Chapter 4 - The Engagement Contract

Sebastian called no one.

That surprised me.

He usually solved problems by moving faster than everyone else.

This time he did something different.

He waited.

At 2:14 in the morning, his phone rang.

Natalie.

He looked at the screen.

Maria looked away.

Dr. Levin said nothing.

Sebastian answered.

“Where are you?”

Natalie sounded breathless.

“At the estate.”

“You left me in front of two hundred people.”

“I found my mother.”

Silence.

Then:

“I know.”

Sebastian’s eyes hardened.

“You knew she would be at the airport?”

“No.”

“Careful.”

Natalie’s breathing changed.

“I knew she was in the city.”

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

“Who told you?”

“My father.”

“Your father also recorded a statement.”

Silence.

Complete silence.

Sebastian continued.

“I watched it.”

Natalie whispered:

“Then you know he was forced.”

“I know you knew about Anthony for five years.”

She did not answer.

“That part true?”

“Yes.”

Maria closed her eyes.

Sebastian asked:

“Is there a succession agreement?”

Natalie started crying.

“Sebastian—”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

His face became still.

“Did I sign it?”

“You signed trust documents.”

“That was not my question.”

“No.”

“So my signature was forged.”

“I didn’t forge it.”

“Who did?”

“I don’t know.”

Sebastian laughed quietly.

“You want me to believe that?”

“I want you to come back.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“Why?”

A pause.

Then a door closed on Natalie’s end.

Her voice dropped.

“Because Anthony knows Maria is alive.”

Everyone in the kitchen looked at Sebastian.

He stood.

“How?”

“He saw the doctor leave with you.”

“Where is Anthony now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is your father?”

Another pause.

“I don’t know.”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.

“Natalie.”

“He disappeared after you left.”

“Your father is seventy-one.”

“I know.”

“His phone?”

“Off.”

“Security?”

“They said he left through the east service gate.”

Sebastian looked at Dr. Levin.

The doctor was already reaching for his coat.

Natalie whispered:

“I think Anthony took him.”

Sebastian replied:

“Why would Anthony take the man helping him?”

“Because my father was going to confess tonight.”

Sebastian stopped.

“At the party?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why Levin came?”

Dr. Levin nodded.

Natalie continued.

“My father asked him to bring the bracelet. He thought once you saw proof Maria survived, you would listen.”

Sebastian looked at Maria.

Maria looked stunned.

Natalie said:

“My father has been trying to get out for years.”

Sebastian’s voice was cold.

“And you?”

Silence.

“Natalie?”

“I thought I could control Anthony.”

Maria opened her eyes.

Sebastian said:

“You thought you could use him.”

“Yes.”

“For what?”

“To protect my family.”

“No.”

Sebastian’s voice sharpened.

“For what?”

Natalie began crying harder.

“To take control of the trust.”

Sebastian closed his eyes.

There it was.

Not love alone.

Not fear alone.

Ambition.

He asked:

“Were you planning to kill me?”

“No.”

“Were you planning for what happened if I died?”

Silence.

That was an answer.

Sebastian ended the call.

Maria looked at him.

“You loved her.”

He sat down.

“I still do.”

No one spoke.

That answer hurt more because it was true.

Then I noticed something on the video.

Judge Cross.

Behind him.

A framed painting.

Blue water.

White lighthouse.

I had seen it before.

“Pause.”

Everyone looked at me.

“What?”

“The painting.”

Dr. Levin enlarged the frame.

I knew it.

“It’s in the east guest house.”

Sebastian looked at me.

“At my estate?”

“Yes.”

“I clean that house every Thursday.”

Maria stood.

“Then he recorded the confession there.”

Sebastian nodded.

“And if Anthony took him after the party…”

He looked at the time.

2:21.

“He may still be on the property.”

We returned through the rear road.

No headlights.

No calls.

Sebastian used an old maintenance entrance.

I led them toward the guest house.

The door was open.

Inside, a chair had been knocked over.

A glass shattered near the fireplace.

Blood on the carpet.

Maria stopped.

Dr. Levin crouched.

“Not much.”

Sebastian found Judge Cross’s phone under the sofa.

Screen cracked.

One unsent message.

To Sebastian.

Anthony knows about the second ledger.

Sebastian looked up.

“Second ledger?”

Maria whispered:

“Luca kept copies.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

A sound came from the hallway.

We turned.

Natalie stood there.

Dark red gown.

No coat.

Mascara streaked.

She held a small brass key.

Sebastian stared.

“What are you doing here?”

Natalie looked at Maria first.

Then Sebastian.

“My father gave me this before he disappeared.”

She held out the key.

A tag hung from it.

ROMANO PRIVATE ARCHIVE — 14.

Sebastian took it.

“You knew about the second ledger?”

“No.”

Natalie shook her head.

“But Anthony does.”

“How?”

“My father made one mistake.”

“What?”

“He asked the archive manager whether Luca Romano had ever rented Box Fourteen.”

Sebastian stared.

“When?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“And Anthony found out.”

“Yes.”

Sebastian closed his fist around the key.

“Where is the archive?”

Natalie answered.

“Under the old Romano bank.”

Maria went pale.

Sebastian noticed.

“You know it.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Maria looked at the brass key.

“Because that is where your father hid the evidence the night before he died.”

Sebastian looked from his mother to Natalie.

Two women.

Two different kinds of betrayal.

Then he asked the only question that mattered.

“Who gets there first?”

Natalie answered immediately.

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“Anthony.”

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