Chapter 4 - The Secret Anna Took to Her Grave
Vincent reached the service door before it slammed shut.
He forced it open.
A narrow maintenance corridor stretched into darkness.
Claire’s bag lay on the floor.
Lily clung to Vincent’s hand.
“Mama!”
Rocco and three men rushed in.
“Take Lily.”
“No!”
Vincent crouched.
“I need you to do exactly what I say.”
Her eyes filled.
“You promised.”
“I promised to protect you.”
“You promised Mama too.”
Vincent did not have an answer.
Lily grabbed his jacket.
“Then go get her.”
Vincent handed her to Rocco.
“No matter what happens, she does not leave your sight.”
Vincent followed the corridor.
A metal stairway led toward street level.
One emergency door was open.
Outside, tire marks crossed a loading area.
Claire had been taken in less than forty seconds.
Professional.
Planned.
Rocco joined him.
“There were two vehicles.”
“Cameras?”
“Already checking.”
Vincent stared into the street.
“Vale.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
That was the problem.
Every new piece of evidence pointed toward a different person.
Vale.
Carlo.
Rebecca.
Someone wanted Vincent uncertain.
Back at the restaurant before dawn, Vincent placed every document across his private dining table.
The photograph.
Anna’s records.
The meeting schedule.
Carlo’s message.
Claire’s note.
The video.
Evelyn sat across from him.
Lily slept on a couch nearby.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Vincent asked.
Evelyn looked exhausted.
“Many things.”
“Start with Lily’s father.”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent watched her carefully.
“You know something.”
“I know Anna was protecting more than financial records.”
“What?”
“A child.”
Vincent looked toward Lily.
“Claire?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Anna.”
Vincent frowned.
“You said Anna had a child?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Almost thirty years ago.”
Vincent froze.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Anna was seventeen.”
“Where is the child?”
“Nobody knows.”
Vincent did the math.
A child born nearly thirty years ago would now be close to his own age.
“Who was the father?”
Evelyn’s voice dropped.
“Dominic.”
Vincent stared at her.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Vincent stood so quickly the chair moved backward.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“My father knew Anna when she was seventeen?”
“No. I said she had a child. I did not say Anna was the mother.”
Vincent stopped.
Evelyn took a breath.
“Anna was protecting someone else’s child.”
“Whose?”
“Your father’s.”
Vincent stared.
“I’m my father’s only child.”
“That is what you were told.”
The room became unbearably quiet.
Evelyn continued.
“Before your father married your mother, he had a relationship with a young woman named Elena Russo.”
Vincent had never heard the name.
“She became pregnant. Dominic wanted to marry her. His father forbade it.”
“What happened?”
“Elena vanished.”
“And the baby?”
“Placed with another family.”
“Anna’s family?”
“Yes.”
Vincent sat slowly.
“Anna knew my sibling?”
“She knew where the child had been placed.”
“Male or female?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I never knew.”
Vincent looked toward Lily.
“Does this connect to her?”
“Possibly.”
A door opened.
Carlo entered.
Vincent’s men immediately raised weapons.
Carlo stopped.
“Good morning to you too.”
Vincent did not smile.
“You disappeared.”
“I went somewhere safer.”
“You were recorded saying I could never know Lily’s father.”
Carlo’s eyes went to the sleeping child.
“Where is Claire?”
“Taken.”
Carlo cursed.
Vincent stepped close.
“Who is Lily’s father?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent grabbed Carlo by the jacket.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Then explain the recording.”
Carlo pushed Vincent’s hand away.
“I said you could never know who Lily’s father was because Anna believed her sister’s relationship connected back to Vale.”
“Relationship?”
“Claire dated someone briefly seven years ago.”
“Who?”
“She never gave Anna his real name.”
“Then how did Anna know?”
“She investigated him.”
Carlo took a paper from his coat.
“After Anna died, I found this among her things.”
It was a photograph.
Claire, several years younger, standing beside a man whose face was turned away.
On his wrist was a distinctive watch.
Vincent recognized it.
A Vale commemorative watch.
Only senior executives received them.
“Marcus?”
Carlo shook his head.
“Too old.”
“His son?”
“Marcus has no acknowledged son.”
“Acknowledged.”
Carlo nodded.
Vincent understood.
The Moretti family had hidden children.
Maybe the Vale family had too.
“Why keep this from me?”
“Because Dominic made me promise.”
“My father is dead.”
“My promise wasn’t.”
Vincent slammed a palm against the table.
“And now Claire has been taken because you kept promises to dead men.”
Lily stirred.
Vincent lowered his voice immediately.
Carlo looked ashamed.
“You’re right.”
It was the first apology Vincent had ever heard from him.
Rocco entered.
“We found the car.”
Vincent turned.
“Claire?”
“Not inside.”
“Where?”
“South Side. Abandoned.”
“Anything useful?”
“One thing.”
Rocco handed him a cellphone.
It was Claire’s.
A draft message had never been sent.
Vincent opened it.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, ASK LILY ABOUT THE SONG.
Vincent looked toward the child.
Lily woke a few minutes later.
She rubbed her eyes.
“Where’s Mama?”
“We’re looking for her.”
Lily looked at Vincent suspiciously.
Then she noticed Claire’s phone.
“That’s Mama’s.”
“Yes.”
Vincent sat beside her.
“Your mother wanted me to ask you about a song.”
Lily became very still.
“What song?”
“The one she told you about.”
Lily looked toward Carlo and Evelyn.
Then whispered, “Mama said only tell the man in the picture.”
Vincent frowned.
“What picture?”
“The one in her folder.”
“Was it me?”
Lily nodded.
Vincent sent everyone else from the room.
“What did she tell you?”
Lily began singing quietly.
Not a real melody.
More like a child memorizing words.
“North to the river, fourteen to the door. Three turns left, then twenty-four.”
Vincent felt a chill.
Warehouse Fourteen.
“Anything else?”
Lily nodded.
“Where the lion sleeps, look under the floor.”
Vincent stared.
His father’s old warehouse had a stone lion over the entrance.
The building had supposedly burned down.
But the lot still existed.
By noon, Vincent stood on the abandoned property.
Warehouse Fourteen was mostly gone.
Only part of the brick foundation remained.
Near the original entrance, half buried in weeds, lay the cracked stone head of a lion.
Rocco counted steps.
“North to river. Fourteen to the door.”
They found what had once been the entrance.
“Three turns left, then twenty-four.”
Under a section of concrete, a metal plate had been hidden beneath debris.
Vincent used a crowbar.
The plate lifted.
A waterproof case rested underneath.
Inside were dozens of original documents.
A cassette tape.
And one sealed envelope.
FOR VINCENT MORETTI.
Vincent opened it.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
Son,
If you are reading this, Anna failed to escape.
And I failed her.
Marcus Vale believes this is about money.
It is not.
It is about blood.
There is someone in Chicago whose true identity could destroy everything Vale built.
Anna protected that person.
So did I.
You must protect them too.
Vincent turned the page.
The next sentence had been cut away.
Someone had physically removed the name.
Rocco examined the box.
“Somebody got here before us.”
Vincent heard a vehicle approaching.
A black SUV stopped outside the ruined gate.
One door opened.
Rebecca Vale stepped out alone.
She carried no visible weapon.
In her hand was a photograph.
“I know where Claire is,” she called.
Vincent did not move.
Rebecca held up the photograph.
“And I know who Lily’s father really is.”
Then she turned the picture around.
Vincent saw the man standing beside Claire.
His face was finally visible.
May you like
Vincent recognized him.
It was someone who had been sitting inside the Golden Palm the night Lily ran in.
