Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Hannah couldn't breathe.
Adrian lifted one finger to his lips.
The voice came again.
"Hannah?"
Impossible.
Evelyn Reed had died in a hospital bed while Hannah held her hand.
Hannah had chosen the dress for the funeral.
She had watched the coffin lowered.
She had spent months waking at night because she kept remembering the silence afterward.
And now her grandmother was standing somewhere beyond the bedroom door.
Adrian quietly drew Hannah farther behind him.
The handle stopped moving.
"Hannah, I know you're there."
Tears burned Hannah's eyes.
"Grandma?"
Adrian looked back sharply.
The hallway went silent.
Then:
"Oh, sweetheart."
Hannah stepped forward.
Adrian caught her.
"No."
"That's her voice."
"I know."
"You don't know her voice."
"I know someone wants you to believe it."
Hannah stared at him.
The bedroom door suddenly opened.
Adrian moved.
But nobody stood outside.
The hallway was empty.
Hannah rushed forward.
"Grandma?"
Adrian followed.
The apartment entrance was open.
His two guards lay unconscious in the corridor.
Alive.
Breathing.
But unconscious.
Adrian crouched beside one.
"Daniel."
No response.
Hannah pressed both hands to her mouth.
"How?"
Adrian's gaze moved to the ceiling.
A small speaker had been attached above the bedroom hallway.
He pulled it down.
Pre-recorded.
Hannah's knees weakened.
Someone had used Evelyn's voice.
Adrian caught Hannah before she fell.
For a moment she let herself lean into him.
Then she pulled away.
"Someone broke into my apartment."
"Yes."
"They knew we were here."
"Yes."
"They knew about the safe."
Adrian looked toward the bedroom.
"Probably."
Hannah turned.
The hidden compartment was still open.
The cassette recorder remained.
The documents.
The ring.
Then she noticed something.
"The red box."
"What?"
"It was open."
Adrian looked.
They had left the ring inside.
Now the ring was gone.
Hannah searched the floor.
Nothing.
"Someone took it."
Adrian called security.
Within minutes, the building transformed.
Men filled the halls.
Police were quietly diverted.
Private medical staff examined the guards.
Hannah sat at the kitchen counter, wrapped in a blanket she didn't remember accepting.
Adrian stood across from her.
"I want you somewhere secure."
"This is my home."
"Someone entered it while armed security stood outside."
"Your security."
"Which is precisely why I'm not pretending this is acceptable."
She looked at him.
"You really don't like losing control."
"No."
"At least you're self-aware."
His mouth twitched.
Then his security chief entered.
"They used aerosol sedative in the hallway ventilation."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"Professional?"
"Very."
"Camera footage?"
"Looped."
"Timing?"
"Less than four minutes."
Hannah said, "Could Derek have done this?"
Both men looked at her.
Adrian answered first.
"Derek is an arrogant coward. This is beyond him."
"But his family?"
"Maybe."
The chief spoke.
"We also identified the dead man."
Adrian nodded.
"Tell me."
"Samuel Carrow."
Hannah's head snapped up.
"What?"
"You know him?"
She stood.
"Samuel Carrow was my grandmother's attorney."
The men exchanged a look.
"He disappeared two years before she died," Hannah continued. "She told me he retired overseas."
"He didn't," Adrian said.
"Apparently not."
The security chief handed Adrian a tablet.
"Carrow's body was found in a storage facility registered under a shell company."
"Cause?"
"Still unclear."
"How long dead?"
"Approximately six years."
Hannah sat again.
Six years.
Her grandmother had lied.
Again.
"What was he doing in those pictures with Derek's family?"
"We don't know yet."
Adrian dismissed his chief.
Then he sat beside Hannah.
She stared at the counter.
"My whole life suddenly feels like a story everyone else read before I did."
Adrian didn't offer empty reassurance.
She appreciated that.
Instead he said, "Then we'll find the missing pages."
Hannah turned.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Because my family is involved."
"That's not the only reason."
His eyes held hers.
"No."
"What is the other reason?"
A long silence.
"You kissed me."
Hannah almost laughed.
"That's your justification for an international conspiracy investigation?"
"It was a memorable kiss."
Her cheeks warmed.
"This is inappropriate timing."
"I agree."
Neither looked away.
Then Adrian's phone buzzed.
He opened a security image.
"Your ex-fiancé just arrived downstairs."
Hannah's temporary softness disappeared.
"What does he want?"
"Probably forgiveness he hasn't earned."
"I'll talk to him."
"No."
"Adrian."
"He could be involved."
