Chapter 2 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
No one moved for three full seconds.
Then Luca Carrington became terrifyingly calm.
“Lock the estate.”
The security officer touched his earpiece.
“All exits?”
“All.”
Victor pushed himself upright.
“I want to see him.”
“No,” Luca said.
“This concerns me.”
“That is exactly why you're staying here.”
“I'm not a child.”
“And I'm not arguing.”
Victor's eyes flashed.
The resemblance between father and son suddenly became unmistakable.
Nora stood between them without meaning to.
“Mr. Carrington,” she said softly to Victor, “your breathing is getting faster.”
He glared at her.
She didn't move.
“Sit down.”
Luca looked surprised.
Victor looked offended.
Then Victor sat.
Nora handed him water.
“You're remarkably bossy for someone who almost got fired ten minutes ago,” Victor muttered.
“Occupational hazard.”
That earned the faintest smile.
Luca watched them.
Something complicated crossed his face.
Then he turned toward Helena.
“You're coming with me.”
Helena lifted her chin.
“I have nothing to hide.”
“We'll see.”
One security officer escorted her away.
Luca followed.
Before leaving, he paused beside Nora.
“Stay with him.”
She blinked.
“I thought I was fired.”
“You aren't.”
Helena, already halfway through the doorway, turned sharply.
Luca didn't even look at her.
Nora said, “Mr. Carrington—”
“Luca.”
That surprised her.
He nodded toward Victor.
“Stay with my father.”
Then he left.
The enormous room seemed even larger without him.
Victor watched the closed doors.
Nora knelt and began gathering the larger pieces of crystal.
Victor tapped his cane once.
“What did my son say?”
“That I'm not cleaning.”
“And yet?”
“I don't like broken glass.”
Victor sighed.
“You really are incapable of obeying rich people.”
“Apparently.”
He chuckled.
Then his smile disappeared.
“Edward Hale.”
Nora sat back on her heels.
“You thought he retired?”
“He was my attorney. And my friend.”
“What happened?”
Victor looked toward the windows.
“He handled every legal matter for the Carrington family for almost thirty years. Eleven years ago, Luca told me Edward had resigned unexpectedly and moved overseas.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I had no reason not to.”
“But now?”
Victor's gaze fell to the scratched watch.
“Now someone has carved Edward's initials into something I wear every day.”
Nora thought about it.
“That means whoever did it wanted you to notice.”
“Or wanted Luca to notice.”
“Why?”
Victor's fingers moved over the watch face.
“I don't know.”
Nora noticed something else.
The watchband.
There was a tiny dark residue along one edge.
“May I?”
Victor handed it to her.
She smelled it.
Metal.
Leather.
And something faintly medicinal.
Nora's stomach tightened.
“What?”
“This strap looks new.”
“It was replaced last month.”
“By whom?”
Victor frowned.
“Helena arranged it.”
Nora looked toward the doorway.
Victor followed her gaze.
“You think the watch matters?”
“I think everything matters now.”
Upstairs, Luca reached his father's bedroom with four security officers.
The door stood open.
A man sat on the floor beside Victor's bed.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
His clothing filthy.
His wrists bruised.
And clutched against his chest was a battered leather briefcase.
Luca stopped.
The man lifted his head.
For one second, Luca didn't recognize him.
Then he did.
“Edward?”
Edward Hale smiled weakly.
“You got older.”
Luca stared.
Eleven years collapsed into one impossible second.
“You're dead.”
“So people keep telling me.”
Luca moved forward.
The guards tensed.
Edward lifted one hand.
“I don't have a weapon.”
“Where have you been?”
“Not somewhere you'd enjoy.”
“Who brought you here?”
Edward looked toward the hallway.
“I brought myself.”
“Impossible.”
“I'm seventy-one, Luca. Not incompetent.”
Luca knelt.
Edward's hands were shaking.
“What happened?”
Edward looked at the door.
“Close it.”
Luca did.
Only his chief security officer, Marco Reyes, remained.
Edward lowered his voice.
“Your father is in danger.”
“We know.”
“No. You don't.”
Luca's expression changed.
Edward opened the briefcase.
Inside were documents.
Old photographs.
Financial statements.
A small recorder.
And a sealed envelope with Victor's name.
Luca touched none of it.
“Start talking.”
Edward took a breath.
“Eleven years ago, I found irregularities in Carrington Holdings.”
“What kind?”
“Trust transfers. Property acquisitions. Shell companies.”
“Whose authorization?”
“Your father's signature.”
Luca frowned.
“He would remember.”
“They were forged.”
Marco shifted.
Luca said, “By whom?”
Edward shook his head.
“I never proved it.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because the night before I planned to tell Victor, someone broke into my home.”
His voice lowered.
“My wife was there.”
Luca understood.
“Jesus.”
“They told me I had two choices. Disappear, or bury her.”
Edward looked at his hands.
“I disappeared.”
“And stayed gone for eleven years?”
“I thought I was protecting her.”
“Where is she?”
Edward's silence answered.
Luca looked away.
“When did she die?”
“Four years ago.”
“Why not come back then?”
“Because by then I knew this wasn't one person.”
Edward pointed at the briefcase.
“It was a network.”
“Inside my company?”
“Inside your family.”
Luca's eyes hardened.
“Be careful.”
“That's what your father said the first time I questioned someone he trusted.”
