Chapter 5 - THE SECRET HER FATHER TOOK TO HIS GRAVE
Grace didn't sleep.
At four in the morning, she sat beside her mother's bed.
Helen was awake.
She had been awake for nearly an hour, saying nothing.
Grace held the old photograph.
“Mom.”
Helen closed her eyes.
That was enough.
Grace's stomach dropped.
“You knew.”
“I knew pieces.”
“Who was Dad?”
Helen's voice broke.
“The man who loved you.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
“No.”
Grace rarely spoke sharply to her mother.
Tonight she couldn't stop.
“Was Daniel Bennett his real name?”
Helen nodded.
“Yes.”
“Did he work for Adrian Voss?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Grace stood.
The room spun.
“My whole childhood was a lie.”
“No.”
“He told me he worked for a logistics company.”
“He did.”
“After working for criminals?”
Helen's eyes filled with tears.
“Your father spent the rest of his life trying to become someone else.”
Grace looked toward the rain-streaked window.
“Did he steal from the DeLucas?”
“No.”
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why were they looking for him?”
Helen's hands trembled.
“Because he knew what happened the night Adrian Voss disappeared.”
Grace turned.
“What happened?”
Helen looked frightened.
Even after twenty years.
“Your father never told me everything.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That there had been a betrayal.”
“By who?”
“I don't know.”
Grace couldn't believe her.
“You expect me to believe Dad was mixed up with people like Dominic and never told you names?”
“I knew enough names to know I wanted none of them in our lives.”
“Adrian Voss?”
“Yes.”
“The DeLucas?”
Helen hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
Helen looked toward the door.
Then whispered.
“Sterling.”
Grace's heart stopped.
“Sterling?”
“The woman from the gala…”
“Vanessa.”
“Her family?”
Helen nodded.
Grace remembered Senator Richard Sterling arriving after she'd grabbed Vanessa.
His immediate attempt to dismiss the confrontation.
His fear of Dominic.
“What did the Sterlings have to do with Dad?”
“I don't know.”
Grace could tell that was true.
Dominic appeared in the doorway.
He had heard enough.
“Richard Sterling's father was city attorney during the Voss investigation.”
Helen went pale.
“You.”
Dominic entered slowly.
“I won't hurt you.”
Helen's expression hardened.
“Your father said the same thing to Daniel once.”
Dominic stopped.
Grace looked between them.
“You met Dominic's father?”
Helen stared at him.
“No.”
“You just said—”
“Daniel told me.”
Dominic's gaze sharpened.
“What exactly did he tell you?”
Helen shook her head.
“That Antonio DeLuca was looking for him.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel had something Antonio wanted.”
Dominic moved closer.
“What?”
Helen looked at Grace.
“I don't know.”
Grace's frustration exploded.
“Everyone keeps saying that!”
Helen flinched.
Grace immediately regretted it.
“Mom…”
“There's one thing.”
Dominic and Grace both went silent.
Helen looked toward her suitcase.
“Blue lining.”
Grace frowned.
“What?”
“Your father's old suitcase. I kept it.”
Marco brought the suitcase ten minutes later from items taken out of Grace's apartment after the break-in.
Grace remembered it.
Brown leather.
Scratched corners.
Her father used it whenever he traveled.
Helen pointed.
“The lining.”
Grace tore it carefully.
Nothing.
Dominic ran his fingers along the edge.
Then stopped.
A hidden seam.
He pulled it open.
Inside was a brass key.
And a folded piece of paper.
Grace's hands shook as she unfolded it.
Numbers.
A bank address.
Then a name.
M. DeLuca.
Margaret.
Grace looked toward Dominic.
“Your mother.”
Dominic grabbed his phone.
“Bring her.”
Margaret arrived fifteen minutes later.
The moment she saw the key, her face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Daniel Bennett.”
Margaret stared at Helen.
“He survived?”
“Until eighteen years ago.”
Margaret whispered, “My God.”