"Then wouldn't you rather hear what he says?"
Adrian considered.
Five minutes later, Derek entered the apartment under escort.
His face looked different.
No arrogance.
No polished confidence.
Fear.
Real fear.
"Hannah."
She didn't stand.
"What do you want?"
Derek looked at Adrian.
"Alone."
"No."
"This doesn't concern him."
Hannah almost laughed.
"That sentence isn't working well for you tonight."
Derek stepped closer.
"I made a mistake."
"Which one?"
"Hannah."
"You'll have to narrow it down."
He looked ashamed.
Whether genuinely or strategically, she couldn't tell.
"I shouldn't have said what I said."
"In front of four hundred people."
"I was angry."
"At my body?"
"At my father."
She frowned.
"What?"
Derek rubbed his face.
"He threatened to cut me out."
"Because of me?"
"No."
"Then why humiliate me?"
Derek looked away.
Adrian spoke.
"Because someone told you to."
Derek froze.
Hannah stood.
"Is that true?"
Silence.
"Derek."
He finally looked at her.
"I wasn't supposed to marry you."
Her stomach turned.
"What does that mean?"
"My father arranged our first meeting."
Hannah felt the room tighten.
Adrian said nothing.
Derek continued.
"I didn't know at first. I swear."
"When did you know?"
"Six months after we started dating."
"And you stayed."
"I loved you."
Hannah laughed bitterly.
"You loved me so much you publicly called me too fat to marry."
Derek's eyes filled with shame.
"You weren't supposed to leave."
That sentence chilled her.
"What?"
"My father said humiliating you would make you desperate to keep the relationship."
Adrian's expression became lethal.
Derek rushed on.
"He believed you'd sign the foundation authority agreement if you thought I might leave."
Hannah stared.
There it was.
Not random cruelty.
Leverage.
"You were blackmailing me emotionally."
"No."
"What would you call it?"
"I didn't want to do it."
"But you did."
Derek lowered his head.
Hannah's voice went quiet.
"Why does your father want control of my foundation?"
Derek didn't answer.
Adrian stood.
"Derek."
Something in his tone made Derek speak.
"Because there's an account."
"What account?"
"An old trust connected to the foundation."
Hannah frowned.
"I know every account."
"No. You don't."
He pulled a folded sheet from inside his jacket.
"Your grandmother created it in Switzerland."
Adrian took the paper.
His eyes scanned it.
Then stopped.
"What?" Hannah asked.
He handed it to her.
Account beneficiary:
Evelyn Reed Moretti.
Hannah's heartbeat stumbled.
"Moretti?"
Derek said, "My father believes that trust contains ownership shares."
"In what?"
Derek looked at Adrian.
"The Moretti Group."
Adrian became perfectly still.
Hannah reread the document.
"This is impossible."
Adrian spoke quietly.
"My grandfather founded the company with two partners."
"So?"
"One partner disappeared before the company became public."
"Who?"
"I never knew."
Derek whispered, "Evelyn Reed."
Hannah stared at him.
"No."
"My father found records."
"Where?"
"Samuel Carrow's archive."
Adrian moved closer.
"Your father had Carrow's archive?"
Derek swallowed.
"Part of it."
"How?"
Derek's face drained.
"Because he bought it from Vittorio."
Nobody moved.
Adrian's voice became almost inaudible.
"My grandfather is dead."
Derek looked at the floor.
"My father doesn't think so."
Hannah thought of the figure at the mansion.
The voice recording.
The ring stolen from her safe.
"Where is your father?"
Derek shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Call him."
"He won't answer."
Adrian extended his hand.
"Phone."
Derek hesitated.
Adrian didn't repeat himself.
He handed it over.
Adrian checked recent messages.
Then his expression changed.
"What?"
Adrian showed Hannah.
A message from Derek's father had arrived twenty minutes earlier.
YOU FAILED.
Below it:
SHE FOUND THE SAFE.
Derek whispered, "I didn't tell him."
Hannah looked at him.
"Then who did?"
Another message appeared.
This one contained a live photograph.
Hannah standing inside her apartment.
Taken from outside the window.
Adrian immediately looked toward the glass.
The curtains were open.
Across the street, a rooftop door swung shut.
His security team moved.
Hannah stared at Derek's phone.
A final message appeared.
BRING HANNAH TO THE FOUNDATION TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT.
Derek whispered, "Why?"
Then another line appeared.
OR EVELYN REED DIES FOR REAL THIS TIME.
May you like
Hannah's blood turned cold.
Her grandmother was alive.
