
“Dalia.”
“Go to hell.”
For the first time, real emotion crossed his face.
He leaned closer.
“Do you have any idea what you stole?”
“Evidence.”
“No.”
“Records.”
“No.”
He released her wrist and stood.
“You stole protection.”
She frowned.
Daniel looked toward the door.
“When people believe you possess something valuable, they keep you alive until they find it.”
“They buried me.”
“Yes.”
“Your theory needs work.”
“They thought the ledger was elsewhere. They needed you dead because you recognized the names.”
Her heart hammered.
“What names?”
“You saw Dominic Fiero.”
“One name.”
“Who else?”
“I don’t remember.”
Daniel studied her carefully.
She remembered.
Three Fiero names appeared across the ledger.
Dominic Fiero.
Anthony Fiero.
And Rowan Fiero.
But Rowan’s payments made no sense.
They began four years earlier.
Amounts entered under his corporate identification.
Hundreds of thousands.
Yet Daniel had once laughed after a phone call and said, The king signs nothing himself anymore.
Dalia had realized the entries might be fabricated.
Someone was using Rowan’s identity.
That was why she had taken the ledger.
Not to save him.
At the time she didn’t know him.
She had taken it because Daniel intended to eventually place it where authorities would discover it.
Rowan was being prepared as a scapegoat.
“I know what you were doing,” Dalia said.
Daniel’s expression tightened.
“You were building a case against Rowan.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You said the succession window.”
Daniel went still.
“I heard you that night.”
His control cracked.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
He looked toward her stomach again.
“When did you know?”
“The baby?”
“Yes.”
“After I left.”
For one terrible second, pain crossed his face.
Real pain.
Then calculation returned.
“You should have told me.”
“So you could put the baby’s name on another offshore account?”
“I never would have hurt you.”
“You used my signature on shell companies.”
“I protected you.”
“You turned me into paperwork.”
“I gave you a life.”
“You gave me a role.”
The words hit him.
Good.
Dalia sat straighter despite the ache in her body.
“You didn’t love me. You needed someone clean standing beside you.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I did love you.”
“Then you were terrible at it.”
The door opened.
Bobby entered first.
Daniel stepped back.
The enormous mastiff emitted a sound so low it barely qualified as a growl.
Rowan followed.
No coat.
No tie.
No visible weapon.
Daniel smiled.
“There he is.”
Rowan’s eyes moved once over Dalia.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Then he looked at Daniel.
“How did you get in?”
“Money.”
“This clinic is mine.”
“Then you should pay your nurses better.”
Rowan’s expression did not change.
Bobby moved between Daniel and the bed.
Daniel looked down at him.
“I always hated that dog.”
Bobby growled louder.
“He remembers character,” Rowan said.
Daniel laughed.
“I expected you to be more upset.”
“I am.”
“No threats?”
“I stopped threatening men who understand consequences.”
Daniel looked at Dalia.
“You gave him the key.”
“Yes.”
“You have no idea who he is.”
Dalia looked at Rowan.
“He’s the man who climbed into a flooded hole to get me out.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“That impressed you?”
“It established a useful contrast.”
Rowan almost smiled.
Daniel noticed.
The room changed.
“You think this woman is going to save you?” Daniel asked.
“From?”
“My sister.”
Rowan folded his arms.
“Celeste needs saving from me?”
Daniel’s laugh became genuine.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Explain.”
“Celeste isn’t marrying you because Dominic arranged a merger.”
“I assumed there was more.”
“She’s marrying you because you’re dying.”
Dalia stared.
Rowan did not react.
Daniel continued.
“Not tonight. Not tomorrow. But eventually.”
“What are you talking about?” Dalia demanded.
Daniel looked at Rowan.
“Headaches?”
Silence.
“Fatigue?”
Rowan’s face changed almost imperceptibly.
“Occasional nausea after dinner?”
Dalia’s stomach turned.
Daniel smiled.
“Ask your doctor why your blood work disappeared twice this year.”
Rowan stepped toward him.
Bobby rose.
Daniel raised his hands.
“There. Finally.”
“Who is poisoning me?”
