Except she remembered Nelly more clearly now: a woman older than she was and always following Bruce around like a puppy. Over the years, that had changed as the woman barely looked anyone in the eye, often excused herself from celebrations, and always avoided conversations with the others in the clan. She had still followed Bruce around but like a resigned assistant and…
She ran away with a purple eye the night before. Came back with makeup hiding everything and quiet as a mouse.
Disbelief flourished, but a look at Hannah had her stomach dropping.
“What did my clan leader do?”
Hannah fidgeted, hesitant for the first time. Something dark and haunted settled in the woman’s eyes as she answered.
“He attacked us first. He used an alias and infiltrated our clan leader’s business empire. My stepfather. Your clan leader made my stepfather trust him enough to spill most of our trade secrets. Then your clan leader destroyed that business and killed our clan leader’s wife. Your clan leader did this because he wanted my stepmother first and couldn’t stand the idea of someone else having her.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Anne snapped, her voice tinged with desperation. “What about Sam? He’s evil. He weaved a story and made me believe he was innocent, too. Then he led the attack. I heard enough while I was still awake—before he beat me close to death. I know he commanded everything. Don’t you dare deny it.”
“Sam is a lot of things, but he wouldn’t go after an innocent clan. He was still a kid when his mother died, and all he knows is that your clan did his wrong. Sam has never truly fit in and would do anything to earn his father’s respect.”
Including razing a clan to the ground.
“You are lying.” Anne shook her head, glaring at the woman. Hannah looked back somberly, not even bothering to defend herself…and that made it worse.
“Look it up. It happened fifteen years ago. Look up Richard Akira. It started and ended with him.”
Silence.
“I will go. Your men can follow me if they wish to prove I’m not with anyone. I came myself. I came because…” Hannah’s voice shook. “You didn’t kill the children. You spared them. Sam loves them. So do I. It would have broken us. I know he did bad things, but you needed to know the truth.”
The woman left with Charlie in tow, keeping a wary distance. Anne still couldn’t move as the conversation replayed in her mind before the name got stuck. Hannah could be lying, a story weaved to touch on Anne’s emotion…but for what?
A hand came down on her shoulder, squeezing. The other rubbed circles on her elbow as Nico trudged close, his scent doing wonders to calm her down. In that calm, a decision proliferated.
“Nico?”
“Yes?”
“I need access to a computer. And the internet.”
Anne learned how to use the computer again in no time and searched the name and the articles connected to it. Despite Hannah’s words, she wasn’t prepared to see her clan leader’s face all over the news as Richard Akira—but even more so to see the man always beside him, Marcus Anton, who had an uncanny resemblance to Sam.
Marcus Anton had been celebrated in the business world in their part of the city, while Richard had been named the loyal employee turned business partner because of his smarts. Marcus’s wife, Eleanor Anton, had been a vibrant woman even in newspaper photos, her eyes always smiling and her glamour so resonant. It seemed like a successful brand and unit until the next few years when the articles changed.
Eleanor’s death was reported as an accident. Marcus retreated from the public eye and was soon declared dead, too, while Richard rose to prominence and began acquiring lands everywhere—including Marcus’s old properties and eventually his business. Before long, Richard had disappeared from the public eye, too, as he had sold everything after raking in stupendous profits for years.
But he didn’t sell all the lands.
She read and read until her eyes crossed, then researched again the next day. The hours blurred as she became obsessed with every news there was, but she always became aware of Nico whenever he sat beside her to read the same articles.
“The land we lived in, our main territory…it wasn’t ours,” she blurted out, disbelief ringing. “Richard—no, Bruce—bought it with Marcus’s money. It’s listed in his confidential files among the hundreds of other lands that Bruce bought. Bruce disappeared from that world around the time that Eleanor’s case was reopened to investigate new evidence. They changed it to homicide. But Marcus…”
“He lost everything. His wife, his business,” Nico continued, eyes on the screen. “He lost it all at the same time that Bruce got it all.”
“Except Eleanor.”
Nico nodded. “Except Eleanor.”
Anne shuffled through pictures until she found one with Marcus and Eleanor, young and in love. In the corner, the camera captured Bruce as he looked on, just as young and unable to hide the longing in his eyes.
“There’s nothing definitive that links Bruce to Eleanor’s murder.”
But there were articles of other things, from Marcus’s and Eleanor’s endless charity works, secret charity fundings, and adoption agencies. Then there were Richard’s articles filled with stolen lands, underpaid employees, and questionable business practices…and Anne knew, her heart thumping with certainty as everything connected to incidents she could recall as a kid: Bruce lashing out on everyone on the week that he disappeared from the public eye. Bruce updating their underground facilities the month that he rose to business fame.