Chapter 9 - The Order
Roman watched the security footage six times.
Each replay was worse.
There was no force.
No intruder.
No kidnapping.
He had walked into the nursery.
Lifted his own daughter.
Placed her into Daniel’s arms.
Daniel had carried her away.
Roman turned off the screen.
“Where did you take her?”
Daniel answered quietly.
“To Helena.”
Roman looked at his mother’s empty place in the room as though she were standing there.
“Why?”
“You told me Sophie was in immediate danger.”
“What danger?”
“You wouldn’t say.”
Roman stood.
“You expect me to believe I voluntarily gave away my daughter and forgot?”
Daniel held his gaze.
“You had been drugged.”
“That happened before.”
“Yes.”
“So I was drugged while ordering you?”
“I didn’t know that then.”
Claire spoke.
“Roman was barely coherent.”
Daniel turned.
“I know that now.”
“You saw him.”
“He sounded clear.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“You took a baby from her bedroom at two in the morning because a drugged father told you to?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I had worked for the Vale family twelve years.”
“Roman was my employer.”
“He said there was a threat.”
“I believed him.”
Roman looked at the footage again.
Something bothered him.
“Audio.”
Daniel frowned.
“There isn’t any.”
“Exactly.”
Roman moved closer to the screen.
“You said I ordered you.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Your office.”
“When?”
“About ten minutes before this.”
“Cameras?”
“Not in the private office.”
Roman nodded slowly.
“Did I use a phone?”
“No.”
“Write anything?”
“No.”
“Then your entire story depends on what you claim I said.”
Daniel stared.
“Yes.”
Roman turned.
“And eight years later, you kept evidence that makes you look guilty.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying maybe I didn’t order anything.”
Claire went still.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“I carried Sophie out.”
“That part is clear.”
“But maybe someone told you I ordered it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You were standing in front of me.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Was I?”
Silence.
Roman pointed at the screen.
“The video shows me in the nursery.”
“It doesn’t show me giving an order.”
Daniel’s face changed slightly.
Roman saw it.
“What?”
Daniel looked disturbed.
“There was something strange.”
“What?”
“You were wearing your father’s ring.”
Roman stared.
“What ring?”
“The black onyx ring.”
Arthur had worn a distinctive signet ring for thirty years.
Roman hated it.
He never wore it.
Daniel moved to the screen.
He paused the footage.
Zoomed.
Roman’s right hand rested briefly against the crib.
On one finger was a black ring.
Roman’s stomach dropped.
“That isn’t me.”
Claire leaned closer.
Same height.
Same hair.
Similar profile.
But the footage was grainy.
Roman had assumed it was himself because everyone else had.
Sophie whispered.
“Then who is it?”
Roman looked at Daniel.
“Did you see his face in the office?”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“Not clearly.”
Roman stared.
“You carried my daughter away because a man with my voice told you to.”
Daniel looked sick.
“He looked exactly like you.”
Claire whispered.
“Victor.”
Roman turned.
“What?”
Claire’s face had gone white.
“Victor Shaw.”
Roman frowned.
“He didn’t look like me.”
“Not then.”
Claire pulled open an old file on her laptop.
“After Sophie disappeared, I investigated everyone at that dinner.”
“Victor vanished.”
“His medical records vanished too.”
“What does that have to do with—”
Claire stopped.
A plastic-surgery invoice appeared.
Private clinic.
Buenos Aires.
Six months before Sophie’s disappearance.
Roman stared at the procedures.
Jaw reconstruction.
Nasal alteration.
Hairline graft.
Facial implants.
Daniel looked at him.
Claire whispered.
“He changed his face.”
Roman’s mind raced.
“Why?”
“To impersonate you.”
Nora spoke from behind them.
“That explains the red-gate house.”
Everyone turned.
“Victor didn’t want Sophie to remember Roman.”
“He wanted her to recognize someone else as Roman.”
Sophie shook her head.
“He never said he was Dad.”
“Not yet,” Nora said.
Roman felt cold.
Victor had been waiting for something.
A trust.
Evidence.
A signature.
A child becoming old enough to identify her father.
Roman checked the time.
Nearly 3:00 A.M.
“We go back.”
Daniel nodded.
“To the estate?”
“To Helena.”
They returned forty-five minutes later.
The estate was quiet.
Too quiet.
Roman entered through the front doors.
A guard approached.
“Sir.”
“Where’s my mother?”
The guard hesitated.
Roman stopped.
“What?”
“She’s gone.”
Roman stared.
“How?”
“The bedroom window.”
Daniel swore.
The guard continued.
“We found one of the outside officers unconscious.”
Roman’s stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Roman ran upstairs.
Helena’s bedroom was empty.
The window stood open.
A sheet had been tied around the balcony railing.
On her desk lay one envelope.
Roman opened it.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Roman,
If I stay, they will use Sophie to force me to talk.
If I run, they will follow me instead.
Do not come after me.
Do not trust Daniel.
Do not trust Claire.
And whatever happens, do not let Sophie turn nine inside Vale House.
Roman read the final sentence twice.
Sophie’s ninth birthday was in six days.
He turned the paper over.
One more line had been written on the back.
Ask Claire what happens when Sophie turns nine.
Roman looked at his wife.
Claire had stopped breathing.
“What happens?”
She said nothing.
Roman walked toward her.
“Claire.”
Her eyes filled with dread.
“Sophie becomes the legal controller of Arthur’s evidence trust.”
Roman stared.
“At nine years old?”
“Through a guardian.”
“Which guardian?”
Claire looked toward the staircase.
“Whoever the trust recognizes as her father.”
Roman understood.
Victor had changed his face.
He had spent years preparing.
He did not need Roman dead.
He needed Sophie to believe the wrong man was Roman.
And in six days, whoever she identified as her father could gain access to everything Arthur had hidden.
Roman looked at Sophie.
Victor Shaw had not been hunting the little girl.
May you like
He had been waiting for her birthday.
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