Chapter 4 - The Secret Beneath the Reed Foundation
"No."
Hannah read the message again.
OR EVELYN REED DIES FOR REAL THIS TIME.
"No."
Derek stared at her.
Adrian was already issuing orders.
"Trace the number. Quietly. I want every camera around the Reed Foundation pulled."
Hannah grabbed his arm.
"My grandmother is dead."
His eyes met hers.
"We no longer know that."
"I watched her die."
"What exactly did you see?"
Hannah's voice cracked.
"What kind of question is that?"
"A necessary one."
She hated him for asking.
Then she forced herself to remember.
Hospital.
Machines.
Grandmother weak.
A nurse adjusting something.
Hannah holding Evelyn's hand.
A doctor telling her the heart had stopped.
Hannah crying against the bed.
She had left the room.
The funeral director handled everything afterward.
She never saw Evelyn again until the viewing.
Closed casket.
Because Evelyn's instructions had specified it.
Hannah's skin went cold.
"It was closed."
Adrian understood immediately.
"The coffin?"
She nodded.
Derek whispered, "Jesus."
Hannah looked at him.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't stand there acting shocked when your family apparently knew more about my grandmother than I did."
Derek's face collapsed.
"I didn't know she might be alive."
"But you knew you were sent into my life."
"Eventually."
"You knew enough."
She turned away.
Derek moved closer.
"Hannah, I'm sorry."
Adrian stepped between them.
"Leave."
Derek looked at Hannah.
She didn't stop him.
His shoulders dropped.
He left under escort.
Hannah remained silent.
Adrian said, "Come with me."
"Where?"
"Somewhere nobody can photograph you through a window."
His Manhattan residence occupied the top three floors of a private building overlooking Central Park.
Hannah would normally have been intimidated by the glass walls, private elevator and security staff.
That night, she barely noticed.
Adrian gave her a bedroom.
She refused to sleep.
At three in the morning, she entered the kitchen and found him standing barefoot beside the counter.
Black slacks.
White shirt.
Sleeves rolled.
Tattoos covering his forearms.
He poured coffee.
"Bad idea," Hannah said.
"So is staying awake."
"Yet here we are."
He poured her a cup.
She took it.
For several minutes, they stood in silence.
Then Hannah said, "Tell me about Vittorio."
Adrian leaned against the counter.
"He built an empire."
"That's the public version."
"The private version is uglier."
"How ugly?"
"My family began in shipping after World War II. Some shipments were legal. Some weren't."
"Drugs?"
"Mostly weapons. Later money. Gambling. Protection."
Hannah absorbed that.
"And now?"
"Most of my companies are legitimate."
"Most?"
His mouth curved.
"You're curious."
"I'm trapped in a billionaire's penthouse because my allegedly dead grandmother may be kidnapped by my ex-fiancé's family, and your deceased Mafia grandfather appears connected to my inheritance. Yes, Adrian, I'm curious."
"Fair."
She drank coffee.
"Was Vittorio cruel?"
Adrian looked toward the windows.
"Yes."
The answer came easily.
"He believed loyalty mattered more than morality."
"Did you love him?"
A pause.
"I worshipped him when I was a child."
"And later?"
"I learned enough to stop."
Hannah looked at her cup.
"What if my grandmother was part of that world?"
"Then she survived it."
"That isn't comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be."
She met his eyes.
There was no judgment in them.
Only understanding.
At sunrise, Adrian's investigators found something.
The Reed Foundation building had originally been constructed in 1932 as a private bank.
Seventeen rooms.
Four underground levels.
Hannah stared at the architectural plans.
"17-4-32."
Adrian nodded.
"Room seventeen. Fourth underground level. Built in 1932."
"The numbers from the photograph."
"Exactly."
The foundation offices occupied the first six floors.
Hannah had been inside thousands of times.
She had never known there were four basement levels.
"Why aren't these on modern plans?"
"Sealed after 1978."
"By whom?"
"Evelyn Reed."
Hannah looked up.
They entered the foundation after sunset the next evening.
No police.
Adrian insisted.
If Evelyn was truly alive, whoever held her had specifically demanded midnight.
They arrived three hours early.
Adrian brought four trusted security men.
Hannah brought the photograph.
The public basement ended at level two.
A storage room wall concealed an old steel elevator.
Hannah stared.
"You've got to be kidding."
Adrian's man found power.
