Chapter 2 - THE SECRET NORA RAN FROM
The SUV crossed Brooklyn under armed escort.
Nora refused to speak.
Alex gave her twelve minutes.
Then fifteen.
By the time they entered the underground garage of Gene Tower, his patience was gone.
Nanya sat between them clutching her backpack.
The child had stopped crying.
That worried him more.
Children were supposed to cry after bullets.
They were not supposed to become quiet as though danger was familiar.
Alex looked at Nora.
“How many times?”
She stared ahead.
“How many times what?”
“Has someone come after you?”
No answer.
“Nora.”
She whispered:
“Three.”
Alex’s jaw tightened.
“With Nanya present?”
“Twice.”
He went still.
Roman, sitting in the front passenger seat, looked back.
“When?”
Nora’s eyes dropped.
“Once when she was five.”
“What happened?”
“Someone broke into our apartment.”
“Police?”
“I didn’t call.”
Alex almost exploded.
“You didn’t call?”
“Because the man was wearing an NYPD identification badge.”
Silence.
Roman’s expression changed.
“Real?”
“I don’t know.”
Alex leaned closer.
“What did he want?”
“The same thing everyone wants.”
“What?”
Nora looked toward Nanya.
The child was staring out the window.
Then Nora whispered:
“Proof.”
Alex’s anger became colder.
“Proof of what?”
“That Nanya is yours.”
He stopped breathing.
Nora continued.
“I knew exactly what would happen if your family found out.”
“My family doesn’t decide who my child is.”
“You were twenty-eight.”
“I was not a child.”
“You were being prepared to take over from your father.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed.
“My father was already dead.”
“Yes.”
“That left my uncle.”
Dominic Gene.
Current chairman of the Gene family’s legitimate holding companies.
The man who had mentored Alex after his father’s murder.
The man who taught him rules.
Never show fear.
Never forgive disloyalty.
Never let bloodline disputes become public.
Alex felt something cold settle in his stomach.
“Dominic knew about you?”
Nora nodded.
“How?”
“He followed me.”
“When?”
“Before I left.”
Alex stared.
“You disappeared because of Dominic?”
“I disappeared because he came to my apartment.”
Nanya looked over.
“Uncle Dominic?”
Alex’s head snapped toward her.
“You know that name?”
Nanya realized she had said too much.
Nora closed her eyes.
“Nanya.”
The girl looked down.
Alex crouched slightly to her level.
“Sweetheart.”
Nora looked sharply at him.
Alex ignored it.
“Have you met Dominic?”
Nanya shook her head.
“Then how do you know him?”
“Mama keeps his picture.”
Nora’s face drained.
“Where?”
Nanya opened her backpack.
Nora reached for it.
Alex stopped her.
“Nora.”
The warning was quiet.
Nanya pulled out a school notebook.
Inside the back cover was a photograph.
Dominic Gene.
Older.
Standing beside Alex’s late father, Thomas.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Dominic’s face.
Beneath it, Nora had written:
IF HE FINDS US, CALL 911 AND RUN.
Alex stared.
Nanya whispered:
“I thought he was a bad uncle.”
Alex’s voice barely worked.
“Why did you keep this in her bag?”
Nora looked ashamed.
“In case something happened to me.”
That sentence struck the vehicle like a gunshot.
Alex turned toward Roman.
“Safe house.”
Roman nodded.
“Which?”
“Mine.”
Nora immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Alex stared.
“You don’t get to choose anymore.”
“I know your house.”
“So?”
“So does Dominic.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed.
“Not the townhouse.”
Roman looked at him.
Then understood.
The Hudson property.
An old fortified home nobody outside Alex’s closest security circle knew he owned.
They arrived forty minutes later.
Nanya stopped in the foyer.
The house was enormous.
Not flashy.
Old wood.
Stone fireplaces.
Tall windows overlooking the river.
“Do you live here?”
Alex looked at her.
“Sometimes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds boring.”
Roman walked away before Alex could see him smile.
Nora almost smiled too.
Then her expression vanished.
Alex led them into the study.
He locked the door.
“Nanya can stay with Roman.”
“No,” Nora said instantly.
Alex looked at the girl.
“Would you like hot chocolate?”
Nanya thought carefully.
