Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Refused to Stay Dead
The first thing Meline Hayes saw when she opened her eyes was blood.
Not much.
A thin line across the concrete floor.
Her blood.
Her head throbbed where Tomas Vescari had struck her with the butt of his pistol.
Her wrists were tied behind a metal chair.
Her ankle was secured to a floor ring.
Across the abandoned shipping office, rainwater crawled down filthy windows.
Meline tested the rope.
Tight.
She smiled faintly.
Tomas had always underestimated her.
Five years ago, that had saved her life.
It might again.
The door opened.
Tomas entered carrying coffee.
Age had sharpened him. His face was thinner than she remembered, scar beside his ear more visible, eyes colder.
“You’re awake.”
“Disappointing?”
“No. Necessary.”
“Luca got away.”
His expression twitched.
That was answer enough.
Meline exhaled.
“Good.”
“You think Falcone will protect him?”
“I know he will.”
“You spent five years hiding the boy from him.”
“To protect both of them from you.”
Tomas placed the coffee down.
“You still believe this is about revenge.”
“It’s always about revenge with men like you.”
He smiled.
“Men like me?”
“Men who inherit their fathers’ grudges and mistake them for purpose.”
Tomas crouched in front of her.
“Sebastian killed my father.”
“Your father tried to kill Sebastian.”
“My father built an empire.”
“Your father built a graveyard.”
Tomas slapped her.
Meline’s head snapped sideways.
She tasted blood.
Then looked back at him.
“That all?”
His smile vanished.
“You were braver five years ago.”
“No. I was pregnant five years ago. There’s a difference.”
He leaned closer.
“You faked your death beautifully.”
“I had help.”
“Victor.”
She said nothing.
“He told us everything.”
Still nothing.
Tomas laughed.
“Not voluntarily.”
Meline’s stomach tightened.
“What did you do?”
“Found his daughter.”
Meline closed her eyes briefly.
Victor had risked everything to help her.
She had never considered him innocent.
But he had saved Luca.
That mattered.
Tomas stood.
“You know what fascinates me? You could’ve gone anywhere. Europe. South America. Asia. Instead you stayed within a few hundred miles of Houston.”
“Traveling internationally with a baby under a false identity attracts attention.”
“You also wanted to remain close to Sebastian.”
Meline looked away.
Tomas noticed.
“Oh, that still hurts.”
“Shut up.”
“You loved him.”
“I love him.”
The present tense surprised even her.
Tomas laughed softly.
“There she is.”
Meline had spent five years training herself not to say it.
Love was dangerous when spoken aloud.
It made hope feel legitimate.
And hope had nearly gotten her killed twice.
The first year after disappearing, she lived in a small town outside San Antonio under the name Melanie Harris.
Luca was born during a thunderstorm.
She had held him in a hospital room registered under false documents and cried because his eyes looked exactly like Sebastian’s.
She almost called him that night.
Instead, she unplugged the room phone.
The second year, she moved to New Mexico.
The third, Louisiana.
The fourth, back to Texas.
Every six months, she checked the channels Victor established.
Every six months, the same warning arrived.
Not safe.
Then, eight months ago, Victor stopped responding.
Meline knew something had gone wrong.
She prepared to move again.
Tomas found her first.
Not through Victor.
Through Luca.
A school photograph uploaded by mistake to a parent portal.
Artificial intelligence matched Luca’s facial geometry against public photographs of Sebastian Falcone.
A ridiculous, ordinary technological mistake unraveled five years of hiding.
Tomas paced.
“Sebastian will bring the ledger.”
“No.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“For you?”
“No.”
Tomas stopped.
“That must hurt.”
Meline smiled through the blood on her lip.
“You still don’t understand him.”
“I understand him perfectly.”
“No. You understand the version people whisper about.”
“The murderer?”
“The man who learned violence before he learned trust.”
Tomas rolled his eyes.
“Spare me.”
“He won’t bring you the ledger because I’m not more important than every life recorded inside it.”
“Your son is.”
Meline’s expression changed.
“That’s why Luca isn’t here.”
Tomas’s jaw tightened.
Good.
He was angry.
Angry men became careless.
The door opened.
A guard entered.
“Problem.”
“What?”
“We lost contact with Victor.”
Tomas swore.
Meline looked down to hide her relief.
Sebastian had found him.
Of course he had.
