6. Ryan #5
Arthur turns to a clean page. “Context.”
“Lake house. Ally thinks she was fourteen or fifteen. She was outside with Tobias while Roman was on the phone.”
Dad looks at me. “Our lake?”
“Yeah.” I can picture it too easily. Ally on the dock. Tobias probably waist-deep in water hunting something alive. Roman on the porch talking because his daughter is just his daughter and therefore why the fuck would he care what she hears? “She remembers Roman saying Vaughn wanted too much.”
“Too much what?” Theodore asks.
“She doesn’t know.”
“Anything else?”
“That Vaughn knew the number before he agreed.”
Theodore looks at Arthur. “Sounds transactional.”
“Carlisle,” I continue. “She was younger. Maybe thirteen. Roman and Victor were talking in his study. Victor said Carlisle was getting nervous.”
“What did Roman say?” Callum asks.
“Keep him comfortable. Nervous people make mistakes.”
Gideon writes that one down.
“Aster came from Jane.”
Dad looks at me. “Jane?”
“She found something in Roman’s office. Ally heard her ask why there was Aster money in an account.”
Theodore sits forward. “Exact?”
“That’s how Ally remembers it.”
“What did Roman do?”
“Got pissed that Jane was in his office. Told her she didn’t understand what she was looking at.”
Dad’s jaw tightens. “And Jane?”
“Apologized.” Nobody needs me to explain why Ally remembers that. “Geneva,” I say. “Roman went when Ally was around fifteen.”
“Business?” Theodore asks.
“Maybe. He told Jane he was in D.C.” That gets everyone’s attention. “Ally found out because later she heard Victor ask Roman whether Geneva had been worth the trip.”
Arthur’s pen moves. “Anything else?”
“Victor asked if anybody saw him.”
Callum’s eyes narrow. “And?”
“Roman said nobody who mattered. Montreal was another summer at the lake. Victor complained that it was expensive. Roman said it was cleaner than New York.”
“Cleaner,” Theodore repeats. “Same language Tremblay used about Zurich?”
“Similar enough that Ally noticed when we were talking.”
Arthur writes that down. “And customs?”
That one still makes my skin crawl. “Victor asked Roman if he still had someone at customs.”
Dad straightens beside me. “Roman said?”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“That Victor shouldn’t abuse it.”
Silence. Not shocked silence. Worse. The kind where every adult in the room has enough experience to understand exactly how bad that sentence could be without anybody needing to explain it.
I look at Arthur. “That’s what I gave you.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s what the feds ran.”
“Yes.”
“So now tell me what fucking hit.”
Arthur doesn’t chastise me this time. He reaches for the stack of papers beside his laptop. “More than one thing.” He slides the first page toward us. “Vaughn appears in material seized during the Anderson investigation.”
Xander leans forward. “Lucian?”
“Yes.”
“Same Vaughn?”
“We don’t know yet.” Another page. “Carlisle appears in material connected to Alastair Pennington.”
Kaiden’s expression goes cold. “Same Carlisle?”
“Again, not confirmed.” Arthur puts down another sheet. “Aster is the most significant.”
Clifford reaches for it. “What is it?”
“At least three things. Aster Holdings. Aster Foundation. And several financial accounts where Aster appears in the identifying material.”
My pulse kicks. “The foundation. Roman told Victor not to use the foundation because of Pennington.”
“Yes.”
Kaiden sits forward. “And Aster is in Pennington’s shit?”
“Yes.”
“Lucian?”
Arthur pauses. “Yes.” There it is. Nobody speaks. Arthur points farther down. “There is activity through Zurich.”
Theodore reaches for the page. “Connected to Aster?”
“Yes.”
“Geneva?”
“Still being traced.”
“Montreal?”
“Still being traced.”
Dad doesn’t care about either. “Customs.”
Arthur looks at him. “There’s a current federal customs official whose name appears in communications recovered from Lucian. None of you touches these names independently until we’ve established which inquiries can be made without creating noise.”
Iz gestures between the fathers. “You realize this is the worst group of people you could possibly tell not to investigate something.”
Arthur looks at him. “I’m including you.”
“Oh. Then definitely.”
“Isaac.” Arthur turns another page. “The federal team went back through Daisy’s statement last night.” Danny’s coffee stops against his mouth. Clifford looks at him.
Danny lowers the cup. “I’m fine.” His father doesn’t say anything. Danny looks at Arthur. “What did they find?”
“Not a new name. A pattern.” Danny’s eyebrows draw together. Arthur looks briefly at me before returning to him. “Daisy knew as much as she did because Reece talked in front of her. He underestimated what she understood. He assumed addiction made her unreliable. Dependent. Controllable.”
Arthur continues carefully. “Daisy told investigators things Reece likely never intended her to know because he stopped treating her as someone whose attention mattered.”
