Chapter 2 - The Man at the Gate
Damian was moving before the second security tone sounded.
“Lock the house.”
The guard touched his earpiece.
“Already doing it.”
Lena followed Damian into the hall.
“Wait.”
He turned.
“Stay upstairs.”
“Robert came for me.”
“Which is why you're staying upstairs.”
“You don't understand him.”
“No,” Damian said. “But he came to my home after midnight and somehow got through a locked gate. I'm about to understand him very well.”
Evelyn caught Lena's hand.
“Please.”
Lena looked at her mother.
“What did he mean?”
Evelyn avoided her eyes.
“What did you take twenty-six years ago?”
“Not here.”
“When?”
“I'll tell you everything.”
“You've had twenty-five years.”
Evelyn flinched.
Lena regretted the words immediately.
But the questions were bigger than regret.
Damian descended the staircase.
Lena followed.
“Lena.”
“You said you wouldn't stop me.”
Damian glanced back.
“Apparently I should choose my words more carefully around you.”
Despite everything, Lena nearly smiled.
Nearly.
They reached the foyer.
Security men stood near the doors.
A monitor showed Robert Kane outside the iron gate.
He wore a work jacket and jeans.
He looked ordinary.
That was one of the things Lena hated most about him.
Violent men weren't supposed to look ordinary.
Robert could smile at cashiers.
Help neighbors carry groceries.
Hold doors for strangers.
Then go home and become someone else.
Damian studied the monitor.
“That's him?”
Lena nodded.
Damian noticed her body stiffen.
He said quietly, “He won't touch you.”
Robert looked directly into the gate camera.
“Lena!”
His voice came through the speaker.
“Come outside.”
Damian pressed the intercom.
“You're trespassing.”
Robert laughed.
“Moretti.”
“You have thirty seconds to leave.”
“I came for my family.”
“They don't want to see you.”
“You don't know what they want.”
Damian looked at Lena.
She shook her head.
Damian returned to the microphone.
“Twenty seconds.”
Robert leaned toward the camera.
“Ask Evelyn about Elena Conti.”
Damian froze.
Robert smiled.
“Got your attention?”
Evelyn came down the staircase.
“Don't listen.”
Robert heard her voice.
“Evie!”
She recoiled.
Lena stepped in front of her mother.
Robert continued.
“You should've burned that cloth.”
Damian turned.
“How does he know about it?”
Evelyn said nothing.
Robert laughed through the speaker.
“Because she stole more than a cloth.”
Damian's expression darkened.
“What did she steal?”
Robert smiled into the camera.
“A baby.”
Silence.
Lena felt the floor shift beneath her.
Damian looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
Robert continued.
“Tell him, Evie.”
Lena stared at her mother.
“What is he talking about?”
“Nothing.”
“Mom.”
“Robert lies.”
Robert's voice filled the foyer.
“Ask her where Lena was born.”
Lena went cold.
Chicago.
That was what she'd always been told.
A hospital on the South Side.
She knew the date.
She had seen her birth certificate.
Hadn't she?
Actually, no.
She had seen a photocopy.
Once.
When applying to college.
Evelyn had handled the paperwork.
Lena looked at Damian.
He was staring at her.
Not her bruises now.
Her face.
Her eyes.
Her hair.
Searching.
Comparing.
Evelyn saw him doing it.
“Don't.”
Damian whispered, “How old is Lena?”
“Twenty-five.”
His face changed.
“When is her birthday?”
Lena answered.
“November third.”
Damian's eyes closed briefly.
Evelyn started crying.
Lena's heartbeat pounded.
“What?”
Damian walked toward a framed photograph on a side table.
He picked it up.
An older woman smiled from the picture.
Dark hair.
Elegant features.
Damian's mother.
He opened the back.
Behind the visible photograph was another faded picture.
A young blonde woman stood beside Damian's mother.
Lena stared.
The resemblance wasn't exact.
But it was enough.
The shape of the eyes.
The chin.
The smile.
“That's Elena,” Damian said.
Lena couldn't speak.
Robert's voice crackled through the intercom.
“Now you're getting it.”
Damian turned off the speaker.
“Bring him to the security building.”
Lena grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Damian looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“He wants you angry.”
“He succeeded.”
“He wants something.”
“I know.”
“What?”
Damian looked toward Evelyn.
“That is what we're going to find out.”
Twenty minutes later Robert sat inside a detached security office behind bullet-resistant glass.
Damian entered alone.
Lena watched through a monitor.
Robert smiled.
“You look like your father.”
Damian sat opposite him.
