Chapter 11 - MAYA HAD KNOWN DEREK FIRST
Harper confronted Maya that night.
Her sister began crying before Harper finished.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try before I almost got killed.”
Maya flinched.
Harper immediately regretted the cruelty, but the anger remained.
Six years earlier, Maya had dated Derek briefly.
Only three months.
He became controlling quickly.
One night he attacked a bartender who spoke to her.
Derek was arrested.
Maya paid bail because he begged.
Then she ended the relationship and moved.
“Why didn’t you tell me when I started dating him?”
“I didn’t know it was the same Derek.”
Harper stared.
“You met him.”
“Once. At Christmas. He had changed his hair. He was heavier. And honestly, I saw him for maybe ten minutes.”
“When did you realize?”
Maya looked down.
“Six months ago.”
Harper stood.
“You knew for six months?”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
The words landed between them.
Maya explained that after recognizing Derek, she confronted him privately.
He threatened to tell Harper that Maya had once struggled with addiction and borrowed money from their parents.
Harper already knew about the addiction.
Maya did not know that.
Derek had created shame where none needed to exist.
Exactly his favorite weapon.
Harper sat beside her sister.
“I would have believed you.”
“I know that now.”
They cried together.
Not because everything was fixed.
Because truth had finally entered the room.
Meanwhile Derek disappeared.
Without Salvatore’s network, he had fewer places to hide.
Roman’s people refused to hunt him illegally.
Harper noticed.
“You could find him faster your old way.”
“Yes.”
“But you won’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Roman looked at her.
“Because I want a life where people don’t have to be afraid of what I’m capable of.”
Harper understood exactly what he meant.
Two days later, Derek called her.
No threats.
No shouting.
“Can we talk?”
“No.”
“I need to tell you where the rest of the money is.”
“Tell the police.”
“They’ll kill me.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then Derek whispered,
“Marcus.”
Harper frowned.
Marcus was cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Derek laughed weakly.
“You think he spent six years in protection?”
“Yes.”
“He spent three.”
The line went dead.
Harper told Roman.
Roman called his brother.
No answer.
Federal marshals checked Marcus’s apartment.
Empty.
Computer gone.
Phone destroyed.
Then investigators discovered Marcus had accessed evidence storage twelve hours earlier.
One item was missing.
Rebecca Lang Financial Ledger.
Harper asked, “Who is Rebecca Lang?”
Roman looked confused.
The ledger had nothing to do with Harper.
But it mattered to Salvatore.
Marcus had risked everything to steal it.
Then Harper opened the first scanned page.
Her stomach dropped.
Rebecca Lang was not an accountant.
May you like
She was Roman’s mother.
And according to the ledger, she had been stealing millions from Salvatore before she died.