Daniel said nothing.
Rowan grabbed his collar and drove him against the wall.
The door slammed.
“Name.”
Daniel smiled despite the pressure.
“Your family.”
Dalia whispered, “Dominic.”
“Maybe.”
“Celeste?”
Daniel’s eyes flickered.
That was enough.
Rowan released him slowly.
“How?”
Daniel straightened his shirt.
“I’m not giving you everything for free.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“No.”
“Then keep eating dinner.”
Rowan’s face became terrifyingly calm.
Dalia understood now why people feared him.
“You came into my clinic,” Rowan said, “approached a woman someone tried to murder on my property, and admitted knowledge of an attempt on my life.”
Daniel shrugged.
“You need me.”
“No.”
Rowan looked toward the door.
“You need to believe that.”
Marcus entered with two men.
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
“What is this?”
“Hospital trespass.”
“You’re joking.”
“Not remotely.”
“You can’t hold me.”
“I don’t need to.”
Rowan stepped aside.
“I need five minutes to copy your phone.”
Daniel reached for his pocket.
Marcus was faster.
He took the device.
Daniel lunged.
Bobby moved.
The dog did not bite.
He simply planted one enormous body between Daniel and everyone else.
Daniel stopped.
Dalia almost smiled.
Marcus escorted him away.
Before leaving, Daniel looked at her.
“If Rowan has the ledger, you’ve already killed him.”
The door closed.
Silence.
Dalia looked at Rowan.
“What did he mean?”
Rowan pulled the brass key from his pocket.
“We’re going to find out.”
The safe-deposit box was located in a private bank in Stamford.
Three hours later, Rowan, Dalia, Marcus, and Bobby entered through an underground garage.
Dalia wore borrowed clothes and a baseball cap.
Rowan disliked the fact that she was out of bed.
She had responded by reminding him that she was pregnant, not unconscious.
The box contained a flash drive, two passports in Dalia’s name, stacks of cash Daniel had hidden beneath her identity, and a thick leather ledger.
Dalia opened it.
“Here.”
She showed Rowan the payments.
Dominic Fiero.
Anthony Fiero.
Rowan Fiero.
Rowan’s expression hardened.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“But the payments under his name continued until five years ago.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“Meaning someone reused his credentials.”
Dalia turned several pages.
“There.”
A handwritten code beside Rowan’s name.
R-F7.
Marcus stared.
“I’ve seen that.”
“Where?”
“Internal accounting.”
Rowan looked at him.
Marcus pulled out his phone.
“R-F7 isn’t Rowan Fiero.”
“What is it?”
“Restricted File Seven.”
Rowan went still.
His father had maintained restricted files in the basement archive.
The basement staff was forbidden to enter.
The basement Dominic controlled.
Dalia’s fingers tightened on the page.
“These aren’t payments from Rowan.”
“No,” Marcus said.
“They’re payments from an account someone disguised using his initials.”
Rowan flipped to the final pages.
One entry had been written only six months earlier.
M Project — final phase upon marriage.
Below it:
Transfer voting authority. Confirm medical incapacity. Activate R-F7 evidence.
Dalia read it twice.
“They plan to poison you until you appear medically incompetent.”
Marcus’s face went pale.
“Then Celeste, as his wife, gains control under the family trust.”
Rowan looked at the ledger.
“And if anyone investigates…”
“They find financial records pointing to you,” Dalia finished.
Money laundering.
Criminal conspiracy.
Corporate theft.
Everything Daniel had built.
Rowan would either be declared incapable or arrested.
Possibly both.
Dalia turned the last page.
A photograph slipped out.
She picked it up.
Four people stood beside a yacht.
Daniel.
Celeste.
Dominic.
And a woman Dalia had never seen before.
Rowan had.
His face changed.
“That’s my mother.”
Dalia looked at him.
“You told me she died when you were a child.”
“She did.”
Marcus stared at the date printed in the corner.
The photograph had been taken seven years after her supposed death.
Rowan’s voice dropped.
“Apparently she didn’t.”
May you like
And for the first time, the conspiracy became larger than his company.
It reached into the oldest lie of his life.
