Chapter 7 - Serena Came Back With a Warning
Rafael moved before I understood what was happening.
He shoved me sideways.
The gun fired.
Wood exploded from the doorframe.
His security team entered.
A struggle.
A second shot.
Then silence.
The man inside wasn't my father.
He was a former Callow Logistics executive named Peter Voss.
I remembered him from childhood Christmas parties.
He had once given me a calculator when Serena received jewelry.
Apparently he'd always understood me.
Now he was on the floor in handcuffs.
My mother was alive.
That fact swallowed everything else.
I held her.
Twelve years disappeared.
Then returned all at once.
“You let us believe you were dead.”
Her body shook.
“I thought it was the only way to keep you alive.”
“From Dad?”
“From Dominic.”
Rafael stood several feet away.
Mom saw him.
Her face changed.
“Moretti.”
“Mrs. Callow.”
“Your father was a good man.”
Rafael's composure cracked.
“You knew him?”
“He helped me disappear.”
The room went silent.
Laura explained.
Twelve years ago, she had uncovered Victor and Dominic's laundering network.
Rafael's father, Antonio, discovered his brother's involvement.
He wanted to expose Dominic.
Together, Antonio and Laura collected evidence.
Then Dominic learned what they were doing.
Laura's brakes were tampered with.
Antonio arranged the crash scene to make Dominic believe she had died, while Laura escaped under a new identity.
“Why didn't you take us?”
“Victor watched you constantly. Dominic watched Victor. If I had approached either of you, they would have known.”
“You could have found me later.”
“I did.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
“The fundraiser.”
Eight months ago.
She had been there.
The yellow coat.
I remembered a woman across the street staring at me before the rain began.
Rafael remembered too.
“The woman near the food cart.”
Laura nodded.
“I went there to see June.”
“Why then?”
“Because Victor had started moving Account 17 again.”
The trust.
My money.
My mother's evidence.
“I saw Rafael speak to you,” she said. “Then I saw Victor notice.”
Rafael's expression darkened.
“That was you in the photograph.”
“Yes.”
The circled figure wasn't Victor.
I looked again mentally.
Had I assumed wrong?
Laura continued.
“I contacted Serena first.”
Serena.
“She knew you were alive?”
“Only for two weeks.”
That explained everything.
The running.
The warehouse.
The panic.
“Why not me?”
“Because June, you were already inside Callow Logistics. Your father monitored your accounts, your email, your office.”
My anger hurt almost as much as my relief.
“You decided for me.”
“I know.”
“I spent twelve years grieving you.”
“I know.”
“You missed my graduation.”
“I know.”
“My thirtieth birthday.”
Her face broke.
“I know.”
I turned away.
Rafael followed but didn't touch me.
“Take me home.”
He nodded.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
Around two, I found him in the kitchen drinking coffee.
“That's psychotic,” I said.
“What?”
“Coffee at two in the morning.”
“I wasn't sleeping.”
“Neither was I.”
He poured me tea instead.
We sat in silence.
It was the easiest silence I'd ever shared.
Finally I asked, “Did your father ever tell you?”
“No.”
“About Mom?”
“No.”
“Does that hurt?”
“Yes.”
No performance.
No denial.
Just yes.
I reached across the table.
My fingers touched his.
He looked down.
Then at me.
He didn't move until I intertwined our fingers myself.
At 2:17 a.m., my husband held my hand for the first time because I chose it.
Then my phone buzzed.
Serena.
One message.
JUNE, DON'T TRUST MOM YET.
A photograph followed.
It showed Laura meeting Victor three days earlier.
May you like
And beneath it Serena wrote:
SHE KNEW EXACTLY WHERE DAD WAS GOING AFTER HE LEFT RAFAEL'S HOUSE...
