Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Knew About My Baby
Marco moved first.
He pulled Dante and me sideways as the elevator doors tried to close.
The woman screamed.
The gun never fired.
A security officer inside the elevator slammed the attacker's arm into the wall and forced the weapon down.
For ten chaotic seconds, all I saw were bodies.
Then Marco shouted:
“Clear!”
The attacker was on the floor.
Handcuffed.
The older woman pressed herself against the elevator wall.
Dante stared at her.
Not at the gun.
Not at the guards.
At her.
“Mom?”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Dante crossed the distance in three steps.
Then stopped.
He looked as though he didn't know whether he wanted to embrace her or demand twenty-five years of answers.
Isabella made the decision.
She wrapped her arms around him.
Dante stood rigid.
Then slowly closed his eyes.
His arms came around her.
I turned away.
Some moments were too private even when they happened in front of you.
The attacker was not Adrian.
His name was Lucas Kern.
Former employee of Mercer Strategic Holdings.
Adrian had paid him twice that week.
Police took him downstairs.
Isabella refused to leave until she spoke with us.
We sat in the living room.
Dante opposite his mother.
Me beside him.
Marco near the door.
For a long moment, no one knew where to begin.
Finally Dante asked the question that had been waiting for twenty-five years.
“Why didn't you come back?”
Isabella looked at him.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
“I never saw you.”
“Your father did.”
Dante's face hardened.
“The first time was six months after the fire. Angelo found me before I reached Chicago. He showed me photographs of you leaving college.”
She swallowed.
“He told me the next photograph would be your funeral.”
Dante looked away.
“The second time was after you married Sophia.”
I knew that name.
Dante's first wife.
A marriage that had lasted less than a year.
“You knew?”
“I watched from far away.”
Pain moved through his face.
“The third time?”
“After Angelo died.”
“Then why didn't you come?”
“Because someone else contacted me.”
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
My stomach turned.
Isabella looked at me.
“I am so sorry.”
“For what?”
“He found Evelyn's records after she died.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“That was when Adrian and I were still together.”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“He discovered who Dante was,” Isabella continued. “Then he discovered you were dating his son.”
Dante frowned.
“Whose son?”
Isabella looked at him.
“Gabriel's.”
The name landed heavily.
“Gabriel Mercer is Adrian's father?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Why is everyone hiding him?”
Isabella's hands trembled.
“Because Gabriel was the federal investigator I was helping.”
That made sense.
And created ten new questions.
“He worked undercover with Angelo,” she said. “Silverline was our evidence channel. Evelyn helped move money into protected accounts for witnesses.”
“And Victor?”
“He was my security.”
“So the ledger wasn't a criminal ledger.”
“Not entirely.”
Dante leaned forward.
“My father told me Victor stole eight million.”
“He didn't.”
“Where did it go?”
“To people escaping your father.”
Dante closed his eyes.
For years, he had believed Victor betrayed him.
Instead Victor had helped people survive Angelo.
“Why did Adrian target Norah?”
Isabella looked at me.
“I don't think it began as targeting.”
I almost laughed.
“That would be an impressive coincidence.”
“Maybe it was at first.”
She explained.
Adrian had found his mother's records after Evelyn became ill.
He learned about the Costellos gradually.
He became obsessed with the idea that his family had been used and discarded.
He believed Gabriel had sacrificed everything for the Costellos and received nothing.
“Was that true?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then what happened to Gabriel?”
“He became paranoid. He thought the investigation had been compromised. He vanished before Angelo could find him.”
“And Adrian?”
“Adrian grew up believing his father abandoned him.”
I thought of all the anger I had seen in him.
Possession.
Control.
The belief that people leaving him was a betrayal requiring punishment.
It didn't excuse anything.
But suddenly I understood its shape.
“When Adrian realized I had married Dante?”
Isabella's face filled with guilt.
“He thought it proved your relationship with him had been some kind of Costello operation.”
I stared at her.
“That's insane.”
“Yes.”
“He thought Dante sent me?”
“Yes.”
Dante almost stood.
I grabbed his hand.
“Stay.”
He did.
“Why did Adrian know about my pregnancy?”
Isabella went quiet.
There it was.
The question I cared about most.
“I told him.”
Dante stood so quickly the chair moved backward.
“You what?”
“I didn't know what he had become.”
“You told the man stalking my wife that she was pregnant?”
“I didn't know he was stalking her.”
“How did you know?”
Isabella looked at me.
“I was the woman outside the clinic.”
My blood went cold.
“You were watching me too.”
“I was protecting you.”
I laughed once.
It sounded bitter.
“Everybody keeps using that word.”
She looked ashamed.
“I know.”
“How did you know I was pregnant before I did?”
“I didn't.”
“Then how?”
“I saw you leave the clinic. I saw the pharmacy envelope when it fell from your bag. I picked it up. I read the label.”
My stomach turned.
“And then?”
“I called Adrian.”
“Why?”
“Because I had been speaking to him for months.”
Dante stared at her.
“About what?”
“Trying to stop him from going after you.”
“And you thought telling him about our baby would help?”
“I thought it would make him understand Norah wasn't part of any plan.”
Instead it gave him leverage.
Isabella began crying.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
I believed her.
That didn't make the fear disappear.
“What about the rattle?”
“I sent it.”
Dante went still.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why use Victor's name?”
“To make you look at the old records.”
“And the red ribbon?”
“Something your father used to mark urgent packages.”
“You threatened my wife to get my attention.”
“I wasn't threatening her.”
“SIX WEEKS IS STILL EARLY?”
She closed her eyes.
“That wasn't my message.”
Silence.
“What did you write?” I asked.
“Congratulations. Protect them better than Angelo protected us.”
The room changed.
Someone had replaced her card.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Marco immediately contacted the building.
The package trail was reviewed again.
Isabella had handed the box to the courier.
Somewhere between pickup and delivery, the courier stopped for four minutes in an underground garage because his bike chain slipped.
Security footage showed a man walking past.
Lucas Kern.
The same man who had arrived with Isabella.
“Why was Lucas with you tonight?” Dante asked.
“He offered to drive me.”
Marco swore under his breath.
Adrian had placed a man beside Isabella.
He had been using her.
The front desk called.
Another package had arrived.
Nobody wanted to touch it.
Police were called.
Bomb squad cleared it.
Inside was not an explosive.
It was a phone.
One saved video.
Detective Alvarez played it.
Adrian appeared on screen.
He looked exhausted.
But calm.
“Dante, if you're watching this, you've finally met your mother.”
Dante's jaw tightened.
“I gave you something your father stole from you.”
Adrian smiled.
“Now you're going to give me something your father stole from mine.”
The video switched.
A man sat tied to a chair.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Isabella gasped.
“Gabriel.”
Adrian's father.
The camera returned to Adrian.
“He abandoned me for your family. Your father took my mother. Your mother took my father. And somehow you got everything.”
Adrian leaned toward the camera.
“I want Silverline.”
Dante frowned.
The shell company.
The hidden accounts.
“I want every account, every property, every asset.”
The screen went black.
Then one final sentence appeared.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
OR GABRIEL DIES.
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Marco's phone rang.
He listened for three seconds.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Mercer Strategic Holdings just initiated a transfer.”
“How much?”
“Everything.”
“Where?”
Marco looked at me.
“Into an account under Norah's name.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
May you like
Because Adrian wasn't simply asking for Dante's empire anymore.
He was preparing to make it look like I had stolen his.