The elevator groaned awake.
They descended.
Level three.
Then four.
The doors opened.
Darkness.
Adrian stepped out first.
Hannah followed.
A corridor extended beneath the building.
Old tile.
Dust.
Vault doors.
Numbers painted above them.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
They continued.
Sixteen.
Then seventeen.
Room seventeen had no handle.
Only an indentation shaped like a ring.
Hannah's breath caught.
"The ring."
Adrian nodded.
"Someone stole it from your safe because it's the key."
"Then we're too late."
He examined the slot.
"Maybe not."
Hannah pulled out the photograph.
"Wait."
On its back, beneath V.M.R., a circular stain surrounded the initials.
She pressed the photograph against the mechanism.
Nothing.
Adrian studied the slot.
Then removed his own signet ring.
He inserted it.
Click.
The door opened.
Hannah stared.
"How?"
"Same family crest."
Inside was not a room.
It was an archive.
Shelves of files.
Photographs.
Ledgers.
Boxes.
A motion sensor triggered soft lights.
Hannah walked inside.
Her grandmother's handwriting appeared everywhere.
Dates.
Names.
Transactions.
Adrian pulled a ledger.
His face darkened.
"What?"
"Payments to judges."
"From your grandfather?"
"From both of them."
Hannah looked at Evelyn's signature.
"No."
Adrian turned pages.
"These stop in 1984."
"What happened then?"
He found another folder.
A newspaper clipping.
VITTORIO MORETTI ESCAPES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT.
Another.
REED CHARITY FOUNDER SURVIVES CAR BOMBING.
Hannah sat down.
"My grandmother was almost killed?"
"Apparently."
Adrian opened a locked drawer with his ring.
Inside lay letters.
Dozens.
All between Evelyn and Vittorio.
Hannah read the first.
My dearest V,
If we stay together, our children will inherit our enemies.
Adrian read over her shoulder.
Children.
Hannah looked at him.
"Did they have children together?"
He took another letter.
No.
Another.
Then he found one dated 1985.
Vittorio,
I will take Margaret away. You will tell everyone she belongs to Reed. It is the only chance she has.
Hannah stopped breathing.
Margaret.
Her mother.
Adrian looked at her.
"My mother was your grandfather's daughter."
"Maybe."
"Then what does that make us?"
Adrian immediately calculated.
"Nothing close."
Hannah stared at him.
"That was fast."
"I was motivated."
Despite everything, she laughed.
He smiled.
Then the seriousness returned.
"If Margaret was Vittorio's daughter, you're his great-granddaughter."
"And you?"
"His grandson."
"So we're—"
"Half first cousins once removed."
Hannah looked horrified.
Adrian continued quickly.
"Assuming Margaret was biologically his child."
"That's not making this better."
"Agreed."
She stepped away.
The strange attraction between them suddenly felt ridiculous.
Then Adrian opened another letter.
His face changed.
"What?"
He handed it to her.
My dear Evelyn,
Margaret can never know the truth.
She is not mine.
She is Lorenzo's.
Hannah blinked.
"Who is Lorenzo?"
Adrian searched memory.
"My grandfather's younger brother."
"Then—"
"We aren't related."
Again too quickly.
Hannah stared at him.
He shrugged.
"Still motivated."
She almost laughed again.
Then a light appeared at the far end of the archive.
A monitor turned on.
Static.
Then an image.
An elderly woman sat in a chair.
Hannah's heart stopped.
Silver hair.
Thin face.
Familiar eyes.
"Grandma."
Evelyn Reed looked directly into the camera.
Alive.
A man stepped behind her.
Only his hands were visible.
Then his voice filled the archive.
"Hannah."
She went rigid.
"Who are you?"
The camera slowly widened.
The man's face appeared.
Adrian inhaled sharply.
Hannah looked at him.
He had gone pale.
On the screen stood a man in his late eighties.
Older than the photographs.
But unmistakable.
Adrian whispered, "Grandfather."
Vittorio Moretti smiled.
"Bring me the original photograph, Hannah."
Adrian stepped toward the monitor.
"What do you want?"
Vittorio's smile disappeared.
"My family back."
Evelyn suddenly shouted, "DON'T GIVE HIM ANYTHING!"
The screen went black.
Then a sound came from behind them.
The vault door slammed shut.
The lights died.
May you like
A lock engaged.
And somewhere in the darkness, someone began walking toward them.
