Chapter 4 - The Framed Man
I stared at the television screen in absolute disbelief.
The news showed heavily edited security footage of me standing outside Claire’s hospital room.
The timestamp was exactly five minutes before her heart monitor flatlined.
Vincent had fabricated the evidence perfectly.
He had turned me into a hunted fugitive in my own city.
Every police officer and federal agent in New York was now looking for me.
Maya paced the dirty concrete floor of the warehouse.
She told me my bank accounts and offshore assets would be frozen within the hour.
I was a billionaire with absolutely zero access to my money.
Viktor handed me a burner phone and a cup of black coffee.
He said the Russian syndicate would protect the child for twenty-four hours.
After that, his men would force us out to avoid a war with the police.
I sat down on a wooden crate and pulled Lily onto my lap.
I looked into her gray eyes and silently promised her mother I would fix this.
I opened the manila folder again to search for any overlooked clues.
A small, folded piece of parchment paper fell out from behind the medical report.
I unfolded it carefully.
It was a handwritten note from Claire.
The note explained that Thomas, my younger brother who had supposedly died in a warehouse fire five years ago, had helped her hide Lily.
Thomas had faked his own death to escape the Romano family's assassins.
Claire wrote that Thomas had left a secondary cache of evidence inside an old train station locker in Queens.
I realized Thomas was the only person who could prove Vanessa and Vincent had orchestrated this entire conspiracy.
I stood up and loaded a fresh magazine into my pistol.
I told Maya to stay with Lily and Viktor.
I walked out into the freezing rain to find my dead brother's secrets.
Before I could reach the street, a black town car pulled up directly in front of me.
May you like
The back window rolled down slowly.
Sitting in the backseat was Vanessa Romano, smiling at me with cold, triumphant eyes.