Danny is quiet for a moment. Then he looks at me.
“Same thing Roman does with Ally.” Danny shakes his head.
“That’s exactly what it is.” He leans back, thinking.
“Reece would talk around Daisy because he thought she was too fucked up to understand him. Roman talks around Ally because he thinks she’s a woman. ”
Dad’s mouth tightens. “More specifically, his daughter.”
“Same result,” Danny says. “They decide the person in the room isn’t important enough to watch what they say.”
Clifford looks at Arthur. “And Daisy’s information led to Lucian.”
Danny stares at the papers. “And Ally’s might lead to Roman.”
“Potentially. There’s another reason the federal prosecutor wanted us to revisit Pennington.”
Kaiden looks up. “What?”
Arthur chooses his words carefully. “The federal team has been reevaluating whether the way Alastair cultivated your family was unique.”
Thomas looks at him. “It wasn’t.”
“That’s one of the questions they’re asking.”
Kaiden’s jaw tightens. “Stop talking like a fucking lawyer for five seconds.”
“I am a lawyer.” Arthur exhales. “Garrett groomed Catherine. He inserted himself into her life when she was young. Made himself safe. Important. Then abused that access for years.” Kaiden’s face is empty now.
Arthur continues. “Alastair knew what Garrett had done. And afterward, he still pushed Jonathan toward her.”
“Because of Thomas.” Thomas answers before Arthur can.
“Because of me.” His voice is flat. Everyone looks toward him.
“Alastair had Fiona under control because of Catherine’s sealed history and what exposure could do to my political career.
He used Fiona’s fear to keep Jonathan attached to Catherine. ”
Callum’s expression darkens. “The girl wasn’t the only target.”
“No.” Thomas looks sick saying it. “The family was.”
Kaiden sets his coffee down. “Cat was how Jon got into it.”
Arthur looks at him. “At least in part.”
“His father fucking taught him she did.”
Callum’s hand settles against the back of Kaiden’s neck. Kaiden lets it. For a second, I see him younger than eighteen.
Then Thomas looks at me. “How old was Alison when Victor chose her?”
The question punches through the room. “Thirteen.”
Kaiden looks at me. “Thirteen?”
“Yeah. Because that was always the fucking point.”
Arthur leans forward. “What do you mean?”
“Ally told me Roman always planned to marry her strategically. That’s part of why he wanted a daughter.
She was raised knowing he’d choose someone.
” Nobody says anything. I think about her at the lake.
Black-and-white gingham bikini. Helping Tobias catch a frog.
Laughing. Seventeen and still somehow thinking she could make herself small enough to survive what her father had planned.
“Victor saw her at thirteen and decided he wanted her. Roman agreed.”
Thomas’s expression is horrible. “Roman didn’t have to cultivate the family.” Dad looks at him. Thomas shakes his head. “He was already inside it.”
The realization moves through the room. Slow. Ugly.
Kaiden looks at Arthur. “That’s the same fucking thing.”
“Structurally—“
“Don’t.” Arthur stops. Kaiden leans forward. “Alastair controlled Fiona so Fiona would push Cat toward Jon. Roman doesn’t need to control Ally’s mother to get Ally to Victor because Roman is Ally’s father.”
Callum’s jaw tightens. “He raised her for it.”
“Yeah.” I hear Tobias from yesterday. Ally is a good girl. That’s why Victor picked her. My stomach turns.
Danny is staring at the floor. Then he says quietly, “Roman improved it.” Everybody looks at him. Danny lifts his head. “Alastair had to find a way into Cat’s family.” He looks at me. “Roman made the girl himself.”
Xander leans forward. “Then what about Penny?” Gideon’s expression changes. X looks at Arthur. “Lucian didn’t give a shit about Penny. He used her because he wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“Access through the girl.”
Arthur nods. “Yes.”
Danny looks toward Theodore. “And Hartley used Becca.” Theodore flinches. Danny sees it. His voice doesn’t get cruel. “Different way.”
Theodore nods slowly. “I know.”
“She still decided what Becca wanted mattered less than what Hartley wanted.”
“Yes.”
“And when Becca became a problem…” Danny stops.
He doesn’t have to finish. Theodore looks down.
Clifford’s hand tightens on Danny’s shoulder.
For a moment, nobody says anything. Daisy.
Their baby. Becca. Too much loss packed into one fucking family in less than a year.
Danny takes a breath. Then looks at Arthur. “So what are we saying?”
Arthur looks around the room. “That the federal team no longer believes these were independent criminal operations that happened to overlap socially. They were working together.”
Dad is the first to ask the obvious question. “How?”
“We don’t fully know.”
Danny looks at the papers. “Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen it.”
Kaiden turns toward him. “What?”