Grace couldn't understand.
“You knew my father?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Grace almost laughed.
“Of course you did.”
Margaret reached toward her.
Grace stepped away.
“Please don't.”
“Grace—”
“Everyone knew my father except me.”
Her voice cracked.
“I was his daughter.”
Margaret's eyes filled with regret.
“Your father saved my life.”
Grace froze.
“What?”
“Thirty-one years ago.”
Dominic stared at his mother.
“You never told me that.”
Margaret looked at him.
“You were a boy.”
“What happened?”
Margaret looked at Grace.
“Adrian Voss planned to kill Antonio.”
“Your husband.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel found out.”
Grace gripped the chair.
“He warned you?”
“He did more than warn us.”
Margaret's voice trembled.
“He stopped the attack.”
Dominic frowned.
“Then why did Dad hunt him?”
“Because Antonio believed Daniel helped Voss escape afterward.”
“Did he?”
Margaret looked down.
“I never believed it.”
Grace remembered the message.
The daughter pays the father's debt.
“What was my father hiding?”
Margaret looked at the key.
“The truth.”
Within two hours, Dominic's people verified the bank address.
It belonged to an old private vault facility in downtown Chicago.
Grace insisted on going.
Dominic refused.
Grace insisted harder.
They arrived shortly after noon in three armored SUVs.
The private bank manager nearly fainted when Dominic entered.
The key opened box 317.
Inside was a cassette tape.
Three photographs.
And an envelope addressed to Grace.
Her knees almost failed.
“My name.”
Dominic stepped back.
“This is yours.”
Grace opened it.
Her father's handwriting stared back at her.
My Gracie,
She covered her mouth.
Dominic moved away, giving her privacy.
Grace read.
Her father wrote that if she ever found the letter, his past had returned.
He apologized for lying.
He said the greatest mistake of his life had been trusting powerful men who believed money could erase truth.
Then one sentence stopped her.
Adrian Voss did not betray Antonio DeLuca.
Grace looked up.
Dominic was watching.
She continued reading.
The man who arranged the war between them was Senator Charles Sterling.
Vanessa's grandfather.
Grace's heart pounded.
Daniel claimed Charles Sterling had been taking money from both organizations.
When exposure became likely, he manufactured evidence that turned Antonio and Adrian against each other.
Daniel discovered it.
He tried to warn them.
But before he could, Adrian disappeared.
Daniel fled because Sterling threatened Helen and unborn Grace.
Grace's hands trembled.
“He protected us.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“What else?”
Grace read the final paragraph.
Adrian survived. I know because I helped him escape Chicago. But there is something you must understand. Adrian did not leave alone. Someone from the DeLuca family went with him. If Antonio ever learned who, the family would destroy itself.
Grace lowered the letter.
Dominic's face darkened.
“Who?”
Grace looked at the photographs.
The first showed Daniel beside Adrian Voss.
The second showed Senator Charles Sterling.
The third…
Grace stared.
A young Margaret DeLuca stood beside Adrian.
Holding his hand.
Dominic looked over Grace's shoulder.
His entire body went rigid.
“Mom?”
Grace looked closer.
Margaret and Adrian weren't standing like acquaintances.
They were looking at each other.
Like lovers.
On the back, Daniel had written:
The truth Antonio could never know.
Dominic stepped away.
“No.”
Grace said nothing.
Dominic called Marco.
“Bring my mother to Chicago.”
But before he could end the call, Marco said something.
Dominic's expression changed.
“What do you mean gone?”
Grace's blood turned cold.
“What happened?”
Dominic listened.
His fist tightened.
Then he lowered the phone.
“Margaret disappeared from Lake Geneva thirty minutes ago.”
Grace stared.
“How?”
“One guard is missing too.”
“Kidnapped?”
Dominic looked at the photograph of his mother holding Adrian Voss's hand.
Then at Daniel's letter.
“No.”
May you like
His voice was barely audible.
“I think she went willingly.”
