Chapter 2 - THE SISTER I HAD ALREADY BURIED
I had spent seventeen years believing my sister was dead.
But the woman behind the bookcase remembered things no stranger could have known.
"Roo, remember the blue bicycle?"
My stomach tightened.
When I was seven, Elena painted my old bicycle blue because I refused to ride anything that had belonged to her.
"Remember what you called it?"
I swallowed.
"The Blue Dragon."
Her voice broke.
"You crashed it into Mrs. Donnelly's rosebushes."
I pressed my forehead against the wood.
"Elena?"
"Please open the door."
I found the concealed release behind the third shelf and pulled it.
The bookcase shifted.
A narrow door appeared.
I entered with my phone flashlight raised.
A woman stood against the far wall, wearing a torn gray coat.
Her dark hair was tangled, and dried blood marked her temple.
She was older than the sister I remembered.
Thinner.
Exhausted.
But her eyes were unmistakable.
"Roman."
She reached toward me.
For several seconds, I couldn't move.
Then I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around her.
Elena began sobbing against my shoulder.
I had buried an empty coffin.
I had visited her grave.
I had spent years hating myself for not being there the night she supposedly died.
And now she was alive.
When we finally separated, I noticed bruises around her wrist.
"Who did this?"
She looked toward the narrow passage behind her.
"Victor Crane."
My expression changed.
"Why?"
"Because I came back for something your father hid."
I glanced toward Mia, who was standing in the study doorway.
Sophie had begun waking.
The children needed to be somewhere safe.
I called Luca Bennett, my personal driver and the only security employee whose loyalty I had personally verified outside my father's old organization.
"Come upstairs. Don't tell anyone."
When he arrived, I asked him to take Mia and Sophie to the family sitting room and find someone trustworthy to help care for them.
Mia refused to leave.
"What about Mama?"
I crouched again.
"Where did you last see her?"
"In the infirmary."
The light I'd noticed beneath the infirmary door suddenly made sense.
"Why is she there?"
"Mr. Crane said she fell."
Elena grabbed my arm.
"Roman, Grace didn't fall."
I turned.
"What?"
"She helped me enter the house through the old service passage. Victor caught us near the infirmary."
My blood went cold.
"Where is Grace now?"
"I heard Victor lock her inside."
I called my private physician, Dr. Paige Nolan, and instructed Luca to bring her to the infirmary immediately.
Then I turned toward Elena.
"Why didn't you call me?"
Her expression became painfully complicated.
"Because I didn't know whether you'd let me live long enough to explain."
I stared.
She looked away.
"Your father told me you had joined him."
"Joined him in what?"
She began trembling.
"Seventeen years ago, I discovered that money was disappearing from a charitable trust your mother established before she died."
I frowned.
"What trust?"
"The Beatrice Carter Family Assistance Trust."
I remembered the name.
My mother had established it to support the children of employees who died or were permanently injured at work.
My father administered it after her death.
"He was stealing from it," Elena whispered.
My chest tightened.
"And when I discovered what he was doing, he threatened to make me disappear."
I shook my head.
"No."
Elena looked at me.
"He didn't simply threaten me, Roman."
She touched the scar near her temple.
"He arranged the fire everyone believed killed me."
My entire body went cold.
May you like
Then Elena added:
"And according to the documents I found, you signed the order that allowed him to do it."
