The Waitress He Came to Find

"No."

Ava was already moving.

Luca stepped in front of her.

"Move."

"Not until Dante confirms Emma is safe."

"Someone photographed my daughter through a window."

"I know."

"Then move!"

Every head in the restaurant turned.

Ava didn't care.

Her injured ankle screamed as she tried to get around him.

Luca caught her shoulders, not roughly, but firmly enough to stop her.

"Ava. Listen."

"Don't tell me to listen."

"Dante is calling Mrs. Chen."

"I need my daughter."

"And running outside alone on an ankle you can barely stand on won't get you there faster."

She hated that he was right.

She hated him for being calm.

Most of all, she hated herself for needing his help.

Dante raised his phone.

"She's safe."

Ava froze.

"Emma?"

"Safe. Mrs. Chen checked every room. Doors locked. Police are on the way."

Ava grabbed the back of a chair.

"Let me talk to her."

Dante handed over the phone.

Mrs. Chen answered breathlessly.

"Ava?"

"Where's Emma?"

"Right here. Sleeping."

"Wake her."

"She's fine."

"Please."

A moment later came a tiny sleepy voice.

"Mommy?"

Ava covered her mouth.

"Hi, baby."

"Are you coming home?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Soon."

"You promise?"

Ava closed her eyes.

"I promise."

After the call ended, Luca said, "We're going there."

Ava looked at him.

"We?"

"Yes."

"I don't trust you."

"You shouldn't."

The answer stopped her.

Luca picked up the photographs.

"Trust what you can verify."

"And what's that?"

"Someone knows where Emma sleeps. Someone wants something connected to your mother. And Jake was outside your workplace three days ago."

Ava stared at him.

"Why are you helping me?"

Luca's expression became unreadable.

"Because I owe your mother."

That changed everything.

"You knew her?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Not here."

Again.

Always not here.

Ava shook her head.

"No more secrets."

"Agreed."

"Then start talking."

Luca glanced toward the windows.

"Your mother saved my father's company twenty-two years ago."

Ava blinked.

"My mother was a librarian."

"Before that, she was an accountant."

Ava knew that.

Barely.

Elaine had changed careers when Ava was young.

"She discovered someone inside my father's company was moving money through shell accounts. She reported it privately instead of allowing innocent employees to be blamed."

"What does that have to do with Jake?"

"Maybe everything."

They left through a side entrance.

Rain swept across the alley.

Ava refused Luca's arm until the first step nearly sent her down.

Then she accepted it.

Not because she trusted him.

Because Emma was waiting.

The ride to Mrs. Chen's apartment took twelve minutes.

Luca spent nine of them telling Ava things about her own family she had never known.

Her grandfather, Samuel Carter, had purchased several warehouses decades earlier.

Most had been sold.

One parcel remained.

At the time of Elaine's death, it wasn't particularly valuable.

Then zoning changed.

Development spread south.

The land became worth millions.

"But Jake knew?" Ava asked.

"Eventually."

"How?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out."

"You said you were watching him."

"For four months."

"Why?"

Luca looked out the window.

"Because he approached me."

Ava's stomach tightened.

"For what?"

"Money."

"What did he offer?"

"Your property."

Silence filled the SUV.

"He can't sell my property."

"Not legally."

"Then why would you meet him?"

"To learn who was behind him."

Ava stared.

"Behind him?"

"Jake isn't sophisticated enough to construct the paperwork we've seen."

"How do you know?"

"Because the forged documents are good."

Ava looked away.

That shouldn't have hurt.

But it did.

She had spent eighteen months believing Jake was some brilliant manipulator who had outsmarted her.

Maybe the truth was worse.

Maybe he'd simply been someone's willing tool.

When they arrived, police cars were already outside Mrs. Chen's building.

Ava barely waited for the SUV to stop.

She limped through the lobby.

Up the elevator.

Down the hallway.

Mrs. Chen opened the door before Ava knocked.

Emma ran out.

"Mommy!"

Ava dropped painfully to one knee and caught her.

For several seconds, nothing else existed.

Not Luca.

Not Jake.

Not millions of dollars.

Just Emma's warm little body and tangled hair and strawberry shampoo.

"Why are you crying?" Emma asked.

"I'm happy."

"Happy people don't cry."

"Sometimes they do."

Emma considered this.

Then she hugged Ava harder.

Behind them, Luca stopped several feet away.

He didn't intrude.

Emma eventually noticed him.

"Who's that?"

Ava looked over her shoulder.

Good question.

"Luca."

Emma waved.

Luca looked almost startled.

Then he lifted one hand.

"Hello, Emma."

Ava saw something change in his face.

The intimidating businessman disappeared for half a second.

In his place was simply a man looking at a child.

Mrs. Chen pulled Ava aside.

"The police checked outside."

"Did they find anything?"

"A footprint beneath the window. Nothing else."

"Did you see anyone?"

"No."

"Any cars?"

Mrs. Chen hesitated.

"What?"

"There was a black car earlier."

Ava's eyes went to Luca.

He understood immediately.

"Not ours."

Mrs. Chen continued.

"It stayed across the street maybe twenty minutes."

"When?"

"Before you called."

Dante spoke quietly into his phone.

Ava carried Emma into the living room.

Her daughter's stuffed rabbit lay on the couch.

Beside it was a folded piece of paper.

Ava frowned.

"What's that?"

Mrs. Chen looked confused.

"I don't know."

Ava opened it.

A photocopy of a bank statement.

Account holder:

EMMA ELAINE CARTER.

Balance:

$1,204,882.17.

Ava sat down.

"No."

Luca approached.

He looked at the paper.

His expression hardened.

"What is this?"

Ava turned it toward him.

For the first time that night, Luca looked genuinely shocked.

"You didn't know?" she asked.

"No."

"Then who did?"

Emma climbed beside her.

"Mommy?"

Ava folded the paper immediately.

"Nothing, baby."

Emma pointed.

"That man gave it to me."

The room went silent.

"What man?"

"The man downstairs."

Mrs. Chen went pale.

"You didn't go downstairs."

Emma shook her head.

"He came to the door."

Ava's blood went cold.

"When?"

"When Mrs. Chen was in the kitchen."

Mrs. Chen covered her mouth.

"What did he look like?"

Emma frowned, trying to remember.

"He had Daddy's eyes."

Ava couldn't move.

Luca crouched several feet from Emma.

"Did he tell you his name?"

Emma nodded.

Ava's heart hammered.

"What did he say?"

Emma looked at her mother.

"He said Daddy was sorry."

Ava closed her eyes.

Jake had been here.

Inside the building.

Close enough to speak to their daughter.

"Did he give you anything else?"

Emma thought.

Then she reached into the pocket of her pajamas.

A small brass key landed in Ava's palm.

Attached to it was a paper tag.

A number had been written in black ink.

317.

Luca stared at it.

Ava looked at him.

"You recognize that number."

He didn't answer.

"Luca."

His face had gone still.

"That's a storage locker."

"Where?"

"The old King Street station."

Ava closed her fingers around the key.

"Then we're going."

"Tomorrow."

"Tonight."

"Ava—"

"Jake came near my daughter."

Luca looked at her for several seconds.

Then nodded.

An hour later, with Emma safely moved to a hotel suite under Mrs. Chen's care and two trusted security staff stationed outside, Ava stood in front of locker 317.

Luca beside her.

Dante behind them.

Ava inserted the key.

It turned.

The metal door opened.

Inside was one cardboard box.

Nothing else.

Ava pulled it out.

Her mother's handwriting was across the top.

FOR AVA — IF JAKE EVER FINDS OUT.

Her knees almost failed again.

She lifted the lid.