Chapter 11 - The Locked Study
|
The ride back to the estate was suffocating. The silence in the SUV was heavier than the gunfire at the gala.
When we arrived, the estate was under complete lockdown. Armed guards patrolled every inch of the perimeter. Victor practically carried me to the medical wing, standing over the private syndicate doctor with a murderous glare while my arm was cleaned and stitched.
The moment the doctor left the room, I stood up, ignoring the throbbing pain in my arm. I marched directly toward Victor's private study.
"Where are you going?" Victor demanded, following closely behind me.
"To get answers," I snapped, pushing the heavy oak doors open. "Lorenzo Falcone knew my face. He knew my father. And if you ran a background check on me before hiring me to watch your son, you know something too."
Victor paused in the doorway, his posture rigid. He looked at me, a profound, heavy guilt swirling in his gray eyes.
"You knew," I gasped, the betrayal hitting me harder than the bullet. "You knew who my family was this whole time."
Victor walked to his desk, unlocked a heavy bottom drawer, and pulled out a thick, manila folder. He tossed it onto the mahogany surface.
"Your name is Harper Vance," Victor said quietly. "But your father wasn't an insurance salesman, Harper. His real name was Elias Vance. He was the chief accountant for the Falcone family."
I stared at the folder, the room spinning around me. "An accountant for the mob?"
"He wasn't just an accountant," Victor corrected, his voice dropping into a harsh, clinical tone. "He stole from them. He embezzled nearly ten million dollars from Lorenzo Falcone, hoping to buy his family a new life. That car accident that killed your parents? It wasn't an accident. It was a hit. The Falcones ran them off the road to send a message."
Tears streamed down my face as the horrific reality of my parents' deaths finally shattered the lie I had lived for fifteen years.
"Why didn't they kill me?" I whispered, my voice breaking.
"Because your father hid you well," Victor replied softly, rounding the desk to stand in front of me. "He wiped your records. But when you applied to work here, my security team flagged your DNA profile during the routine background checks. I knew exactly who you were the moment you walked into my house."
May you like
"Why did you hire me?" I demanded, hitting his chest with my uninjured arm. "To use me as leverage?"
"I hired you to protect you," Victor confessed, catching my hand and holding it against his heart. "Because the Falcones were still looking for the accountant's daughter. Keeping you inside my walls was the only way to ensure they never found you."
