Gerald's POV
"Gerald, we need to talk. About your father. About how he really—"
Rosa's voice cuts off. I hear a scream. A crash. Then nothing.
"Rosa? ROSA!" I'm already running for my car, Marcus right behind me. "Rosa, answer me!"
The line is dead.
My hands shake so badly I can barely get the keys in the ignition. Marcus grabs them from me. "I'll drive. Where is she?"
"Her mother's house. The safe house." I'm dialing Rosa back but it goes straight to voicemail. "Someone got to her. Oh God, they got to her."
Marcus floors it. We're going ninety through Manhattan streets, running red lights. My security team is already mobilizing, but we're closest.
"She said she found something," I tell Marcus, my voice shaking. "She said she found Julie's evidence. And she was about to tell me something about my father."
"What about your father?"
"I don't know! The line cut off!"
We screech to a stop outside the safe house. The front door is hanging open. That's not right. My security team wouldn't leave it open.
I run inside, Marcus on my heels. "Rosa!"
"In here!" Her voice comes from upstairs, shaky but alive.
I take the stairs three at a time and burst into a bedroom. Rosa is standing in a wedding dress—Julie's wedding dress, I realize with a jolt—holding a piece of paper. Her mother Margaret is on the floor, unconscious, blood on her forehead.
"What happened?" I demand.
"She tried to stop me from leaving." Rosa's voice is eerily calm. "She grabbed my arm and I pushed her. She fell and hit her head on the dresser. I didn't mean to hurt her but I'm not sorry either."
I've never heard Rosa sound like this. Cold. Determined. Dangerous.
"Your phone—"
"She knocked it out of my hand when she grabbed me. The battery came out." Rosa looks at me with fierce eyes. "But that doesn't matter now. Gerald, I found Julie's letter. I know everything."
My heart stops. "What letter?"
"It was sewn into her wedding dress. She knew she was going to die. She knew my father was going to kill her. And she left evidence to bring down everyone involved." Rosa holds up the paper. "Including your father."
"My father is dead—"
"Your father was murdered by a crime organization called the Crimson Syndicate," Rosa cuts me off. "The same organization that killed your mother. The same one that killed Julie. And the same one that wants us married so they can control both our companies."
The world tilts sideways. "That's insane."
"Read it." Rosa shoves the letter at me. "Read what Julie wrote. Then tell me I'm insane."
My hands tremble as I take the paper. Julie's handwriting. Her words explaining a nightmare I can't comprehend.
Crime syndicate. Money laundering. Murder. My mother killed for threatening to expose them. My father murdered when he tried to get out.
"No," I whisper. "No, this can't be real."
"It's real," Rosa says. "My mother just confirmed it. She watched my father murder Julie. She knew and did nothing. And now the Syndicate wants us married and quiet, or they'll kill us too."
I can't breathe. Everything I thought I knew about my life is a lie. My father didn't die of a heart attack. My mother didn't die in childbirth. Julie didn't die in an accident.
They were all murdered.
"There's more," Rosa continues. "Julie hid evidence in three places. One piece was here in the dress. The second is in your father's grave—in his suit pocket, inside the coffin. The third is in a safe deposit box."
"My father's grave?" My voice sounds hollow. "You want me to dig up my father's grave?"
"I want us to get the evidence and take it to the FBI before the Syndicate kills us." Rosa grabs my shoulders. Her hands are shaking but her eyes are steel. "Gerald, I know this is horrible. I know you're in shock. But we don't have time. That phone call—the Syndicate probably has people monitoring communications. They might know I found the letter. We have to move now."
She's right. I hate it, but she's right.
"Your mother—" I look at Margaret, still unconscious.
"Leave her. She chose the Syndicate over her own daughter. Over both her daughters." Rosa's voice breaks slightly. "She doesn't get to stop us now."
Marcus appears in the doorway. "We've got a problem. Three SUVs just pulled up outside. Not our guys."
Rosa and I look at each other.
"The Syndicate," we say together.
"Back exit," Marcus orders. "Now!"
