Chapter 3 - The Message Kate Never Sent
Luciano folded the document before the door opened.
His younger sister, Elena, stepped into the nursery.
She froze when she saw him.
“Luciano?”
He studied her face.
“Elena.”
“What are you doing here?”
“My wife lives here.”
“You know what I mean.”
He did.
Elena lived forty minutes away. She had not called to say she was coming.
Luciano held the folder behind his leg.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Margaret called me.”
Luciano’s expression shifted.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“Why?”
“Because Kate asked her to.”
That was possible.
It was also easy to verify.
Elena looked toward the unfinished crib.
“Is she okay?”
“For now.”
“And the baby?”
“For now.”
Elena exhaled.
Then she noticed his face.
“What happened?”
Luciano brought the document into view.
Her eyes immediately dropped toward it.
Too quickly.
“You recognize this?”
“No.”
“You looked at it like you did.”
“I looked because you’re standing in a nursery holding financial paperwork.”
Luciano handed it to her.
Elena read.
Her confusion appeared genuine.
Then her face changed.
“What is this?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
“This says Adrian transferred authority over one of the holding companies.”
“Yes.”
“To Matteo.”
Luciano watched her carefully.
Matteo Aruri was their cousin.
More accurately, he was the closest thing Luciano had to a brother.
They had grown up together.
Worked together.
Fought together.
Luciano had trusted Matteo with access few people possessed.
Including access to Hawthorne Ridge.
Elena looked up.
“Does Matteo know about this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you find it?”
“In the crib.”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“Someone put financial documents in Kate’s nursery?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make sure I found them.”
“Who?”
Luciano showed her the disposable phone.
Elena read the messages.
Her face drained.
“Luciano.”
“I know.”
“This wasn’t just about your marriage.”
“No.”
“It looks like someone separated you from Kate so they could move things while you were distracted.”
“That’s what they want me to believe.”
Elena frowned.
“You think the evidence is planted?”
“I think evidence appearing in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment deserves suspicion.”
A faint smile touched her mouth.
“Kate taught you that.”
“Yes.”
They both looked toward the crib.
For a moment, Luciano imagined a child sleeping there.
His child.
The thought hit with frightening force.
He had spent seven months thinking his marriage was dying.
Meanwhile, a nursery had been growing inside his house.
“Does Kate know you’re here?” he asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I came through the kitchen. Margaret told me not to disturb her.”
Luciano nodded.
“Stay with her.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Call Matteo.”
“Maybe don’t.”
He looked at her.
“If somebody is manipulating you, calling the name on the suspicious document tells them exactly what you know.”
Luciano almost smiled.
“When did you become cautious?”
“When my brother became reckless enough for both of us.”
They left the nursery.
Margaret confirmed she had called Elena.
One suspicion disappeared.
Several remained.
Kate was sleeping.
Luciano stood outside her room longer than necessary.
Elena noticed.
“You can go in.”
“She told me not to.”
“She was angry.”
“She was clear.”
Elena studied him.
“You really are trying.”
Luciano gave her a warning look.
She ignored it.
“You know what Kate told me once?”
“No.”
“She said the hardest thing about loving you was that you could move mountains for her, but you couldn’t sit still beside her.”
Luciano looked through the narrow opening of the door.
Kate slept with one hand over her abdomen.
“That sounds like her.”
“It was not a compliment.”
“I understood that.”
Elena touched his arm.
“You didn’t know about the baby.”
“No.”
“She thinks you did.”
“She did.”
“And you thought she wanted a divorce.”
“Yes.”
Elena shook her head.
“Two intelligent people destroyed by one dishonest messenger.”
“Not destroyed.”
Elena looked at him.
It was the first hopeful thing he had said.
Luciano returned downstairs.
He examined every message on the disposable phone.
One referred to a transfer.
Another referred to L.
Another to K.
But none explicitly named Adrian.
The assumption was obvious.
Perhaps too obvious.
He searched the phone’s call history.
Only one outgoing call remained.
Yesterday.
Three minutes.
Luciano copied the number.
It belonged to no saved contact.
He called from his own phone.
A ringtone sounded somewhere inside Hawthorne Ridge.
Luciano froze.
It stopped after four rings.
He called again.
The ringtone came from the study.
He entered.
Nothing.
Again.
This time he followed the sound toward the desk.
He opened one drawer.
Empty.
Another.
Documents.
Third.
The ringing was louder.
He removed the drawer completely.
A phone had been taped underneath it.
Luciano pulled it free.
The call ended.
He stared at the device.
Someone had hidden both sides of a communication inside his house.
Why?
He unlocked it.
No password.
Again, too easy.
There was one conversation.
He opened it.
Most messages matched the disposable phone upstairs.
But several older messages remained.
One stopped him.
KATE SENT ANOTHER LETTER.
Response:
Intercept it.
Then:
She is becoming suspicious.
Response:
Keep L abroad.
Luciano scrolled further.
The oldest surviving exchange had been sent the morning after his final argument with Kate.
He’s leaving today.
