Chapter 9
Roman stared at his mother.
“You knew I was alive.”
Helena's lips tightened.
“I suspected.”
Adrian laughed.
“You knew.”
Roman’s breathing slowed.
That was always the dangerous stage.
Helena looked toward Sophie’s empty staircase.
Her eyes finally flickered with guilt.
Roman saw it.
“Say it.”
Helena swallowed.
“The Sicilian report didn't convince me.”
“Then why tell Sophie I died?”
No answer.
Roman stepped closer.
“Why?”
Helena’s voice broke.
“Because I needed time.”
“For what?”
“To fix what Rachel found.”
The truth came out in pieces.
Helena believed Roman would return unexpectedly if anyone contacted him directly.
She needed the household calm.
Needed staff obedient.
Needed Sophie to stop asking questions that might prompt someone to call Sicily.
So she created certainty.
Roman was dead.
The house belonged to the survivors now.
Sophie’s grief was inconvenient.
Her attachment to Maria made her harder to control.
Veronica tolerated the arrangement because she feared losing access to the trust.
Adrian tolerated it because he wanted the codicil authenticated.
Everyone let a child suffer because each adult wanted something different from Roman’s absence.
Roman looked at Adrian.
“And the fake death notice?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Not mine.”
Helena said nothing.
Roman turned to Veronica.
She looked terrified.
“I didn't make it.”
Then Roman remembered the offshore account number.
Three people knew.
Him.
Daniel.
Veronica.
But there had once been a fourth.
His father.
The number existed in Vincent’s old succession files.
Which Rachel had accessed.
Roman’s phone rang.
Security.
They had located Rachel’s hotel room in Zurich.
Empty.
But inside the room was a recorded message.
For Roman.
He played it privately.
Rachel appeared on screen.
Exhausted.
Afraid.
She said she had copied the codicil because she believed the D’Angelo succession had been built on fraud.
Then she revealed something none of them knew.
The codicil Helena buried was not Vincent’s final document.
There was another one.
May you like
Signed three days later.
And according to Rachel, it named a successor nobody had considered.
