PART 3: The Dying Mafia Boss Threatened Everyone Who Entered His Room—Until a Deaf Little Girl Walked In and Discovered His Deadliest Secret.

The photograph on Victor's phone changed everything, because it transformed Daniel's death from a private tragedy into a question that had been waiting five years for someone brave enough to ask it.

As Marcus drove the boat through sheets of rain toward the opposite shore, I watched Victor and understood that the man beside me was no longer merely Damian's betrayer.

He was also the last living person who seemed to know what had happened to my husband.

"Tell me."

Victor looked toward the black water.

"Emily."

"Tell me now."

Damian leaned back against the seat, breathing hard.

"You heard her."

Victor rubbed his hands over his face.

"I didn't kill Daniil."

"Then stop beginning every sentence that way."

I hardly recognized my own voice.

Lila sat beside me, unable to hear our argument but perfectly capable of sensing it.

Her small hand slipped into mine.

That touch steadied me.

Victor looked at her.

Then he began.

"Daniil contacted me five years ago."

Damian's face remained expressionless.

"He said someone had been watching his apartment."

"Father?"

"He wasn't sure."

Victor swallowed.

"He told me about Emily."

I stared at him.

"You knew I existed?"

"Only your first name."

"And the baby?"

Victor's eyes lowered.

"He said you were pregnant."

A cold ache formed beneath my ribs.

Daniel had carried this secret while we chose baby names at our kitchen table.

He had known something dangerous was approaching.

He had smiled anyway.

Victor continued.

"Daniil wanted documents."

"What kind?"

"New identities."

Damian frowned.

"You could arrange that."

"I did."

Victor looked at me.

"He wanted to take Emily and disappear before the baby was born."

My breath caught.

Daniel had once suggested moving to Vermont.

He had said he wanted mountains.

I had laughed and reminded him that neither of us knew how to ski.

Had that been his escape plan?

"What happened?"

Victor looked toward Damian.

"Father found him first."

Damian's eyes became cold.

"How?"

"I don't know."

"You always know."

"Not this time."

Victor glanced at Dr.

Shaw.

"The last call I got from Daniil came at two in the morning."

His voice changed.

"He was terrified."

I closed my eyes.

I could almost hear Daniel's voice.

Soft.

Careful.

The voice that had told bedtime stories to the baby in my belly.

Victor continued.

"He said he was leaving immediately."

"Where?"

"He wouldn't tell me."

"And then?"

"Three days later, I received a package."

Damian leaned forward.

"What was inside?"

"Daniil's watch."

I opened my eyes.

Daniel's watch had never been found after the accident.

It had been a cheap stainless-steel thing with a scratched blue face.

I had bought it for his birthday.

I remembered standing in a funeral home asking whether the watch had been recovered.

The director had avoided my eyes.

"Who sent it?"

"No return address."

Victor's voice dropped.

"There was a note."

Damian said, "What did it say?"

Victor stared at him.

"Family does not run away."

Silence covered the boat.

Damian looked toward the distant shoreline.

"So you assumed Father killed him."

"Yes."

"And you never told me."

"You had just taken over everything."

Victor's tone sharpened.

"You were twenty-nine years old and determined to prove you were harder than he had ever been."

Damian looked wounded.

"I would have helped Daniil."

"I didn't know that."

"You could have asked."

"And risked leading Father to Emily?"

Victor shook his head.

"I made a choice."

I laughed once.

It sounded bitter even to me.

"Everyone in your family makes choices for other people."

Victor lowered his eyes.

"I know."

The shoreline approached.

Marcus guided the boat toward an abandoned marina with several darkened sheds.

"We can't stay here long."

Dr.

Shaw looked at Damian.

"He needs medical treatment immediately."

Damian ignored her.

"Which hospital?"

"Not one connected to Grayhaven."

Marcus thought.

"Mercy Medical Center."

Dr.

Shaw shook her head.

"Too obvious."

"What do you suggest?"

She hesitated.

"St.

Catherine's clinic in Annapolis."

Victor stared at her.

"Private?"

"Small."

She nodded.

"I know the overnight physician."

I looked at her.

"Can he be trusted?"

She flinched.

"I understand why you're asking."

"Do you?"

Her eyes met mine.

"I helped poison a man."

Lila watched our faces.

Dr.

Shaw looked toward her.

"I don't expect forgiveness."

"Good."

"But I can keep Damian alive."

Damian gave a weak laugh.

"You've certainly had practice doing the opposite."

Dr.

Shaw closed her eyes.

The shame on her face was unmistakable.

"What Victor told you is true."

Damian looked at her.

"The dosage was meant to incapacitate you."

"That distinction means more to you than it does to me."

"I know."

She took a breath.

"Then Victor changed the dose."

Victor turned sharply.

"What?"

Dr.

Shaw looked at him.

"Three weeks ago."

His face went blank.

"I didn't."

"Someone did."

Damian's eyes narrowed.

"Explain."

"The concentration in the bottle increased."

Dr.

Shaw's voice trembled.

"I thought Victor had done it."

Victor stared at her.

"You never asked me?"

"You had become desperate."

"So you assumed I was trying to kill him?"

"You pointed a gun at him tonight."

Victor had no answer.

Damian looked between them.

"If neither of you increased it, who did?"

No one spoke.

Then Lila touched my arm.

She pointed toward the bottle Dr.

Shaw had carried from the mansion.

I had barely noticed it before.

Lila signed.

Different.

"What is different?"

She pointed at the bottle again.

Then made the sign for color.

Dr.

Shaw immediately lifted it beneath the marina light.

"What?"

I asked.

She stared at the liquid.

"This solution is clear."

"So?"

"The mixture I prepared has a faint amber tint."

Victor grabbed the bottle.

"You mean this isn't yours?"

"No."

Her face went pale.

"Someone replaced it."

Damian looked back across the bay.

The mansion was now invisible in the storm.

"Father."

Victor shook his head.

"He wasn't inside Grayhaven."

"How do you know?"

"I had men watching every entrance."

Marcus gave him a dark look.

"The same men who let three vehicles arrive tonight?"

Victor said nothing.

Marcus muttered, "Thought so."

We reached the dock.

Damian tried to stand.

His legs folded instantly.

Victor and Marcus caught him.

Dr.

Shaw checked his pulse.

"We're out of time."

A battered utility van sat beside the marina office.

Marcus reached beneath the front bumper and found a magnetic key box.

I stared at him.

"You know an alarming number of ways to steal transportation."

"It's not stolen."

He opened the driver's door.

"It's mine."

Victor stared at the rusted van.

"You own this?"

"My wife uses it for gardening."

Damian managed a faint smile.

"Tonight Marcus Hale saves the Volkov empire in a vehicle full of fertilizer."

"Humility is healthy for you."

Marcus helped him inside.

We drove south through the storm.

Lila fell asleep against my shoulder.

Her curls had come loose.

The white flower from her hair rested in my palm.

I watched rain streak across the windows.

Damian sat across from us on the floor of the van, wrapped in an old blanket Marcus found behind the seats.