easy and smiling, one of the most feared men in the country grinning at a camera like an uncle at a birthday. I was perhaps s

was thi

tudy door behind h

yours? Why was I there? And why have

n long befor

t fe

guarded. "You

lp me re

were allies once. They built businesses together, shared

hat hap

bed. "You can't keep handing me hal

cause someone wanted tha

eve mine was

e evidence po

evidence

rha

long day. "Your father left records that vanished after his death," he said. "Financial transfers, private letters

ecause you thought I

all. "How romantic. Did you choose me because

irst,

y cut deeper. I pressed my fingers to

gs ch

conve

this marriage to b

ing from me, and you're an

hing about wh

tell

eel the heat of him. For one reckless second I thought

ruth about our families, and let me believe this co

nderstand that whatever brought us togeth

me by speeding u

my eyes. "That is a question you should no

es, I remembered how he had held me when I was frightened, how his voice softened when he thought I was asleep

I set the photograph on the desk. "Tell me everythin

f you keep digging, you may discove

you may discover I am n

It wasn't rough, only firm enough to stop

wed at the edges, and the handwriting was my father's. I knew the first line before I

, in the same hand, was a sec

he talkin

said n

it

es

hy

r believed I would

ld he th

I tilted the page toward the desk lamp until it surfaced. It wasn't Dante's name, and it wasn't my father's. It read Adrian Rom

ever know