Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Elena read the message three times.
Each time the words looked worse.
Dominic took the phone gently from her hand.
“You’re not going home.”
“She’s in my apartment.”
“You’re still not going.”
“That woman raised me after my mother died.”
“That woman may not be Caroline.”
“She looks exactly like her.”
Samuel stared at the security image.
“She is Caroline.”
Dominic turned.
“You just said she died.”
“I attended the funeral.”
“Then either the body wasn’t hers or you’re lying.”
Samuel’s face tightened.
“I buried her.”
Elena looked between them.
“I’m done with this.”
She turned toward the elevator.
Dominic stepped in front of her.
“No.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to control me.”
“I’m not trying to control you. I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
“That’s the problem!”
Jamie startled at her raised voice.
Elena immediately lowered it.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
She kissed his forehead.
Then she looked at Dominic.
“I have spent eight months making every decision alone. Every doctor’s appointment. Every bill. Every bottle. Every night he coughed and I thought I might have to call an ambulance. You do not get to appear because I sent a stupid message and suddenly tell me where I can and cannot go.”
Dominic’s expression softened.
“You’re right.”
That stopped her.
He stepped aside.
“You can go.”
Elena blinked.
“But if you do, Marco goes with you.”
“No.”
“Then I go.”
“No.”
“Then Samuel.”
“Absolutely not.”
Samuel looked mildly insulted.
Dominic almost smiled.
Elena exhaled.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
She looked at the stroller.
Then the message.
Then Jamie.
“What would you do?”
Dominic answered instantly.
“Move the baby somewhere safe. Go to your apartment with no visible protection. Make Caroline believe you came alone. Put surveillance in place before you arrive. Keep three exits covered.”
Elena stared.
“You’ve thought about this already.”
“I think quickly.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Twenty minutes later, Jamie was asleep in a private suite upstairs with two female staff members Elena had personally met, checked, questioned, and made uncomfortable.
Dominic had not complained once.
He had also given Elena a small earpiece.
She hated it.
“You hear everything?” she asked.
“Everything you hear.”
“Comforting.”
Dominic leaned against the wall outside the elevator.
For the first time, without Jamie between them and without the restaurant around him, he looked more human.
Still dangerous.
But tired.
Elena noticed a thin scar near his left temple.
“Did your father really know Samuel?”
Dominic nodded.
“My father knew everyone.”
“Were you close?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Elena didn’t push.
“Why did Samuel send you the photo instead of police?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Because people like Samuel don’t go to police unless they already know which officer they’re buying.”
Elena looked away.
“That sentence should bother you more.”
“It bothers me plenty.”
“Yet you say it like it’s normal.”
“For me, it was.”
The elevator arrived.
Dominic’s tone changed.
“Once we reach your building, you go in alone. I’ll stay in the stairwell.”
“What if she searches me?”
“She won’t find anything.”
“What if she has a gun?”
Dominic paused.
“She didn’t in the footage.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
Elena stared.
He sighed.
“If she has a gun, do exactly what she says until I tell you otherwise.”
“You really like telling people what to do.”
“I’m trying to improve.”
“You’re failing.”
“Noted.”
Despite herself, Elena smiled.
It vanished immediately.
“Dominic.”
“Yes?”
“If this goes wrong…”
“It won’t.”
“If it does.”
He waited.
“Get Jamie out.”
Something changed in his eyes.
“I will.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
They rode down.
Forty minutes later, Elena stood outside her apartment.
The hallway smelled like dust and boiled cabbage from the neighbor across the hall.
Normal.
Painfully normal.
Dominic’s voice came through her earpiece.
“Door is unlocked.”
Elena’s pulse jumped.
She pushed it open.
“Aunt Caroline?”
Silence.
The living room was dark.
Drawers hung open.
Couch cushions had been sliced.
Cabinet doors stood wide.
Someone had searched everything.
Then a lamp switched on.
Caroline sat in Elena’s kitchen chair.
Older than Elena remembered.
Thinner.
But alive.
“Elena.”
Elena felt fifteen again.
“You’re dead.”
Caroline smiled sadly.
“Apparently not.”
Elena stayed near the door.
“Why?”
“To survive.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“You left me.”
“I was protecting you.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Caroline’s eyes moved to Elena’s empty arms.