“You have five minutes.”
“You Morettis always liked clocks.”
“Four minutes fifty-five.”
Robert leaned back.
“Evelyn worked for the Conti family.”
Damian's eyes shifted.
“She was nineteen.”
Upstairs, Lena looked at her mother.
“Is that true?”
Evelyn nodded.
Robert continued.
“Elena Conti got pregnant.”
Damian said, “By whom?”
Robert smiled.
“That's the expensive question.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Lena's stomach turned.
Robert tapped the table.
“Then Elena disappeared.”
“We know.”
“No. You know what your family told you.”
Damian leaned forward.
“What happened?”
Robert's smile vanished.
“She ran because someone wanted the child.”
“Who?”
Robert looked directly toward the security camera.
Almost as though he knew Lena was watching.
“Ask Evelyn.”
Damian stood.
Robert laughed.
“You haven't heard the best part.”
Damian stopped.
Robert removed something from his jacket.
Security immediately moved.
“Hands!”
Robert slowly placed an envelope on the table.
“I came to trade.”
“For what?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
Damian almost smiled.
“You broke into my property to blackmail me?”
“I walked through the gate.”
Damian's eyes narrowed.
“Someone opened it.”
Robert said nothing.
That was another problem.
Someone inside Damian's organization had helped him.
Damian picked up the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
He stared.
Lena watched his face on the monitor.
“What is it?” she asked.
Nobody answered.
Damian carried the photograph upstairs.
He handed it to Evelyn.
Her knees nearly failed.
Lena took it.
A young Evelyn stood outside a hospital.
In her arms was a newborn baby.
Beside her stood Elena Conti.
Alive.
On the back was a date.
November 4.
The day after Lena's birthday.
Lena's hands began shaking.
“Mom?”
Evelyn sank into a chair.
“I can explain.”
“Am I your daughter?”
Evelyn cried harder.
Lena repeated the question.
“Am I your daughter?”
“Yes.”
It came instantly.
“Yes, you are.”
“Biologically?”
Evelyn couldn't answer.
Lena stepped backward.
Damian moved toward her.
She held up a hand.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
Evelyn whispered, “I raised you.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“I loved you every day.”
“Mom!”
The word cracked.
“Did you give birth to me?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“No.”
Lena couldn't feel her legs.
Damian pulled out a chair.
She didn't sit.
“Who did?”
Evelyn looked at the photograph.
“Elena.”
The room disappeared.
For twenty-five years Lena Carter had known exactly who she was.
Daughter of Evelyn Carter.
Father unknown.
Working-class Chicago childhood.
Nothing glamorous.
Nothing mysterious.
Now one sentence had erased the foundation beneath all of it.
“Why?”
Evelyn wiped her face.
“Elena came to me terrified. She said someone was going to take you. She made me promise.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn't tell me.”
Damian spoke.
“Why did you never contact my mother?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The week Elena disappeared.”
“And?”
“A man met me before I reached your house.”
Damian became still.
“What man?”
“I never knew his name.”
“What did he say?”
Evelyn looked at Lena.
“He knew I had the baby.”
Lena's skin prickled.
“He told me Elena was dead.”
Damian looked away.
“He said if I wanted Lena to live, I would disappear.”
Lena whispered, “So you did.”
“I changed apartments. Changed jobs. Eventually changed our surname. I raised you as mine.”
“And Robert?”
“He found documents years later.”
“What documents?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Damian noticed.
“Mrs. Carter.”
“I kept one envelope.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked toward Lena.
“In a safe-deposit box.”
Robert had wanted money.
But money wasn't the real danger anymore.
Damian turned to his security chief.
“Find out who opened that gate.”
The man nodded.
Lena sat at last.
Damian crouched several feet away.
Not touching.
“Lena.”
She looked at him.
“If Elena was your mother, then she was my aunt.”
Lena understood.
That made Damian her cousin.
Family.
A family she'd never known existed.
Damian seemed equally unsettled.
Then his phone vibrated.
He read the message.
His expression changed instantly.
“What?”
Damian stood.
“The safe-deposit box.”
Evelyn went pale.
“What about it?”
“Someone accessed it tonight.”
“That isn't possible.”
Damian showed her the screen.
The bank's automated security notice showed an access time.
11:47 p.m.
Thirteen minutes before Damian had found Lena upstairs.
Evelyn whispered, “Only two people had authorization.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
She looked at Lena.
“And Robert.”
Damian turned toward the monitor.
Robert Kane's chair was empty.
May you like
The security-room door stood open.
And one of Damian's guards was lying unconscious on the floor.
