Page 97 of The Last Chance
Lucia dashed tears from her eyes. “You are the last person I wanted to hurt. I wanted to tell you everything, but she threatened to kill Miss Lovelace.”
“We should have run away the moment the ship docked in Southampton,” Mrs Lowry said, wrapping her arm around Lucia and hugging her tightly. “I’ve helped raise Lucia since she was born. We returned to England on a boat from Naples nine months ago.”
“I have something for you.” With a shaky hand, Luciaretrieved a note from her coat pocket and gave it to Aaron. “It will be a dreadful shock.”
Aaron tore open the note and read the missive.
By the time I’m finished, you’ll wish you’d
kept your brothers in the rookeries.
I heard you cried like babes that first night.
Aaron shivered as if cold fingers from the past were tracing down his spine. “Who wrote this?”
“The letter is from my mother, N-Natasha Chance.” Lucia looked terrified at the mention of her own mother’s name. “The person you hate most is not dead.”
Natasha was alive?
Time stopped for a heartbeat.
“Is this your idea of a sick joke?” he barked.
“No, it’s true, sir. I swear it.” Mrs Lowry clasped her hands in prayer. “May God strike me dead.”
“But I read the coroner’s report and interviewed the constables.” Bile stung the back of Aaron’s throat. What the hell had he missed? “Witnesses watched her die. I had a man ride to Petersfield to check the parish records.”
“Mother paid people to lie. She said she would never be safe if you thought she was alive. We left for Naples with her Italian lover when I was three. Roberto died last year, leaving Mother four hundred pounds in his will.”
“Natasha was furious,” Mrs Lowry added. “Despite her wicked plot, Roberto’s son inherited everything.”
“What does she want with me?”
“You swore to seek vengeance.” Lucia hung her head before finding the courage to reach for Aaron’s hand and plead, “You must stop her. She is possessed by the devil and will not rest until your family is dead. She had documents prepared, namingme heir to your fortune, to your share of the gaming hell and the properties you own. Killing you is just the beginning.”
Aaron tried to remain calm, but his thoughts were rioting. “Why, in Lucifer’s name, would I leave my fortune to Natasha’s daughter? Any court in the land would see it as blatant fraud.”
That’s when Lucia delivered an unexpected blow, an unforeseen twist in the tale. “Because Ignatius Chance was my father. I am your sister, sir. Lucia Chance.”
Chapter Nineteen
Aaron froze.
It was a clever plan. Everyone knew how much he loved his kin. Everyone knew he would not leave a sibling out in the cold. But for Natasha to achieve her goal and avoid his brothers’ wrath, she must kill an entire family.
It was an impossible task.
Unless she set the club ablaze while they slept upstairs.
He turned to Joanna, fear rising through him like a tidal wave. “We need to leave. I warned Sigmund to expect an attack, but he can’t watch every room. Natasha could raze Fortune’s Den to the ground.”
A blackguard might scale the wall in the yard, force the door and torch the downstairs rooms. There would be mass panic, jumping from the upper windows, his family’s only means of escape.
“You can’t go,” Mrs Lowry said, a tremble in her voice. “Natasha has a boat waiting, moored down past the yard. Once you’re aboard, the skipper will take you to the meeting place. Natasha wants you to leave your share of Fortune’s Den toLucia. She’ll manage Lucia’s affairs until she’s of age, though she promises not to hurt your family.”
That was a lie.
Natasha would shoot him and dispose of his brothers.
