Chapter 2 - THE SECRET BURIED WITH HIS MOTHER
Roman's mother had died twenty years earlier.
At least, that was what he'd been told.
Margaret Kinsley had supposedly suffered a fatal stroke while Roman was overseas negotiating his first major shipping contract.
He had returned to New York to find a closed coffin, a funeral already arranged, and his father refusing to discuss her final hours.
Roman had never questioned the medical report.
He had been twenty-one.
Grieving.
And desperate to believe the adults around him.
Now Narelli was telling him his mother's death had been a lie.
“What do you know?” he asked.
Narelli looked at her bruised hands.
“Three weeks ago, I found an old payment record in the company's archived accounts.”
Roman waited.
“It was dated two days after your mother's funeral.”
“To whom?”
“A private medical facility in Connecticut.”
He frowned.
“That proves nothing.”
“No,” she agreed. “But the payments continued for nineteen years.”
Roman stared.
“Nineteen?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Narelli's voice trembled.
“Long-term residential care.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Roman gripped the table.
“Whose care?”
Narelli met his eyes.
“Margaret Kinsley.”
For several seconds, he couldn't speak.
Then he stood.
“No.”
Narelli watched him.
“Roman—”
“No.”
His voice was barely audible.
“My mother is dead.”
“I thought so too.”
He turned away.
For twenty years, he had visited her grave.
He had brought flowers.
He had told her about his successes.
His failures.
The women he couldn't love.
The life he'd built.
And now—
He turned back.
“Are you telling me she's alive?”
Narelli swallowed.
“I don't know.”
“Then what are you telling me?”
“That someone has been paying to keep a woman under your mother's name inside a private facility for nearly two decades.”
Roman stared at her.
“And Donovan knows?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“His authorization appears on the payments.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Donovan Pierce had been his closest friend since childhood.
They'd grown up together in Brooklyn.
Fought together.
Built the Kinsley empire together.
Roman had trusted him with everything.
Including his life.
“Why would he do this?” Roman whispered.
Narelli looked away.
“Because your mother discovered something.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
May you like
Then said:
“Your father wasn't the man you thought he was.”