“Who?”
Edward stared directly at him.
“Helena Ward.”
Luca stood.
“That makes no sense. She's a house manager.”
“She wasn't always.”
“What was she?”
“Your father's private administrative assistant.”
Luca remembered.
Vaguely.
He had been seventeen when Helena first came to work for the family.
“She handled schedules.”
“She handled signatures.”
A cold feeling moved through Luca's chest.
“And you're telling me she's been stealing from my father for eleven years?”
Edward shook his head.
“If it were only money, I wouldn't have risked coming back.”
“Then what?”
Edward looked toward Victor's bed.
“Your father changed his will six months ago.”
Luca froze.
“I didn't know that.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
“Who was?”
“Helena.”
Luca's phone vibrated.
Marco answered his own earpiece.
“Sir, downstairs.”
“What?”
“Victor's having chest pain.”
Luca was out the door before Marco finished.
Nora had noticed the change immediately.
Victor pressed two fingers beneath his collarbone.
His breathing shortened.
“Pressure or sharp pain?”
“Pressure.”
“Does it move into your arm?”
“A little.”
Nora's pulse jumped.
She didn't panic.
“Call emergency medical services.”
A staff member stared.
“Now.”
Victor grabbed her wrist.
“No hospital.”
“You may be having a heart attack.”
“I hate hospitals.”
“Then hate one while being alive.”
His mouth almost twitched.
Then another wave of pain hit.
His face went gray.
Nora helped him lie back.
“Victor, look at me.”
He did.
“Stay with me.”
Luca burst into the room.
“What happened?”
“Chest pressure radiating toward his left arm.”
Luca was beside them instantly.
“Dad.”
Victor's eyelids fluttered.
Nora snapped, “Don't crowd him.”
Luca actually moved.
The staff stared.
Nora loosened Victor's collar.
“Where is his nitroglycerin?”
Helena's medication organizer flashed through her mind.
“Oh God.”
She ran to the black folder Luca had left on the table.
The pills.
She found the labeled compartment.
Empty.
“No.”
Luca saw her expression.
“What?”
“His emergency medication isn't here.”
Victor whispered, “Nightstand.”
A staff member rushed upstairs.
Nora checked Victor's pulse.
Too fast.
The next five minutes became fragmented sound.
Sirens outside.
Security opening gates.
Victor trying to joke.
Luca holding his father's hand.
Paramedics entering.
Questions.
Medication.
An oxygen mask.
Nora stepping backward as professionals took over.
Victor reached for her.
“Nora.”
She moved closer.
“I'm here.”
“Come.”
“To the hospital?”
He nodded.
Nora looked at Luca.
He already had his coat.
“She comes.”
The ambulance doors closed.
Luca followed in an SUV.
At the hospital, Victor disappeared behind emergency-room doors.
Nora stood in the corridor wearing a stained maid uniform and one badly wrapped hand.
Only then did she realize she had no handbag.
No coat.
No phone.
Nothing.
Luca stood beside her.
For twenty minutes, neither spoke.
Finally, he said, “You may have saved his life.”
“I told someone to call an ambulance.”
“You noticed before anyone else did.”
Nora looked at him.
“I pay attention.”
“My staff is paid to pay attention.”
“Maybe you hired the wrong people.”
Anyone else would have regretted the sentence.
Nora was too tired.
Luca looked at her for a long moment.
Then unexpectedly, he nodded.
“Maybe I did.”
A nurse approached.
“Mr. Carrington?”
Luca stood immediately.
“Your father is stable.”
His shoulders loosened.
Nora closed her eyes briefly.
“He did not suffer a heart attack,” the nurse continued. “But his blood pressure and heart rhythm were significantly abnormal.”
“What caused it?”
“We're still running tests.”
Luca glanced at Nora.
The nurse continued.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“We found unusual levels of a sedative in his blood.”
Nora's eyes opened.
Luca went completely still.
“Sedative?”
“A medication that is not listed among his current prescriptions.”
“How much?”
“Enough that repeated exposure could cause dizziness, confusion, fatigue, and increased fall risk in someone his age.”
Nora thought about Helena.
He gets confused.
Victor had never been confused.
Someone needed everyone to think he was.
Luca's phone rang.
Marco.
He answered.
“Yes.”
His face darkened as he listened.
“Where?”
A pause.
“Don't touch anything.”
He ended the call.
Nora asked, “What happened?”
Luca stared at the floor.
“Helena's office had a hidden safe.”
“And?”
“Records. Pills. Copies of my father's signatures.”
Nora swallowed.
“So Edward Hale was right.”
Luca looked up sharply.
Nora frowned.
“Who is Edward Hale?”
Luca realized what he had revealed.
Before he could answer, a hospital security guard came around the corner.
“Mr. Carrington?”
“Yes?”
“There is an elderly gentleman asking for you.”
Luca went rigid.
Nora saw fear in his eyes for the first time.
A moment later, Edward Hale appeared at the end of the corridor carrying the battered briefcase.
He looked at Luca.
Then at Nora.
Then toward Victor's hospital room.
But Edward didn't take another step.
His face went white.
The briefcase slipped from his hand.
Documents scattered across the floor.
Nora followed his stare.
A woman in a dark coat had just stepped from Victor's room.
May you like
Edward whispered one name.
“Evelyn.”
