Chapter 11 - The Dead Patriarch
Roman did not react for several seconds.
Then he sat down.
I had never seen him sit because of shock.
“Sebastian died at Lake Geneva.”
Caleb shook his head.
“I saw him afterward.”
Roman looked at him.
“What?”
“When Vincent found me three days after the attack, Dad was there.”
Roman crossed the room in two steps.
“You knew?”
“I was nineteen! Vincent told me Dad survived but had to disappear because you tried to kill him.”
Roman grabbed Caleb’s jacket.
“You let me believe I killed him!”
“I believed you tried!”
I stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Neither listened.
So Laura did.
“Sebastian planned it.”
Everyone turned.
The Lake Geneva attack had been partly staged.
Sebastian knew Vincent was stealing from the family and manipulating both brothers.
He intended to disappear, expose Vincent’s network, then return.
But the plan failed.
Real gunmen arrived.
Roman was nearly killed.
Sebastian escaped.
Then Vincent found him first.
For ten years, Sebastian had been hidden.
Not helpless.
Not entirely imprisoned.
Something darker.
“Why hasn’t he escaped?” I asked.
Laura looked at Roman.
“Because Sebastian made a deal.”
“What deal?”
“Vincent leaves the children alive. Sebastian stays dead.”
Roman laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful father.”
But I understood the trap.
Sebastian’s disappearance kept Vincent from killing Roman, Caleb, and eventually me.
Or so Sebastian believed.
Then Roman’s phone received another video.
Sebastian sat across from Vincent.
Lily played between them.
Vincent placed documents on the table.
“Emily signs.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“No.”
“Then the child disappears.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Rage.
Even through the screen, the room seemed colder.
“Touch that child,” Sebastian said, “and you will discover why Chicago feared me before it learned Roman’s name.”
Roman stared at his father.
Something complicated crossed his face.
Vincent laughed.
Then Sebastian looked directly toward the hidden camera.
“Roman.”
Roman froze.
Sebastian knew we were watching.
“Your uncle thinks he controls the exits.”
A faint smile.
“He forgot who built the house.”
Then the video died.
Seconds later, alarms sounded at Vincent’s property.
Roman’s security feed showed doors unlocking.
One after another.
Sebastian was helping us.
We moved.
I entered with Roman despite his objections.
Inside, Lily began crying.
I ran toward the sound.
A door opened.
Sebastian stood there holding her.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Terrifying.
Lily reached toward me.
“Mommy!”
I took her.
Everything else disappeared.
For several seconds, I was only her mother.
Then Sebastian looked at me.
His eyes filled.
“Emily.”
“You knew my mother?”
“I loved her.”
My chest tightened.
Before I could respond, Roman entered.
Father and son stared at each other for the first time in a decade.
Roman whispered:
“You let me think you were dead.”
Sebastian replied:
“I needed Vincent to believe I hated you.”
A gunshot-like crack echoed elsewhere in the building.
Roman shoved us behind him.
But it wasn’t a gun.
It was a steel security door slamming shut.
Vincent’s voice came through the intercom.
“You still don’t understand.”
Pause.
“Sebastian isn’t your prisoner.”
May you like
The locks engaged.
“He’s mine.”