“Where’s Jamie?”
Elena’s body tightened.
“With a sitter.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes.”
Caroline studied her.
“You never trusted sitters.”
Elena froze.
Dominic’s voice whispered in her ear.
“She’s testing you.”
Elena said, “People change.”
Caroline stood.
“You still carry Rachel’s bag.”
Elena looked toward the table.
The bag was there.
She had left it intentionally.
Empty.
Caroline picked it up.
“The key?”
“What key?”
“Elena.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Caroline slapped the bag onto the table.
“Don’t lie to me.”
Dominic’s voice came softly.
“Keep her talking.”
Elena forced herself not to glance toward the hallway.
“What does 417 open?”
Caroline stopped.
That was enough.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“Oh, Rachel.”
“What is it?”
“A safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
“First Union Trust.”
“Why didn’t you take the key years ago?”
“I couldn’t find it.”
“Why?”
“Because Rachel never trusted me completely.”
Elena almost laughed.
“That sounds familiar.”
Caroline’s face hardened.
“You think I wanted to leave you?”
“You attended parent-teacher conferences. You made birthday cakes. You sat beside me when I got my first job. Then you died.”
“I disappeared.”
“Same thing.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“I loved you.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Caroline looked at her.
“Your mother stole something from Antonio.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
“Money?”
“Names.”
Elena swallowed.
“Whose names?”
“Judges. Officers. Accountants. Businessmen. Men who took money from both sides. Men who built careers pretending they had never met people like Antonio DeLuca.”
Dominic’s voice in her ear went silent.
Elena felt it.
“What was my mother planning to do?”
“Expose them.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Because she was killed.”
The words hit Elena even though Samuel had already suggested it.
Hearing Caroline say them made them real.
“Who killed her?”
Caroline looked toward the window.
“I don’t know.”
Elena’s voice cracked.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I know who ordered the surveillance. I know who changed the accident report. But I don’t know who gave the final order.”
“Who changed it?”
Caroline looked at her.
“Dominic Moretti’s father.”
The earpiece went silent.
Elena stopped breathing.
Caroline stepped closer.
“Samuel sent you to Dominic, didn’t he?”
Elena said nothing.
“Of course he did.”
Caroline shook her head.
“He always believed the son would be different.”
Elena heard Dominic’s voice again.
“Don’t react.”
Too late.
Caroline saw her eyes shift.
Her expression changed.
“You’re wearing something.”
She lunged.
Elena stepped back.
Caroline grabbed her hair and tore the earpiece free.
“Elena!”
Dominic’s voice burst through it before it hit the floor.
Caroline stared at the tiny device.
Then toward the hallway.
“You brought him here.”
Dominic came through the door.
Marco behind him.
Caroline backed away.
Dominic’s eyes locked on hers.
“Caroline DeLuca.”
“Dominic Moretti.”
“You knew my father.”
“Unfortunately.”
“You said he altered Rachel’s report.”
“He did more than alter it.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“What?”
Caroline gave a bitter smile.
“Ask Samuel why your father died.”
Dominic froze.
Marco glanced at him.
Caroline stepped toward the back door.
Marco blocked her.
She laughed softly.
“You think I’m your enemy?”
“You broke into Elena’s apartment.”
“To find the key before they did.”
“Who?”
Caroline looked at Elena.
“The man who called himself Eric Hale.”
Elena’s stomach clenched.
“Julian.”
Caroline nodded.
“He isn’t dead.”
Dominic’s head snapped up.
Samuel had implied uncertainty.
Caroline reached into her coat.
Dominic stepped forward.
“Slowly.”
She withdrew a folded photograph.
It showed Julian.
Taken recently.
Standing outside a hospital.
Elena recognized it immediately.
St. Agnes.
The same entrance where someone had photographed her and baby Jamie.
“Why was he there?”
Caroline’s face went pale.
“He was waiting for someone.”
“Who?”
Before Caroline could answer, Elena’s phone rang.
Sophie.
Elena answered.
“Soph?”
Her friend was crying.
“Elena, don’t panic.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
“What happened?”
“There was a man at Elysium. He said he was Jamie’s father.”
Elena looked at Dominic.
Sophie sobbed.
“And Elena…”
May you like
“What?”
“He took him.”
