Chapter 3 - The Name Mia Wouldn’t Say
Victor moved Hannah behind him.
The balcony door rattled.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Security flooded the room seconds later.
Caleb opened the balcony door.
Nobody was there.
Only wet stone.
And an envelope.
Victor picked it up.
Inside was a photocopy of an old medical report.
Mia Romano.
Age six.
Emergency admission.
The bottom section had been circled.
Patient repeatedly states: “He knew where we were going.”
Below that, someone had handwritten:
STOP MAKING HER REMEMBER.
Hannah stared.
“This isn’t random.”
“No,” Victor said.
“Someone is scared.”
Victor folded the page.
“Good.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Good?”
“Fear makes people careless.”
That was the Victor everyone else knew.
Controlled.
Strategic.
Dangerously calm.
But Hannah had now seen the other Victor.
The man who had stared at his sleeping sister as though someone had returned oxygen to the room.
The contradiction unsettled her.
By morning, the estate had transformed.
Security checked doors.
Employees were questioned.
Access codes changed.
Sebastian had apparently left before Victor ordered the lockdown.
Convenient.
Hannah ate breakfast with Mia.
No pressure.
No questions.
Mia pushed strawberries around her plate.
Hannah drew ridiculous faces on napkins.
Eventually, Mia smiled.
It was tiny.
Victor saw it from the doorway.
He didn’t interrupt.
Later Hannah found him in his office.
“You’re watching her instead of talking to her.”
He looked up from his desk.
“I talk to her.”
“You give her instructions.”
“That is talking.”
“No. That’s management.”
Victor leaned back.
“You’ve worked here twelve days.”
“And?”
“You’ve become remarkably confident about criticizing me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Something almost warm appeared in his eyes.
Then Hannah placed Mia’s drawing on his desk.
“You need to tell me about Sebastian.”
Victor looked at it.
“He helped raise me.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“My father died when I was twenty-one. Sebastian became my adviser.”
“You trusted him?”
“Yes.”
“Past tense.”
Victor stood.
“The night Adrian died, Sebastian claimed he was at a business dinner.”
“Was he?”
“Security records said yes.”
“Said?”
“I checked them again this morning.”
Hannah waited.
“The restaurant footage from that night was archived incorrectly.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I can’t verify where he was.”
Hannah thought of the deleted three minutes.
“Someone likes manipulating cameras.”
Victor’s eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
They spent the afternoon searching old family records.
Not because Victor wanted Hannah involved.
Because Hannah refused to leave.
At four, she discovered something.
A payment.
Large.
Transferred from one Romano holding company to a private contractor six days before Adrian and Elena died.
Authorized by Sebastian.
“What was it for?”
Victor examined it.
“Vehicle maintenance.”
Hannah stared.
“Their vehicle?”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Victor immediately called Caleb.
“Find the contractor.”
Caleb called back twenty minutes later.
The company no longer existed.
The registered owner had disappeared two years earlier.
Victor’s expression hardened.
Hannah said, “That still isn’t proof.”
“I know.”
“You want it to be.”
Victor looked at her sharply.
“Why would I want that?”
“Because then you have someone to blame.”
The words hurt him.
She saw it.
But he didn’t lash out.
Instead, he said, “You think I’m wrong?”
“I think Mia deserves the truth more than you deserve revenge.”
Victor stared at her.
Then slowly nodded.
That night, Hannah sat beside Mia while the child drew.
“Can I draw too?”
Mia handed her a crayon.
Hannah drew a terrible horse.
Mia stared.
Then covered her mouth.
Hannah gasped.
“Are you laughing at my horse?”
Mia’s shoulders shook.
“That is clearly a horse.”
Mia shook her head.
“Rude.”
The little girl smiled.
Hannah smiled back.
Then Mia took the black crayon.
Her expression changed.
She drew a road.
A car.
A gate.
Seventeen.
Then a man.
Hannah stayed silent.
Mia drew something in his hand.
A phone.
Then another figure.
A woman.
Hannah pointed gently.
“Your mom?”
Mia nodded.
The woman held a phone too.
Between the two phones, Mia drew a line.
A call.
Hannah’s pulse quickened.
“Did someone call your mom?”
Mia froze.
Hannah immediately backed away.
“You don’t have to answer.”
Mia stared at the drawing.
Then she whispered one word.
“Uncle.”
Hannah stopped breathing.
Mia’s eyes filled.
“Sebastian?”
The girl shook violently.
Hannah realized her mistake.
“Okay. No names.”
But Mia grabbed her wrist.
“Uncle.”
“Your uncle called?”
Mia nodded.
Then pointed at the gate.
Seventeen.
Hannah understood.
“He told them to go there.”
Another nod.
A tear slid down Mia’s cheek.
Hannah pulled her close.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Mia began crying.
“You were six years old. None of this was your fault.”
Victor stood in the doorway.
He had heard everything.
His face looked shattered.
“Mia.”
She looked at him.
Victor knelt.
For once, he gave no command.
No question.
He simply opened his arms.
Mia stared at him.
Then she moved.
She hugged her brother.
Victor closed his eyes.
Hannah quietly stepped away.
For several minutes, brother and sister held each other.
Then Mia whispered something into Victor’s chest.
Victor opened his eyes.
“What?”
Mia repeated it.
“Not Sebastian.”
Hannah froze.
Victor pulled back.
“What did you say?”
Mia pointed toward the drawing.
“Uncle.”
Victor’s face changed.
Hannah suddenly understood.
Sebastian was Victor’s uncle.
Not Mia’s.
Mia’s father Adrian had another brother.
A man Hannah had never heard mentioned.
Victor stood slowly.
“There was another uncle.”
Hannah stared.
“Who?”
Victor didn’t answer.
He crossed to a locked cabinet.
Opened it.
Removed an old family photograph.
Four young men stood together.
Victor.
Adrian.
Sebastian.
And another man.
Victor pointed to him.
“Gabriel.”
“Where is he?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Dead.”
Hannah looked at Mia.
Mia shook her head.
Once.
Hard.
Victor noticed.
“Mia?”
The little girl climbed from the bed.
She went to her closet.
Reached behind a row of clothes.
And pulled out a small red phone.
Victor stared.
“What is that?”
Mia carried it to Hannah.
The battery appeared dead.
Victor turned it over.
“This belonged to Elena.”
Mia nodded.
Hannah’s heart pounded.
“Why do you have it?”
Mia pointed toward herself.
Then the car.
Victor understood.
“Your mother gave it to you before the explosion?”
Mia nodded.
Victor called Caleb.
Within an hour, they had a charger.
The phone powered on.
No service.
But several files remained.
Photographs.
Messages.
A voicemail.
Dated the night of the explosion.
Victor pressed play.
Static.
Then Elena’s frightened voice.
“Adrian, don’t take Gate Seventeen. Gabriel called. Something’s wrong. He said—”
The recording cut.
Hannah looked at Victor.
Victor replayed it.
Same ending.
Then another file appeared.
Received twelve minutes later.
Unknown number.
Audio message.
Victor pressed it.
A man’s voice filled the room.
“Turn around. He knows you found the ledger.”
Victor stopped breathing.
Hannah whispered, “Whose voice is that?”
Victor stared at the phone.
He knew.
Before he could answer, his own phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A message appeared.
I KNOW YOU FOUND ELENA’S PHONE.
Then another.
ASK HANNAH WHAT HER MOTHER KNOWS.
Hannah went cold.
Victor looked at her.
“My mother?”
A third message arrived.
Victor read it.
His face lost all color.
Because beneath the words was a photograph.
Hannah’s mother.
May you like
Taken that morning.
Outside her hospital...
