Chapter 5 - What Clara’s Mother Took to the Grave
Clara read the message until the words blurred.
ASK CLARA WHY HER MOTHER REALLY DIED.
Roman watched her.
“What happened to your mother?”
“Cancer.”
“Are you sure?”
Clara looked offended.
“I spent five years taking her to chemotherapy. Yes, I’m sure.”
“Then why would someone write that?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan spoke from the corner.
“Because Helen Hayes knew more than she told Clara.”
Clara turned.
“You don’t get to say her name.”
Nathan lowered his eyes.
Roman ordered everyone from the room except Clara, Gabriel and Nathan.
Eliza had been moved to a secure suite with two guards and Roman’s physician.
Still, Roman checked the monitors every thirty seconds.
“Tell us,” he said.
Nathan exhaled.
“After the stable fire, Helen found something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“Remarkable how little you know considering you appear in every part of my destroyed childhood.”
Nathan accepted that too.
“She contacted me seven years ago.”
Clara stared.
“My mother spoke to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She wanted me to find Elias.”
“You knew my mother was searching for him?”
“I tried.”
“You should have told me!”
“Helen made me promise not to.”
Clara stepped toward him.
“Do you understand how many nights I held her while she cried because she thought he had abandoned us?”
Nathan’s voice cracked.
“She never believed that.”
Clara stopped.
“What?”
“She believed Elias stayed away to keep you alive.”
The anger left Clara’s face.
Nathan continued.
“She also believed someone had been watching you for years.”
Roman’s attention sharpened.
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
Gabriel opened a laptop.
“We need Helen’s records.”
Clara’s grief transformed into determination.
“My mother kept everything.”
“Where?”
“A storage unit outside Tacoma.”
Roman picked up his phone.
“Send people.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
Roman looked at her.
“That location may be compromised.”
“Exactly. Your men walk in wearing expensive suits and somebody knows we’re searching.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I go.”
“No.”
Clara almost smiled.
“You really like that word.”
“When it concerns reckless ideas, yes.”
“Those boxes contain my mother’s life.”
“And people are currently trying to kill you.”
Clara crossed her arms.
“Then come with me.”
Gabriel coughed to hide a laugh.
Roman looked annoyed.
Six hours later, Roman Bellamy sat inside a rented gray SUV outside a storage facility outside Tacoma.
No convoy.
No visible guards.
Gabriel had nearly suffered a nervous breakdown watching Roman leave without twenty armed men.
Roman had compromised.
Two teams followed at a distance.
Clara unlocked unit 214.
Inside were boxes, furniture, riding trophies, medical equipment and one old wooden trunk.
Clara stared at it.
“My mother kept this beside her bed.”
They opened it.
Photographs.
Letters.
A faded blue ribbon from Clara’s first competition.
Roman lifted it.
“You won?”
“Second.”
“You look unhappy.”
“I thought second meant I failed.”
“You were nine.”
“I was dramatic.”
“Were?”
Clara glared.
Roman almost smiled.
Then Clara found an envelope addressed to her.
Her hands shook.
She opened it.
Clara,
If you found this, someone finally forced the past back into your life.
I’m sorry.
Your father did not leave because he stopped loving us.
He left because staying would have killed you.
Beneath the letter was another key.
Roman compared it to the one from Onyx.
Different.
Helen continued.
The Bellamys were not our enemies.
Not then.
Maybe not now.
Trust actions, not names.
Clara glanced at Roman.
He said nothing.
There was one more line.
And Clara, if a man named Sebastian Rourke ever finds you, run before he tells you he is family.
Roman’s expression changed.
“You know that name?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Roman hesitated.
“My mother’s brother.”
Clara’s eyes widened.
“Your uncle?”
“He disappeared after my father took control.”
“Why?”
“He betrayed the family.”
Gabriel’s voice came through Roman’s earpiece.
“We have movement outside.”
Roman immediately pulled Clara behind the storage unit wall.
“How many?”
“Three vehicles.”
Roman drew his gun.
Clara whispered:
“They followed us.”
“No. They were waiting.”
That meant someone knew about the storage unit.
Someone Helen had trusted.
A bullet ripped through the metal door.
Roman pushed Clara down.
“Stay behind me.”
“Roman—”
“Not negotiable.”
Gunfire erupted outside.
Roman’s security teams engaged.
Clara crawled toward the trunk.
“What are you doing?”
“My mother said two keys.”
“There are people shooting at us.”
“Then shoot back.”
Roman stared at her.
“You’re astonishingly irritating.”
“People mention that.”
She found a metal compartment under the trunk.
Two keyholes.
Clara inserted both keys.
Click.
A false bottom opened.
Inside was a small black ledger.
Roman stared.
“The proof.”
Clara opened it.
Every page contained horse names, registration numbers, dates and coded financial amounts.
Vescari.
Bellamy.
Rourke.
Mercer.
Then Clara saw another name.
Her mother.
HELEN HAYES — ACCOUNT 47.
She stopped.
“No.”
Roman took the book.
Clara snatched it back.
“My mother was not involved.”
“We don’t know what the notation means.”
“She hated them.”
“Clara.”
“She spent her life paying for what they did!”
Roman grabbed her shoulders.
“Then we find out why her name is there.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“I can save you the trouble.”
Roman spun.
An older man stood in the smoke outside.
Silver hair.
Burn scar along the left side of his face.
Clara stopped breathing.
The man looked at her.
Fifteen years collapsed.
She knew his eyes.
“Daddy?”
Elias Hayes nearly broke.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Clara crossed the distance and slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Elias accepted it.
She slapped him again.
Then pounded both fists against his chest.
“You were alive!”
“I know.”
“You were alive!”
“I know.”
“You let her die thinking—”
“She knew.”
Clara froze.
Elias’s eyes filled.
“Your mother knew where I was.”
Clara stepped backward.
“What?”
“We stayed apart to protect you.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Elias looked at Roman.
“Your father helped us.”
Roman remained cautious.
“Why is Helen in the ledger?”
Elias’s expression darkened.
“Because Helen was the person who discovered the laundering system.”
Clara stared.
“My mother?”
“She wasn't just a horse trainer.”
He smiled sadly.
“Your mother was an accountant before she married me.”
Suddenly pieces fit.
Helen doing farm books late at night.
Helen arguing about invoices.
Helen telling Clara numbers always tell the truth.
“She found Vittorio’s system,” Elias continued. “I stole the records.”
“And Roman’s father?”
“Agreed to destroy Vescari’s network in exchange for protecting us.”
Roman looked at the ledger.
“Who is Sebastian Rourke?”
Elias went pale.
“That name should never have been written.”
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Elias looked toward Clara.
“Inside the Bellamy organization.”
Roman became still.
“What?”
“Sebastian didn’t disappear.”
Elias stepped closer.
“He changed his name.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“To what?”
Before Elias could answer, a shot rang out.
His body jerked.
“DAD!”
Clara caught him as he fell.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Roman fired toward the roofline.
The sniper vanished.
Clara pressed her hands against Elias’s chest.
“Stay with me!”
Elias struggled for breath.
He grabbed Clara’s wrist.
“Listen.”
“No!”
“Clara.”
“Don’t you dare leave again.”
His eyes found hers.
“Sebastian…”
“What?”
“He’s been beside Roman his entire life.”
Roman leaned closer.
“Who?”
Elias looked toward him.
May you like
Then whispered one word.
“Gabriel.”
