Chapter 3 - The Man at the Altar
Daniel Hart answered Elena's call on the second ring.
“Where are you?”
His voice sounded frantic.
Elena sat beside Adrian in the safe house.
“I'm safe.”
“Safe? Elena, you ran out of our wedding.”
“I know.”
“Your mother is terrified.”
Guilt twisted through her.
“I'll call her.”
“Tell me where you are.”
Adrian shook his head.
Elena ignored him.
“I can't.”
Daniel went silent.
Then his voice changed.
“Is he alive?”
Elena stared at Adrian.
Adrian immediately leaned closer.
“What did you say?”
Daniel exhaled.
“Elena.”
“How do you know?”
“Because this was always about him.”
The line disconnected.
Adrian stood.
“Track it.”
Marco was already working.
“Burner phone.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“Daniel knew.”
“Yes.”
“I almost married him.”
Adrian didn't respond.
That silence said enough.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Judge me.”
“I'm not.”
“You are.”
“Elena, I was dead.”
“Exactly.”
Adrian stopped.
She stood.
“You don't get to be jealous after staging your funeral.”
“I'm not jealous.”
Marco looked up from the laptop.
“You're jealous.”
Adrian stared at him.
Marco returned to typing.
Elena almost laughed despite herself.
Then Marco's screen changed.
“I have something.”
Security footage appeared.
Daniel entering an underground parking garage three weeks earlier.
A second man joined him.
Luca.
Elena's stomach dropped.
“No.”
Adrian watched without blinking.
Daniel handed Luca an envelope.
Luca handed Daniel something small.
A ring.
The silver signet.
Elena stepped backward.
“He was working with him.”
Adrian caught her arm.
“We don't know why.”
“I lived with Daniel.”
“Elena.”
“He had access to everything.”
Her apartment.
Her schedule.
Her mother.
The wedding.
Adrian's grave visit.
Daniel had known exactly where she would be.
Elena looked sick.
“He knew I'd go to the cemetery.”
“Yes.”
“That means those men weren't following me by accident.”
“No.”
“What did they want?”
Adrian didn't answer.
Marco did.
“You.”
That night, Elena couldn't sleep.
She stood on the balcony outside her room.
Adrian found her at two in the morning.
“You shouldn't be outside.”
“I'm thirty feet above the ground.”
“Bullets travel.”
She looked at him.
“Comforting.”
Adrian handed her his coat.
“I don't need it.”
“You're cold.”
She accepted it.
It smelled like him.
That made everything worse.
“Why didn't you trust me?”
Adrian leaned against the railing.
“It wasn't trust.”
“Then what?”
“Fear.”
She looked surprised.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Watching you die because of me.”
Elena looked away.
“That almost happened anyway.”
“I know.”
Adrian's voice became quieter.
“That is the mistake I will live with.”
She studied him.
“Why did you go to the cemetery today?”
“Because Marco told me you were getting married.”
“And?”
“I wanted to see you once.”
“Before I became someone else's wife.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
No denial.
Elena's heartbeat changed.
“Adrian.”
He stepped closer.
She didn't move.
For a moment their faces were inches apart.
Then Marco opened the balcony door.
“Sorry.”
Adrian stepped back.
Marco held a folder.
“We found Daniel.”
“Where?”
“He voluntarily walked into federal headquarters.”
Elena stared.
“Why?”
“He's asking for witness protection.”
Adrian took the folder.
“In exchange for what?”
Marco looked at Elena.
“Everything he knows about Luca Moretti.”
The federal building was heavily guarded.
Adrian refused to let Elena go.
Elena went anyway.
Daniel sat behind reinforced glass.
He looked exhausted.
“Elena.”
She picked up the phone.
“You knew Adrian was alive.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three months.”
Her anger sharpened.
“You proposed four months ago.”
“I loved you.”
“That's not an answer.”
Daniel looked toward Adrian standing behind her.
“Luca approached me.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“Why?”
“He said Adrian had survived the explosion.”
“And you believed him?”
“He showed me photographs.”
Elena gripped the phone.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Luca said if you knew, Adrian would come for you.”
Adrian's expression darkened.
Daniel continued.
“He wanted you watched.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know at first.”
“And now?”
Daniel looked terrified.
“He needs something Adrian gave you.”
Elena frowned.
“Adrian never gave me anything.”
“Yes, he did.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“What?”
Daniel looked at him through the glass.
“The music box.”
Elena froze.
A small walnut music box sat in her mother's house.
Adrian had given it to Elena on her twenty-fifth birthday.
It played an old Italian melody.
She had never understood why Adrian looked strangely emotional when he gave it to her.
Adrian's face changed.
“No.”
Elena turned.
“What?”
“The music box belonged to my father.”
“So?”
“There is a compartment underneath.”
“What is inside?”
Adrian stared at Daniel.
Daniel answered first.
“The ledger.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The Moretti ledger contained names.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Criminal organizations.
Every secret his father had accumulated over thirty years.
Enough information to destroy half the city's underworld.
Elena whispered, “It's at my mother's house.”
Adrian was already moving.
They reached the house twenty-eight minutes later.
The front door was open.
Elena ran inside.
“Mom?”
No answer.
The living room had been destroyed.
Drawers emptied.
Furniture overturned.
Adrian found blood near the kitchen.
“Elena.”
She stared.
Her mother's phone lay shattered on the floor.
Beside it was the walnut music box.
Open.
Empty.
Elena's phone vibrated.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
A photograph appeared.
Her mother sat tied to a chair.
Luca stood behind her.
May you like
Below it were six words.
BRING ADRIAN TO THE OLD MORETTI HOUSE.