“With marshmallows?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
Alex had never negotiated hot chocolate toppings in his life.
“As many as you want.”
“Dangerous answer.”
She followed Roman.
The second the door closed, Alex turned.
“Start at the beginning.”
Nora stood beside the fireplace.
“Your uncle came to me eight weeks after you left for Chicago.”
Alex remembered the trip.
A takeover.
Three months.
He had called Nora every day during the first week.
Then her number disconnected.
Her apartment emptied.
Her employer said she resigned.
He assumed she chose to leave.
He had hated her for it.
“He knew I was pregnant,” Nora said.
“How?”
“I had gone to a private clinic.”
Alex stared.
“Gene-owned?”
“At the time, I didn’t know.”
His blood cooled.
The Gene family held investment interests in dozens of medical practices.
Most through intermediaries.
“Dominic showed me my ultrasound.”
Alex’s face tightened.
“He had my medical record.”
“What did he say?”
“That if I kept the child, she would become a weakness.”
Alex’s hands curled.
“What else?”
“That your father died because he allowed emotion to interfere with succession.”
“My father was murdered over territory.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Alex went still.
Nora stepped closer.
“Dominic said your father died because he discovered someone inside Gene Holdings was laundering money through foster homes and adoption agencies.”
Roman’s earlier expression came back to Alex.
Medical systems.
Children.
Identity records.
He remembered rumors his father had investigated charitable subsidiaries before he died.
Nothing proven.
“Why would Nanya matter?”
Nora swallowed.
“Because the records were placed in a trust.”
“What trust?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know any of this?”
“Because your father left something with my father.”
Alex frowned.
“I never met your father.”
“He worked for Thomas Gene.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Daniel Ellis was an accountant.”
“For Gene Holdings?”
“For Thomas personally.”
Alex stared.
Nora continued.
“After your father died, mine disappeared.”
“You told me he died when you were sixteen.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me to.”
Alex laughed without humor.
“Apparently everybody enjoys telling you to disappear.”
Nora flinched.
He regretted it instantly.
“Sorry.”
She looked surprised.
Alex Gene apologizing.
Maybe Nanya had already damaged him.
Nora continued.
“My father resurfaced eight years ago.”
“When Nanya was born?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“To see her.”
“And?”
“He gave me a key.”
Nora pulled a thin chain from beneath her shirt.
A tiny brass key hung from it.
Alex stared.
“To what?”
“He said Thomas had created a box for his first biological grandchild.”
Alex stopped.
“My father knew I would have a child?”
“No.”
“He knew whoever came after you would eventually need leverage.”
“What is inside the box?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“My father refused to tell me.”
“Convenient.”
“He disappeared again three days later.”
Alex stepped closer.
“And Dominic?”
“He kept searching.”
“For the key?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he just kill you?”
Nora’s expression darkened.
“Because only I know the phrase that opens the second lock.”
Alex stared.
“What phrase?”
“I’m not telling you.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You understand who you’re talking to?”
“Yes.”
“Apparently better than you do.”
The door opened.
Roman entered.
His face was wrong.
“What?”
“We pulled facial recognition from the market shooters.”
“And?”
“One match.”
Roman placed a tablet on the desk.
Alex looked down.
The shooter was a former Gene enforcer.
Declared dead six years earlier.
Name:
Mason Burke.
Alex knew him.
He had attended the funeral.
Then Roman added:
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“His last official assignment before he died…”
Roman looked at Nora.
“…was protecting Thomas Gene.”
Alex’s father.
The room went silent.
Alex stared at the photograph.
A dead bodyguard.
A living shooter.
A hidden daughter.
A father whose death no longer made sense.
Then Nanya screamed from the hallway.
Alex was out of the chair before Roman.
They ran.
Nanya stood beside the kitchen doorway holding a white envelope.
Her face had gone pale.
“What happened?”
She pointed toward the counter.
“I found it under my cup.”
Roman immediately drew his weapon.
Nobody had entered the kitchen.
Security feeds showed nothing.
Alex took the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
Thomas Gene.
Alive.
Taken recently.
Standing beside Daniel Ellis.
Nora’s supposedly missing father.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
BOTH FATHERS SURVIVED.
ONLY ONE OF THEM IS STILL LOYAL.
