Chapter 4 - The Man Her Father Feared
Rachel reached for a drawer.
Elena caught her wrist.
"No guns."
"That might be the worst idea you've had today."
"I'm pregnant, hiding from my husband, and apparently being contacted by dead men. The competition is strong."
The knock came again.
"Elena."
The voice was older.
Calm.
Rachel checked the security camera.
A man in his sixties stood outside.
Gray hair.
Long black coat.
No visible weapon.
Elena looked at the screen.
"Do you know him?"
Rachel hesitated.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Dr. Samuel Mercer."
The name meant nothing.
"He signed your father's death certificate."
Elena stared.
Dominic's message.
Rachel unlocked the first security bolt but left the chain attached.
"What do you want?"
Mercer looked toward the camera.
"To tell Elena Caruso why her father died."
Elena's heartbeat accelerated.
"Open it."
Rachel frowned.
"Elena."
"Open it."
Mercer entered.
He looked at Elena's stomach first.
Then her face.
"You look like your mother."
Elena crossed her arms.
"People keep starting conversations with things they think are meaningful."
Mercer almost smiled.
"Your father said you were impatient."
"My father died when I was twenty-two."
"I know."
"You signed the certificate."
"I did."
"Heart attack."
"That was the official cause."
Elena felt the baby move.
Her hand went automatically to her stomach.
"What was the real cause?"
Mercer removed his coat.
"Poisoning."
Silence.
Rachel closed her eyes.
Elena looked between them.
"You knew?"
Rachel answered softly.
"For two weeks."
Elena stood.
"You knew for two weeks?"
"I was verifying it."
"Everyone is protecting me with lies."
"I needed proof."
"That's Adrian's excuse."
Mercer intervened.
"Your father knew he was going to die."
Elena turned.
"How?"
"He had been receiving threats from Vittorio Vale."
Adrian's father.
"Because of the tracking system?"
"Partly."
"What else?"
Mercer looked uncomfortable.
"Your father had evidence linking Vittorio to multiple murders."
Elena's stomach tightened.
"And Adrian?"
"Your father didn't trust him."
That hurt.
"Did Adrian know?"
"I don't know."
Elena walked to the window.
Snow had begun falling.
For five years she had believed her father's death was natural.
For five years she had married into the family of the man who may have ordered it.
"Did Vittorio kill him?"
Mercer nodded.
"I believe so."
"Believe?"
"I treated your father during his final twelve hours. His symptoms matched a rare toxin. Before he died, he asked me not to report it."
"Why would he do that?"
"Because he was trying to keep you alive."
Elena closed her eyes.
Of course.
Another man protecting her by deciding what she deserved to know.
"What happened after?"
"Vittorio died four months later."
Boating accident.
Or perhaps not.
Elena looked at Mercer.
"Did Adrian kill his father?"
Mercer said nothing.
That silence was dangerous.
Elena's phone rang.
Adrian.
She stared at the screen.
Rachel said, "Answer."
Elena declined.
Mercer watched carefully.
"Does Adrian know you're here?"
"No."
"Keep it that way."
Elena looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because Dominic believes Adrian killed Vittorio."
"Do you?"
"I believe Adrian was capable of it."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Elena sat.
She suddenly felt dizzy.
Rachel noticed.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine."
"That's not convincing."
Elena breathed slowly.
Her doctor had taught her how to manage panic.
Four counts in.
Four out.
The baby shifted.
She waited until the room stopped spinning.
Mercer continued more gently.
"Your father left something for you."
"What?"
"A recording."
Her head lifted.
"Where?"
"I kept it."
"For ten years?"
"I promised him."
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
"He told me to wait until Vittorio's organization no longer controlled your life."
Elena laughed bitterly.
"I married Vittorio's son."
"Which complicated things."
"You think?"
Mercer reached into an inner pocket.
He pulled out a small flash drive.
Elena stared.
"What's on it?"
"Your father."
She took it.
Her fingers shook.
Rachel brought a laptop.
The recording began.
Elena's father appeared on screen.
Older than she remembered.
Tired.
"Ellie."
Her childhood nickname.
