Chapter 5 - The Address
I showed Luca the message.
That decision took exactly two seconds.
Whoever sent it expected secrecy.
They had chosen the wrong woman.
Luca read the screen.
His face went hard.
“We’re calling police.”
“Already doing it,” Daniel said.
Raymond stared at the photograph.
Then his cane slipped from his hand.
“That’s Stephen.”
Everyone turned.
“The man behind Rebecca?”
Raymond nodded.
Twenty years older than the photo I later learned he kept in his wallet.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
But his brother.
Alive.
Stephen Hale had spent two decades disappearing.
Now he was standing in my sister’s kitchen.
I called Rebecca again.
This time someone answered.
Silence.
“Rebecca?”
A man spoke.
“Anna.”
Stephen.
I put the phone on speaker.
“Where is my sister?”
“She’s fine.”
“Put her on.”
“You received the address.”
“Put Rebecca on.”
A pause.
Then my sister’s voice.
“Anna?”
My knees weakened.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
Stephen’s voice returned.
“She invited me inside.”
Rebecca shouted, “I thought he was from the airline!”
The call cut off.
Luca was already speaking with airport police.
Within fifteen minutes, Orlando law enforcement coordinated with police back in Wisconsin.
The address Stephen sent was not Rebecca’s house.
It was an industrial property outside Orlando.
A trap.
Which meant the photograph was old or Rebecca had been moved.
Daniel contacted federal investigators because of the interstate fraud.
Suddenly our ridiculous family surprise became something with agents, conference calls, and phrases like financial crime unit.
Leo watched us.
He was not stupid.
“Is Aunt Rebecca in trouble?”
I knelt beside him.
“She’s with someone we don’t trust.”
“Did Dad fly us to the bad guy?”
Despite everything, Luca nearly smiled.
“No, buddy.”
Leo looked at his father.
“Are you in trouble?”
Luca crouched.
“I made some mistakes.”
Leo thought about that.
“Like lying?”
I looked at Luca.
He deserved this one.
“Yes,” Luca said quietly. “Like lying.”
“Mom says lies get bigger if you feed them.”
Elena covered her mouth to hide a smile.
I did not.
“I have said that.”
Luca nodded solemnly.
“Your mom is right.”
For the next two hours, authorities worked to locate Rebecca.
Her phone had stopped transmitting location.
Stephen’s last known address led nowhere.
The Orlando address was an abandoned warehouse.
Then an officer in Wisconsin called.
Rebecca’s neighbor had seen her leaving voluntarily with a man around 7:30 that morning.
No obvious force.
No struggle.
“She went with him?” I asked.
“She may not have known who he was.”
That made sense.
Stephen had apparently introduced himself as someone from Luca’s airline delivering information about our surprise.
Rebecca would have believed him.
Because Rebecca had helped arrange it.
Guilt twisted my stomach.
My surprise.
My idea.
My sister.
Luca sat beside me.
“This is not on you.”
“I brought her into it.”
“No. Stephen did.”
I looked at him.
“I don’t need you to rescue me from feeling responsible.”
He absorbed that.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
It was the first honest thing between us all day.
Not comfort.
Not reassurance.
Just acceptance.
Elena took Leo to get food.
For the first time since landing, Luca and I were alone.
He sat across from me.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I thought if I could solve everything first—”
“You could present me with a neat version?”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
“I’m your wife, Luca. Not a passenger waiting for the captain to announce when the turbulence is over.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I do now.”
I folded my arms.
“What else?”
His eyes lifted.
“What?”
“What else have you hidden?”
“Nothing.”
I waited.
He sighed.
“One thing.”
Of course.
“There’s a position opening at the training center.”
“What position?”
“Senior simulator instructor.”
“You applied?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because if I didn’t get it, I didn’t want you disappointed.”
I stared at him.
He looked genuinely confused by my expression.
“You really don’t understand.”
“Apparently not.”
“You think withholding bad news protects me. You think withholding uncertain news protects me. You think withholding dangerous news protects me.”
I leaned forward.
“At some point, Luca, protection becomes exclusion.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t need a husband who clears the runway before he allows me into my own life.”
That landed.
His face changed.
“I’m sorry.”
I believed him.
I was still angry.
Those things can coexist.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone went quiet.
I answered.
“Anna?”
Rebecca.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
Her voice was low.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
A man shouted in the distance.
She whispered quickly.
“He wants something from Luca.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Luca’s head snapped up.
“What key?” I asked.
“Rebecca, what key?”
“I don’t know. He keeps saying Antonio left Luca a key and Luca doesn’t even know he has it.”
Raymond stood so abruptly his chair fell backward.
“Oh, God.”
“What?” Luca demanded.
Raymond looked at him.
“Your father’s watch.”
Luca instinctively touched his wrist.
The old steel watch he wore every time he flew.
Antonio’s.
I had seen it thousands of times.
“He gave me this before he died.”
Raymond came closer.
“Take it off.”
Luca unclasped it.
Daniel examined the back.
Nothing.
Then Raymond pressed his thumbnail into a tiny groove beside the clasp.
A small metal plate shifted.
Inside was a narrow brass key.
Nobody spoke.
Rebecca whispered through the phone.
“He says he needs it by six.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Stephen’s voice came close to the receiver.
“Bring the key to the address I sent.”
“No.”
He laughed.
“Then perhaps Anna’s sister spends the evening explaining to police why her identity appears on stolen accounts.”
Rebecca gasped.
I gripped the phone.
“You framed her too.”
“I prepared options.”
“You’re not getting the key.”
“I think I am.”
The call ended.
Daniel picked up the brass key.
“Any idea what this opens?”
Raymond stared at it.
“Yes.”
Everyone turned.
“A safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
“Chicago.”
Luca frowned.
“We’re in Orlando.”
Raymond shook his head.
“The bank has a secure branch here. Antonio used both.”
“What’s inside?”
“I never knew.”
Daniel looked at the key.
“Stephen clearly does.”
The federal agent who had joined us, Agent Morales, stepped forward.
“Then we let him think he’s getting it.”
I looked at her.
“You want to use the key as bait.”
“I want your sister back.”
“So do I.”
Luca immediately said, “Anna isn’t going.”
Stephen had demanded me.
Agent Morales looked between us.
“That won’t necessarily be your decision.”
Luca started to protest.
I turned toward him.
“Remember what I just said about excluding me?”
His jaw tightened.
“This is different.”
“No. It’s scarier.”
Before he could answer, my phone vibrated again.
A video.
Rebecca appeared on-screen.
She was alone now.
Her wrists were free.
But behind her was a metal door.
Someone off camera asked, “What happens at six?”
Rebecca looked toward the voice.
Then directly into the camera.
“He opens the box.”
A hand appeared and placed an old photograph in her lap.
Antonio Moretti.
Raymond Hale.
And a third man.
Stephen.
On the back, written in black ink, were four words.
THE ORIGINAL RECORDS SURVIVE.
Then Rebecca whispered, “Anna, he says the box proves who really owns everything.”
A key turned loudly somewhere behind her.
The metal door began opening.
May you like
Rebecca’s eyes widened.
And the video ended.