We run. Rosa still in the wedding dress, me still holding Julie's letter. Marcus leads us through the house to a rear door. We burst into the backyard just as we hear the front door crash open.
"This way!" Marcus points to a gap in the fence.
We squeeze through into the neighbor's yard. Dogs start barking. Someone shouts behind us. We keep running.
Marcus's car is parked two streets over. We pile in and he tears away from the curb just as men in black suits appear, running after us.
"Where to?" Marcus demands.
"Evergreen Cemetery," I say, my voice hollow. "We're digging up my father."
Marcus doesn't argue. He just drives.
Rosa sits beside me, still clutching that letter, still wearing Julie's dress. She's crying now, silent tears running down her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way."
I take her hand. It's the first time I've willingly touched her. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this."
"You didn't drag me. I was born into it. We both were." She squeezes my hand back. "But we're going to end it. Together."
Twenty minutes later, we're at Evergreen Cemetery. It's after midnight. The place is dark and empty.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," I mutter as Marcus hands me a shovel from his trunk. He's ex-military. He has a trunk full of emergency supplies, apparently including grave-robbing equipment.
"I'll stand watch," Marcus says. "You two dig. Fast."
Rosa kicks off her heels—still wearing that wedding dress—and grabs a shovel. We find my father's grave. The headstone reads: JAMES WHITMORE. BELOVED FATHER AND BUSINESSMAN.
All lies.
We start digging. The ground is softer than I expected. Someone's been here recently.
"Wait," Rosa says. "If someone's been here already—"
We dig faster, panic setting in. Five feet down, we hit the concrete vault. Marcus helps us pry it open. Then the casket.
I close my eyes before opening it. I can't look at my father's body. Not after five years. Not knowing what I know now.
"Gerald," Rosa whispers. "Look."
I open my eyes.
The casket is empty.
No body. No bones. Nothing but a manila envelope lying where my father's body should be.
"What the hell?" Marcus breathes.
I grab the envelope with shaking hands. There's writing on it in my father's handwriting:
TO MY SON. OPEN ONLY IF YOU'RE BRAVE ENOUGH TO KNOW THE TRUTH.
Inside are photographs. Documents. And a flash drive.
The first photo makes my blood freeze.
It's my father, very much alive, standing next to Victor Rivera. They're both smiling, holding champagne glasses.
The date stamp says it was taken six months ago.
Six months ago.
Four and a half years after my father supposedly died.
"He's alive," I whisper. "My father is alive."
Rosa stares at the photo, her face white. "Then whose funeral did you attend?"
Before I can answer, Marcus's phone buzzes. He checks it and his face goes pale.
"We need to leave. Now. I just got an alert—someone triggered the cemetery security system. Police are coming."
We scramble out of the grave, grab the envelope, and run for the car.
As Marcus speeds away, I look at the photos again. My father, alive. My father, who let me believe he was dead. My father, who's been working with the Syndicate this whole time.
"There's a note," Rosa says, pulling a handwritten letter from the envelope.
I read it out loud, my voice shaking:
"Gerald, if you're reading this, then you've figured out enough to be dangerous. I'm sorry I had to fake my death. The Syndicate was going to kill me for real if I didn't disappear. So I made a deal. I'd vanish, let them think I was dead, and work for them from the shadows. In exchange, they'd leave you alone.
But I always knew this day might come. The day you'd learn the truth and come looking for answers.
The flash drive contains everything you need to destroy the Syndicate. Every transaction, every name, every crime for the past twenty years. I've been collecting evidence, waiting for the right moment.
That moment is now.
But son, you need to know something important: I'm not the only one who faked their death. Julie Rivera is alive too. The Syndicate staged her accident because she found out too much. But Victor couldn't kill his own daughter, so they made a deal. Julie would disappear, let everyone think she was dead, and work for the Syndicate in Europe.
She's been alive this whole time.
And Gerald, she's coming home.
She's coming to stop you from exposing the Syndicate.
Because Julie isn't a victim anymore.
She's one of them now."
The letter falls from my numb fingers.
Julie is alive.
Julie is working for the criminals who murdered my mother.
And she's coming to kill us.