Elena covered her mouth.
"If you're seeing this, then Samuel decided you were ready."
Tears immediately filled her eyes.
Her father's voice continued.
"I'm sorry I left you questions instead of answers."
He spoke for seven minutes.
About Vittorio.
About the technology.
About threats.
Then Adrian's name appeared.
"Vittorio's son is different."
Elena stopped breathing.
"I don't know whether that makes him safer or more dangerous."
Her father looked directly into the camera.
"Adrian approached me three months ago. He told me his father intended to use you to gain control of the company."
Elena stared.
"He offered to help me move the patents somewhere Vittorio couldn't reach."
Rachel looked at Elena.
There was the proof.
Adrian had protected her father.
The recording continued.
"I don't trust him. But I believe he cares about you."
Elena's tears fell freely.
"Whether that becomes love, I hope you never have to discover under these circumstances."
The video ended.
No one spoke.
Elena stared at the frozen image of her father.
Adrian had known.
Before their wedding.
He had known her father was in danger.
Possibly knew he had been murdered.
And never told her.
But he had also helped him.
The truth hurt in two directions.
Rachel closed the laptop.
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
Mercer stood.
"You should leave Chicago."
Elena looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because Dominic isn't trying to help you."
"How do you know?"
"Because he was the one who obtained the toxin."
Silence.
Elena's blood went cold.
"Dominic killed my father?"
"He supplied the poison to Vittorio."
"Proof?"
"Your father had it."
"Where?"
Mercer hesitated.
"The tracking system recorded more than shipments."
"What did it record?"
"Locations. Meetings. Access logs. Names."
"Where is the database?"
"No one knows."
Rachel looked at Elena.
"Your father may have hidden it."
Elena suddenly remembered something.
Her father's old lake house.
A place sold after his death.
A locked workshop beneath it.
She had been forbidden to enter as a child.
"Maybe I know."
Mercer stood immediately.
"Don't go there."
"Why?"
"If you remembered it, Dominic may have too."
Elena picked up her coat.
Rachel blocked her.
"You're not going anywhere."
"I need answers."
"You're thirty-two weeks pregnant."
"I'm aware."
"Then act like it."
Elena looked at her.
"My son is going to be born into this family. I need to know what kind of family that is."
Rachel's expression softened.
"Then at least take security."
"No Adrian."
"I wasn't suggesting Adrian."
Mercer spoke.
"I'll go."
Elena shook her head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I met you twenty minutes ago."
A fair point.
Rachel arranged two private guards.
They left through a rear stairwell.
Elena didn't notice the black sedan parked across the street.
Adrian did.
He had finally located Rachel's building.
He sat inside another vehicle half a block away.
Vincent glanced at him.
"We can intercept her."
"No."
Vincent looked surprised.
Adrian stared at the building entrance.
"If I force her back, she'll run farther."
"So what do we do?"
"Follow."
Elena emerged.
Adrian saw her.
Relief hit him so violently that he had to grip the door handle.
She was alive.
She was walking.
Their son was safe.
For now.
Then he saw Samuel Mercer behind her.
Adrian's expression changed.
"What the hell?"
"You know him?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"The man who helped cover up her father's murder."
Vincent stared.
Elena entered the SUV.
Adrian's vehicle followed.
Neither Elena nor Rachel knew.
They drove north.
Toward the lake house Elena's father once owned.
The property had been abandoned for years.
By the time Elena reached it, darkness was falling.
She entered the basement workshop.
Dust covered everything.
Rachel switched on a flashlight.
Elena walked toward an old steel cabinet.
The lock had already been broken.
Her stomach tightened.
"Someone's been here."
Rachel raised her weapon.
A small red light blinked behind the cabinet.
Elena reached toward it.
Then froze.
A digital recorder.
Still running.
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
Rachel whispered, "Behind me."
The basement door slowly opened.
A man stepped onto the stairs.
Elena recognized him from Vanessa's photograph.
Dominic Russo smiled.
"Hello, Elena."
Then another figure appeared behind him.
May you like
Elena's face went white.
Because the second man was supposed to have died twelve years ago.