Five years ago, Meline had left because Sebastian loved like a man defending the last piece of ground on earth.
Total.
Relentless.
Sometimes terrifying.
She had feared what he would do if he knew she was pregnant.
Now, tied to a chair with an enemy preparing to use her as bait, that same relentlessness felt like the safest thing in the world.
Tomas turned to her.
“You’re smiling.”
“Am I?”
“He found Victor.”
“Probably.”
“He’ll kill him.”
“No.”
Tomas laughed.
“You really have rewritten Sebastian Falcone into some misunderstood saint.”
“No saint.”
“Then what?”
Meline thought about it.
“A man who changes when given a reason.”
Tomas leaned close.
“People like him don’t change.”
“People like you don’t.”
His face hardened.
A phone rang.
Tomas answered.
He listened.
Then smiled.
“Well.”
“What?”
He turned the phone toward her.
Live security footage.
Sebastian’s penthouse.
Luca sat at a table drawing.
Meline’s heart slammed.
“How do you have that?”
“We’ve had eyes inside Falcone’s building for years.”
Fear climbed her throat.
Tomas watched her reaction.
“Now I see what scares you.”
Meline forced herself to breathe.
Not panic.
Think.
The camera angle came from above.
Near the dining room.
Not a security camera.
A hidden device.
Possibly inside a smoke detector.
“You’re going to call Sebastian,” Tomas said.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“And say what?”
“Tell him Luca is not safe.”
Meline looked at the screen.
A man walked behind Luca.
One of Sebastian’s security officers.
Meline recognized him.
Daniel Price.
He had worked for Sebastian before she disappeared.
He paused behind Luca too long.
Her blood went cold.
Tomas smiled.
“You remember Daniel.”
Meline did.
Daniel had known her habits.
Her appointments.
Her apartment.
But had he known about the lake house?
No.
Not originally.
Someone else had connected the pieces.
Daniel bent down to Luca.
The audio was muted.
Luca looked toward the doorway.
Then back to the paper.
Meline shouted, “Get away from him!”
Tomas laughed.
“He can’t hear you.”
She lunged against the chair.
“Sebastian will tear you apart.”
“That’s the idea.”
Tomas handed her the phone.
“Call him.”
Meline stared at it.
“If you tell him anything except what I say, Daniel takes the boy.”
She took the phone.
Her hands shook.
Not for herself.
Never for herself.
Tomas dialed.
Three rings.
Then the voice she had imagined for five years.
“Speak.”
Meline closed her eyes.
Sebastian.
Just that.
One word.
And every wall she built collapsed.
“Dom.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Then a breath.
“Meline?”
Her eyes filled.
Tomas pointed toward a written script.
She ignored it for half a second.
Long enough to say:
“Luca has your eyes.”
Sebastian made a sound she had never heard from him.
Not quite a laugh.
Not quite grief.
“Meline.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
Tomas tapped the gun against her temple.
Meline looked at the live footage of Luca.
Daniel stood behind him.
She read the script.
“You have until midnight. Bring the ledger to Pier Seventeen. Alone.”
Sebastian’s voice changed.
“He’s there with you.”
“Yes.”
“Is he hurting you?”
Meline stared at Tomas.
“No.”
Tomas smiled.
Sebastian knew she was lying.
He always knew.
“Meline, listen to me.”
Her tears escaped.
Five years.
Five years since his voice had said her name.
“I am.”
“I’m bringing you home.”
She closed her eyes.
“You always did make impossible promises.”
“This one isn’t impossible.”
Tomas moved the gun closer.
Meline forced the next words out.
“If you don’t bring the ledger, he says he’ll kill me.”
Sebastian went silent.
Then:
“You didn’t call only for that.”
Meline’s breath caught.
He still knew her.
After everything.
After death.
After five years.
He still knew her.
She stared at the monitor.
Daniel’s reflection appeared in the glass behind Luca.
Meline made her decision.
“Tomas,” she said suddenly, “you forgot one thing.”
He frowned.
“What?”
She slammed her head backward into his face.
The gun fired.
Sebastian shouted through the phone.
“MELINE!”
She kicked the coffee into the guard’s eyes, threw her chair sideways, and hit the floor hard.
Tomas cursed.
May you like
Before the call disconnected, Meline screamed the only warning that mattered.
“DANIEL IS INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!”