Response:
Good. Seven months should be enough.
Luciano stared at that sentence.
Seven months.
Enough for what?
A sound came from behind him.
Elena stood in the doorway.
“Kate’s awake.”
Luciano put the phone in his pocket.
“How is she?”
“Asking for you.”
He was upstairs in seconds.
Kate looked exhausted.
But calmer.
Margaret stood near the window.
“She needs to tell you something,” Margaret said.
Luciano approached but remained several feet away.
Kate noticed.
“You can come closer.”
He did.
He stopped beside the bed.
Kate looked at his hand.
“You used to hold my hand when I was scared.”
Luciano offered it without speaking.
Kate hesitated.
Then placed her hand in his.
The contact nearly broke both of them.
Her fingers were warm.
Familiar.
Luciano sat down.
“I found the phone,” he said.
“I know.”
“There were messages.”
“About us?”
“Yes.”
Kate swallowed.
“I need to tell you why I stopped trying to contact you.”
Luciano waited.
“About four months ago, I got an email.”
“From me?”
“I thought it was.”
His grip on her hand tightened slightly.
“What did it say?”
Kate looked toward Margaret.
Margaret nodded gently.
Kate continued.
“It said you knew about the baby.”
Luciano went motionless.
“It said you didn’t believe it was yours.”
His face changed.
“Kate.”
“I know now.”
“No. You need to hear me say it.”
She looked at him.
“I never sent that.”
Tears finally slipped down her cheeks.
“I know.”
Luciano leaned forward.
“I never knew.”
“I know.”
“I would have come home.”
Kate closed her eyes.
“That was the part that hurt most. I kept thinking you could have come home and you chose not to.”
“I would have come.”
She nodded.
“I believe you.”
Those three words did more to him than forgiveness could have.
Luciano lowered his forehead toward her hand.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Kate whispered, “There was another message.”
He lifted his head.
“What?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did it say?”
Kate hesitated.
“It told me the divorce was already prepared.”
Luciano’s expression hardened.
“And?”
“It said if I challenged it, private information about your businesses would become public.”
“Did it threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“Kate.”
“It said stress wasn’t good for a woman in my condition.”
Luciano stood.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Stay calm.”
He looked at her.
“I am calm.”
That was exactly what made the room colder.
Kate squeezed his hand.
“Sit down.”
He looked at her.
“Please.”
Luciano sat.
She studied him.
“This is what I mean.”
“What?”
“You don’t get to disappear into that part of yourself every time you’re afraid.”
“I’m not afraid.”
Kate almost laughed.
“You’re terrified.”
He looked at her abdomen.
She was right.
“I am.”
“Then stay here.”
So he stayed.
Not solving.
Not calling.
Not commanding.
Just sitting beside her.
For the first time in seven months, Kate rested with Luciano holding her hand.
An hour later, she slept again.
Luciano carefully stood.
Margaret met him in the hallway.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you.”
He waited.
“Kate had a prenatal appointment six weeks ago.”
“And?”
“Someone canceled it.”
“Who?”
“The clinic believed Kate canceled it herself.”
“She didn’t?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she was standing beside me when we received the cancellation notice.”
Luciano’s expression darkened.
“Was it rescheduled?”
“Yes.”
“Any other interference?”
Margaret hesitated.
“That’s why I started coming here.”
“What aren’t you saying?”
“The clinic received an authorization form transferring Kate’s care.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know. The destination clinic didn’t exist.”
Luciano felt the pieces rearranging again.
This was bigger than intercepted messages.
Someone had been monitoring Kate.
Controlling information around her.
Perhaps trying to frighten her.
Perhaps trying to isolate her.
“Do you have the form?”
Margaret nodded.
“In my bag.”
She retrieved it.
Luciano examined the signature.
Kate Aruri.
He had seen Kate sign her name thousands of times.
It was good.
Very good.
But wrong.
“The K.”
Margaret frowned.
“What?”
“She loops it differently.”
He turned the page over.
A faint indentation showed through from whatever had been written on top of it before the form was copied.
Luciano tilted it toward the lamp.
Three letters became visible.
M.V.A.
He stared.
Margaret whispered, “Does that mean something?”
“Yes.”
Matteo Vale Aruri.
His cousin’s full initials.
Luciano reached for his phone.
Before he could dial, Kate’s phone rang inside the bedroom.
Both turned.
Kate woke.
She looked at the screen.
Her face went pale.
“Luciano.”
He entered.
“What?”
She held the phone toward him.
An incoming video call.
The caller name was not Adrian.
Not Matteo.
Not anyone Luciano expected.
The screen displayed one word.
MOTHER.
Kate stared at him.
“My mother has been dead for twelve years.”
The phone kept ringing.
Then Kate answered.
A man’s voice came through the darkness.
“Luciano, if you want your wife to survive tonight, stop looking for Matteo.”
The video image suddenly brightened.
A face began moving toward the camera.
Kate recognized it first.
Her hand tightened around Luciano’s.
May you like
“Oh my God.”
And then the man stepped fully into view.
