Chapter 10 - The Man Who Refused to Stay DeadMy father was alive.
At least, somebody wanted us to believe he was.
Federal analysts confirmed the Lake Como image had been taken six months earlier.
The metadata was genuine.
Facial comparison gave a ninety-three-percent match.
Charles Rowan would have been seventy-six.
The man in the photograph looked seventy-six.
I sat in silence for a very long time.
Nora finally said, “You okay?”
“No.”
“Reasonable.”
“Do you think he’s alive?”
“Yes.”
I looked at her.
“Just like that?”
“Your wife woke up at her funeral.”
Fair.
Nothing surprised us anymore.
Celeste confirmed it during interrogation.
She had seen Charles twice after his supposed death.
The first time was three years earlier.
He contacted her secretly.
He knew about her financial schemes.
Instead of stopping her, he encouraged them.
Why?
Control.
My father could no longer legally direct Rowan Hospitality after his death.
But through Celeste, he could influence contracts, acquisitions, even board appointments.
“He used me,” Celeste said through recorded interview footage.
Nora watched without sympathy.
“He uses everyone.”
Celeste continued.
“When Nora found the payments, Charles told me to scare her.”
My fists tightened.
“He said she would ruin everything.”
“And you drugged her.”
“I asked Wynn for something mild.”
“You let them put her in a coffin.”
Celeste began crying.
“I panicked.”
I paused the recording.
“I’m tired of hearing that.”
Nora glanced at me.
“What?”
“People do monstrous things and then say they panicked.”
“Sometimes they did.”
“That doesn’t make it smaller.”
“No.”
We resumed.
Celeste said Charles was living somewhere in northern Italy.
Interpol moved.
So did federal investigators.
Rowan Hospitality’s board learned the company founder might be alive.
Half believed it was fraud.
The other half began calling lawyers.
I resigned as CEO the following morning.
The board chairman stared at me over video.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“You leave now, the company collapses.”
“Then maybe it should.”
“Caleb.”
“My wife was nearly murdered because of a voting trust created by this company’s founder.”
“Your father.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re willing to destroy his life’s work?”
I looked toward Nora.
She sat near the hospital window reading.
Alive.
Breathing.
I smiled.
“Yes.”
The resignation hit the media within an hour.
Shares crashed.
Commentators called me unstable.
Some blamed Nora.
That made me furious.
Nora laughed.
“Welcome to being the wife.”
“What?”
“They always blame the woman.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll issue a statement.”
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t need you defending me from strangers on television.”
I considered.
“That sounded healthy.”
“Therapy.”
Again.
I really needed her therapist’s number.
Andrew was released from intensive care three days later.
When I entered his room, we stared at each other awkwardly.
“How’s the bullet wound?”
“Still there.”
“Good.”
He smiled faintly.
“I deserved that.”
“Probably.”
We were quiet.
Then I said, “You let me bury you.”
His smile disappeared.
“I know.”
“You let Mom grieve.”
“She knew.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“You watched me give your eulogy.”
“I saw the recording.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
I sat.
“Why?”
He looked toward the window.
“Because Dad terrified me.”
“Dad was supposedly dead.”
“Not to me.”
Andrew explained.
Charles approached him after his staged death.
He claimed the government was coming after the family.
He convinced Andrew that disappearing would protect everyone.
Then Charles gradually pulled him into managing offshore assets.
Celeste learned.
She joined.
Eventually they became partners in crime and marriage again, secretly.
The more Andrew wanted out, the deeper he became trapped.
“Why come back now?”
“Nora.”
I looked at him.
“She figured it out.”
“Part of it.”
“She sent me an email.”
“When?”
“Two days before she collapsed.”
Nora had contacted my supposedly dead brother?
“She found an encrypted address in one of the shell-company records.”
“What did she say?”
Andrew smiled faintly.
“‘If you’re Andrew Rowan, stop hiding behind dead men’s signatures and call me.’”
That sounded exactly like Nora.
“She wasn’t afraid?”
“Your wife has questionable survival instincts.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Andrew looked serious.
“She said she believed you were innocent.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She never thought you stole the money.”
“But she accused me.”
“She was trying to force you to tell her what you were hiding.”
I closed my eyes.
We had both been testing each other instead of trusting each other.
Almost losing everything over pride.
Andrew continued.
“Nora wanted to expose Celeste without destroying the company.”
“She still cared about it.”
“She cared about you.”
That hurt.
Then my phone rang.
Detective Kline.
Interpol had located Charles.
A villa outside Como.
Police entered.
They found him alive.
But he wasn’t alone.
He was sitting at a dining table with six files spread before him.
Each file bore a name.
Mine.
Nora’s.
Andrew’s.
Beatrice’s.
Lily’s.
And Evelyn Quinn’s.
The foster mother who had saved Nora from burial.
Inside Evelyn’s file was a photograph of her taken two days earlier.
Outside Lily’s school.
Charles had been monitoring all of us.
Even after Wynn was arrested.
Even after Celeste was captured.
May you like
My father hadn’t lost control.
He had simply moved farther away.
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