Chapter 4 - The Ghost Inside the Penthouse
Lucian stared at the live feed.
Evelyn leaned closer.
The figure in his bedroom wore a black hood.
Their face remained hidden.
Then they reached toward the camera.
The feed died.
"We're going back," Lucian said.
"That seems exactly like what they want."
"Everything tonight is what they want."
"Then maybe stop following the script."
Lucian looked at her.
It was the first time anyone had spoken to him that way in years.
Perhaps ever.
"What's your alternative?"
"The flash drive."
Evelyn held it up.
"We haven't opened it."
Lucian looked toward the garage exit where Sofia had disappeared.
Then at the red notebook.
"Not here."
They returned to a secure office inside the hotel.
Lucian locked the door.
Evelyn inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
One video file appeared.
DIANE_HART_FINAL.
Evelyn stopped breathing.
"My mother."
Lucian looked at her.
"You don't have to watch."
"Yes, I do."
She clicked.
Diane Hart appeared on screen.
Older than in the photograph but younger than Evelyn remembered her near the end.
She looked terrified.
"If Evelyn ever sees this, then I failed."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Lucian remained silent beside her.
Diane continued.
"Alessandro Vale discovered that someone inside his organization had created a private network using his contacts. Blackmail. Bribery. Murder. He planned to expose them."
Lucian's jaw clenched.
"Your father wasn't innocent," Diane said to the camera. "But he realized the network had grown beyond his control."
Lucian stared.
"He asked me to copy the archive."
Evelyn whispered, "Mom..."
"I hid one part. Sofia hid another."
The video flickered.
"If the two parts are reunited, the network can be exposed."
Diane looked directly into the camera.
"Evelyn, if you're watching this, someone believes you know where my half is."
Evelyn shook her head.
"I don't."
Diane continued.
"You do."
Evelyn froze.
"When you were eleven, I gave you something and told you never to throw it away. You thought it belonged to your father."
Evelyn's heart stopped.
A music box.
Small.
Blue.
Her father had died before she could remember him.
Her mother had told her the music box was his.
It sat in a cardboard box beneath Evelyn's bed.
The video continued.
"Do not open it unless Sofia is with you."
Static.
Then Diane leaned closer.
"And never trust Dominic Vale."
The video ended.
Lucian closed the laptop.
"We're going to your apartment."
"My landlord may be more dangerous than your uncle."
"Unlikely."
"Don't underestimate Queens."
Despite everything, Lucian laughed.
Actually laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
He stopped first.
Evelyn stared.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You looked shocked."
"I was."
"By laughing?"
He looked away.
"My wife died three years ago."
The sentence settled between them.
"I know."
"I didn't laugh after that."
Evelyn's expression softened.
"Until tonight?"
He nodded once.
She didn't know what to say.
So she said nothing.
Lucian seemed grateful.
They left through a private exit with four security vehicles.
Halfway to Queens, Lucian's phone rang.
Marcus.
Lucian answered.
"You should be in surgery."
"Dominic disappeared from the gala."
Lucian looked out the window.
"When?"
"After you did."
"Track him."
"We are."
Marcus hesitated.
"There's more."
"What?"
"The shooter who hit me wasn't aiming for me."
Lucian looked at Evelyn.
"Who?"
"You."
That surprised nobody.
Marcus continued.
"But the bullet trajectory suggests the shooter changed aim at the last second."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Evelyn frowned.
"Maybe they didn't want Lucian dead."
Marcus heard her.
"Exactly."
Lucian's expression hardened.
"Then what do they want?"
Marcus said, "The archive."
The call ended.
They reached Evelyn's apartment at two thirty.
Lucian stepped out of the armored SUV and looked at the aging brick building.
"This is where you live?"
"Try not to sound traumatized."
"Your front lock is actually broken."
"I mentioned that."
He looked at the security men.
"Fix it."
Evelyn sighed.
"You cannot order your employees to repair my building."
"They aren't my employees."
"Who are they?"
Lucian looked at her.
"You don't want to know."
"Of course."
Upstairs, Evelyn unlocked Apartment 4C.
The place was tiny but clean.
Lucian entered and seemed immediately too large for it.
Evelyn pointed.
"Don't judge."
"I'm not."
"You looked at my couch."
"It appears dangerous."
"The left leg is supported by three cookbooks."
"I noticed."
She went to the bedroom.
Beneath the bed was a cardboard box.
Old photographs.
School certificates.
Her mother's nursing badge.
And the blue music box.
Evelyn carried it into the living room.
Lucian examined it without touching.
"Your mother said Sofia should be here."
"Sofia isn't answering invitations."
"Then we wait."
"We don't have time."
"Evelyn."
"Someone entered your home. Someone shot at us. Dominic disappeared. Waiting feels stupid."
She opened the lid.
A tiny ballerina turned.
Music played.
Nothing happened.
Lucian studied the mechanism.
"The base."
Evelyn turned it over.
Four screws.
Lucian removed a pocket tool.
Inside the base was a thin metal plate.
Beneath it, a memory card.
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
"You've got to be kidding."
Lucian removed it.
A handwritten label:
D.H. 1/2.
"Half the archive," he said.
A knock came from the apartment door.
Both froze.
Lucian motioned Evelyn back.
"Who is it?" she called.
A woman's voice answered.
"Sofia."
Evelyn looked at Lucian.
He approached the door.
Checked the hall camera.
Sofia stood alone.
Lucian opened it.
She entered quickly.
The reunion was not warm.
Lucian stared at the woman he had loved.
Sofia stared back.
"I'm sorry."
"Three years."
"I know."
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I blamed myself."
"I know."
His voice cracked for the first time.
"You let me."
Tears filled Sofia's eyes.
"If you knew I was alive, they would have used you to find me."
"You decided that for me."
"I was pregnant."
Everything stopped.
Lucian stared at her.
Evelyn looked away instinctively.
Sofia whispered, "Not yours."
The words hit differently.
Lucian's face emptied.
Sofia continued quickly.
"Before you assume—nothing happened while we were married. The pregnancy was forced."
Evelyn's stomach twisted.
Lucian went pale.
Sofia's voice shook.
"Your father was trying to expose the network. Dominic discovered it. They kidnapped me to force Alessandro to surrender the archive. One of the men..." She stopped.
Lucian understood.
His hands curled into fists.
"I'm sorry," Sofia whispered. "I couldn't tell you. I couldn't even say it."
Lucian turned away.
For several seconds, the room contained nothing but breathing.
Evelyn wanted to disappear.
Then Sofia looked at the music box.
"You found Diane's half."
Lucian turned.
"Where's yours?"
Sofia reached beneath her coat.
A gunshot exploded through the window.
Lucian tackled both women down.
More shots tore through the apartment.
The lights went out.
Security shouted in the hallway.
Evelyn crawled toward the kitchen.
"Sofia!"
No response.
Emergency light from the street spilled through broken glass.
Lucian rose.
Sofia was gone.
The apartment door stood open.
On the floor where she had been kneeling lay a memory card.
S.H. 2/2.
Lucian picked it up.
The two halves.
Finally.
Then Evelyn noticed something else.
Blood.
A trail crossed the floor.
Not toward the door.
Toward her bedroom closet.
She approached.
"Evelyn, wait."
The closet door moved.
Someone inside whispered her name.
She reached for the handle.
May you like
The door opened by itself.
And the person hiding inside was holding her mother's nursing badge.
