Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO SURVIVED HIS OWN DEATH
The police and federal investigators were already involved.
Alexei’s security team did not get to run the case alone.
That irritated Dmitri.
It reassured Maria.
Viktor Sokolov had lived under at least three identities since his supposed death.
The burned body in his car had likely belonged to someone else.
Investigators would determine whom.
Maria wanted no details.
Enough horror existed already.
Then a bank trail surfaced.
For nine years, Viktor had received money through shell companies connected to a Petrov subsidiary.
Not Alexei’s direct authorization.
His father’s old network.
Mikhail Petrov had been dead seven years.
Yet payments continued.
Someone inside the modern company had kept Viktor funded.
Alexei ordered a full independent audit.
Dmitri frowned.
“You want outsiders inside everything?”
“Yes.”
“Alexei—”
“If someone used my company to maintain a dead man, I want someone who does not care about my last name finding it.”
Maria heard that.
So did Dmitri.
The audit found a department called Legacy Risk Services.
Annual budget:
$3.4 million.
Purpose:
Old liability resolution.
Invoices vague.
Consultants untraceable.
Approval chain ended with one executive.
Sergei Petrov.
Alexei’s uncle.
Mikhail’s younger brother.
Sergei had worked quietly in the company for decades.
Never flashy.
Never photographed.
Family.
Alexei stared at the file.
“No.”
Dmitri said nothing.
Then Sergei arrived at the estate voluntarily.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
Calm.
He embraced Alexei.
“I heard what happened.”
Alexei did not return the embrace.
“Sit.”
Sergei looked around.
Saw Maria.
Recognition flickered.
“You.”
Maria noticed.
“You know me?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Alexei’s face hardened.
“You know exactly who she is.”
Sergei sighed.
Then looked at Maria.
“You have Rafael’s eyes.”
Her blood went cold.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“Was he killed?”
Sergei’s jaw tightened.
“Not by us.”
Us.
Maria heard it.
Then:
“Who?”
“Viktor.”
According to Sergei, Rafael discovered Viktor diverting restricted cargo and skimming money.
Rafael threatened to report it.
Viktor falsified manifests, made Rafael appear responsible, then arranged his disappearance.
But Rafael survived.
Maria stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Your father did not die in 1999.”
The room disappeared.
Sergei said Mikhail helped Rafael leave Chicago under another identity because Viktor was hunting him.
Maria stood.
“My father abandoned two children?”
“He believed staying would get you killed.”
“Did my mother know?”
“Yes.”
That hurt differently.
Then:
“Where is he?”
Sergei looked away.
“Rafael died twelve years ago.”
Real death this time.
Pancreatic cancer.
Arizona.
Maria gripped the chair.
“Did he ever ask about us?”
Sergei reached into his coat.
Alexei’s guards moved instantly.
He stopped.
Slowly withdrew an envelope.
Old.
Sealed.
MARIA AND CARLOS.
“He wrote this before he died.”
Maria stared at it.
“Why do you have it?”
Sergei’s face collapsed slightly.
“Because your mother refused to take it.”
The betrayal stretched in another direction.
Her father had written.
May you like
Her mother had refused the letter.
And Sergei had kept it for twelve years.
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