I swallowed.
“Why?”
“Because dead criminals make convenient villains.”
“Your father died.”
“So did yours.”
My skin prickled.
“My dad died in a car accident.”
“No.”
Ethan’s voice was quiet.
“Your father was murdered.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I shook my head.
“He fell asleep driving home from a shift.”
“That’s what you were told.”
“No.”
“Rachel—”
“No.”
I pushed the file away.
“He was exhausted.
They found his car—”
“Brake line was cut.”
I stopped.
“The original mechanical report disappeared before trial review.
My father had a copy.”
The sound that came from me was barely a whisper.
“Who killed him?”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
“That is what your sister has apparently discovered.”
Camila’s wedding was scheduled for the next afternoon.
There was no groom named David.
At least, not legally.
The man my sister had told me she was marrying was actually David Voss.
Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Infrastructure.
His father had been a city contractor thirty years earlier.
His grandfather had been one of the names in my father’s file.
According to Ethan, Camila had spent eighteen months dating David because she had discovered something hidden inside our father’s old belongings.
A key.
A bank deposit box number.
And a photograph of our father standing beside Patrick Callahan.
She had begun investigating.
Alone.
“She should have come to me,” Ethan said.
“You’re a mob boss.”
A flicker crossed his face.
“Fair.”
“So what are you actually?”
He leaned against the table.
“Complicated.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
He glanced toward the city.
“My family did become criminal after my father died.
My uncle took over the businesses.
Gambling.
Protection.
Smuggling.
Whatever kept the money flowing.”
“And you?”
“I inherited it at twenty-nine.”
“You’re saying you’re innocent?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
That surprised me.
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of, Rachel.
I’ve threatened people.
Broken laws.
Paid people I shouldn’t have paid.
There is blood attached to my surname.”
He turned toward me.
“But I don’t kill innocent people, sell drugs, traffic women, or hurt children.
And I spent eight years dismantling the worst parts of what my uncle built.”
