Chapter 8 - The Traitor at the Dinner Table
Victor crossed the room before the door opened completely.
He pulled it wide.
Empty corridor.
No photographer.
No maid.
Nothing.
Security searched the mansion.
They found a discarded phone inside a laundry cart.
Victor returned to the dining room.
“Margaret Vale.”
Mrs. Higgins sat rigidly.
“She was your father's private secretary.”
Elena shook her head.
“She died.”
Mrs. Higgins looked at her.
“No.”
Another ghost.
Victor was getting tired of them.
“What did she do?”
“She handled the family trusts.”
Hannah understood first.
“She knew about me.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
Victor leaned forward.
“You're withholding something.”
Mrs. Higgins looked at Mia.
“I promised Sofia.”
Sofia frowned.
“Me?”
“Before the bombing.”
Mrs. Higgins removed a key from beneath her collar.
“Sofia gave me this.”
It opened a cabinet in the old nursery.
Inside they found documents Sofia had hidden.
Evidence.
Payments from Salvatore to judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
But one name appeared repeatedly.
Margaret Vale.
Then Hannah found something worse.
A death certificate.
CAROLINE BROOKS.
Her grandmother.
Date of death: twenty-eight years earlier.
Hannah stared at Elena.
“If Grandma Caroline died before I was born... who raised us?”
Elena sat down.
“Margaret.”
Silence.
“She helped me escape our father. She gave me Caroline Brooks's identity.”
“Why?”
“Because she hated Salvatore.”
Victor asked, “Why?”
Elena looked at him.
“Because Margaret was our father's wife before our mother.”
Victor froze.
That made Margaret family.
Almost.
“And she had a son,” Elena continued.
Antonio understood.
“Who?”
Elena looked toward Luca.
Luca's face changed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Hannah stared between them.
Elena whispered, “Margaret was Luca's mother.”
Hannah looked at her father.
Luca sat completely still.
He had apparently not known.
Victor's phone rang.
Security.
“We found Mrs. Higgins's car.”
Victor frowned.
“She didn't drive today.”
“I know.”
“What's inside?”
The guard hesitated.
“You need to see it.”
They went outside.
Inside the trunk were passports.
Cash.
Weapons.
And photographs of Hannah dating back twenty years.
Victor turned toward Mrs. Higgins.
She looked horrified.
“Those aren't mine.”
“Your car.”
“I didn't put them there.”
Hannah believed her.
Victor wasn't sure.
Then Mia climbed into the back seat.
“Mia,” Victor warned.
The girl reached beneath the passenger seat.
She pulled out a tiny recorder.
Victor pressed play.
Mrs. Higgins's voice filled the air.
“Victor must never discover Hannah's identity.”
Then another voice.
Margaret.
“He will when I decide.”
The recording continued.
“If Salvatore gets the girl, everything fails.”
Mrs. Higgins whispered, “That conversation happened twenty years ago.”
Victor looked at her.
“You've known about Hannah for twenty years?”
“Yes.”
Hannah felt betrayed again.
“Did everyone know except me?”
Mrs. Higgins cried.
“I watched you from a distance because Elena asked me to.”
Hannah walked away.
Victor followed.
“Stop.”
“I need air.”
“You need protection.”
“I need one person in this family to tell me the truth before I'm forced to discover it in a box!”
Victor stopped.
Hannah turned toward him.
“You knew nothing. That's the only reason I trust you.”
Victor absorbed that.
It wasn't exactly a compliment.
But from Hannah, it mattered.
“I'll tell you everything I know.”
“Even if it's ugly?”
“Especially then.”
She nodded.
Behind them, Mia suddenly screamed.
Victor turned.
A black car raced from behind the hedges.
A man grabbed Mia.
Hannah ran.
Victor fired.
The vehicle accelerated.
Antonio jumped into another car.
Victor followed.
Hannah climbed in despite his order.
The chase tore through the estate gates.
The black car headed downtown.
Victor called police contacts.
Roadblocks formed.
The kidnappers changed direction.
Toward the river.
Hannah's phone rang.
Mia's number.
She answered.
“Mia?”
A woman spoke.
“Bring Luca.”
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
Hannah's blood chilled.
“Margaret.”
The woman laughed.
“Very good.”
“What do you want?”
“My son.”
Hannah looked at Luca.
Margaret continued.
“And the inheritance that should have belonged to him.”
The call ended.
Luca looked shattered.
“My mother died when I was nine.”
Elena shook her head.
“No. Salvatore made you believe she did.”
Luca stared ahead.
Victor's vehicle stopped at an abandoned riverside hotel.
They entered.
No guards.
No sound.
A child's shoe sat in the lobby.
Mia's.
Hannah picked it up.
Victor looked toward the elevator.
Its doors opened.
Inside stood Mia.
Alone.
Hannah ran to her.
Mia hugged her.
“Where's Margaret?”
Mia pointed upstairs.
Then she whispered something.
Victor crouched.
“What?”
Mia looked at Luca.
“Grandma says... Daddy belongs to her.”
Luca went pale.
A bell sounded.
The elevator doors began closing.
Victor blocked them.
A card lay on the floor.
ROOM 1701.
They went upstairs.
Victor reached the door.
Locked.
Luca stepped forward.
“My mother. I go first.”
Victor nodded.
Luca inserted the key card.
The lock clicked.
He opened the door.
Nobody was inside.
Only a table.
On it sat one photograph.
Luca as a child.
Beside him stood Margaret.
And Salvatore.
Hannah turned it over.
A sentence had been written recently.
ASK LUCA WHO REALLY PLANTED THE BOMB.
Victor slowly looked up.
May you like
Luca's face had gone white.
And this time, he didn't deny knowing the answer.
