Chapter 4 - THE CAR OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL
Elena reached the preschool before the afternoon pickup bell.
She tried to remain calm as she signed Lily out, but the director noticed her trembling hands.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” Elena replied. “We need to go home early.”
Lily emerged carrying her small backpack and a paper crown.
“Mommy, I made this for you.”
Elena crouched and kissed her forehead.
“It's beautiful, mi amor.”
They left through the side entrance, where Marco's driver was waiting. Two security men stood near the car.
Lily climbed into her seat.
As the vehicle pulled away, she looked through the rear window.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“That blue car is following us.”
Elena turned.
A dark blue sedan had joined the street behind them.
The driver noticed it too.
He changed lanes. The sedan did the same.
One of the security men spoke quietly into his radio.
“Possible tail. Two blocks behind.”
Elena pulled Lily close.
“Keep your seat belt on.”
The car turned onto a busy avenue, then into a guarded underground garage belonging to one of the Moretti family's hotels. The sedan continued past the entrance.
The driver waited until the security team confirmed the street was clear before taking them to the mansion.
Dante was waiting in the library.
The moment Lily entered, she ran to him.
“Mr. Dante, I saw the blue car!”
He knelt.
“You did?”
She nodded.
“It was the same one from the school.”
Dante looked at Elena.
“Did anyone approach you?”
“No. But someone followed us.”
He turned toward Marco.
“Find the owner of that car.”
Marco left immediately.
Dante took Lily's paper crown and placed it carefully on his head.
“Do I look important?”
Lily giggled.
“You look silly.”
“That's worse.”
Elena watched them, her fear slowly giving way to confusion.
“Why is someone following my daughter?”
Dante's smile disappeared.
“Because she saw something she wasn't supposed to see.”
Elena sat down.
“She is four years old.”
“I know.”
“She doesn't understand your world.”
“That's why I won't let this become her problem.”
Dante explained what had happened at the meeting, though he left out the most dangerous details. Victor had been detained. The device had been planted to capture private conversations. Someone outside the organization had been helping him.
Elena listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she asked, “Can we leave?”
Dante looked at her.
“If that's what you want, I'll arrange a safe place for you and Lily. Somewhere no one connected to me can reach you.”
“Would we be safe?”
“I will make sure you are.”
Elena looked down at her hands.
For eleven months, she had tried to remain invisible in the mansion. She had believed that keeping her head down would protect her daughter.
Now her daughter had become the one person everyone was searching for.
“I don't want Lily growing up afraid,” she said.
“Neither do I.”
Dante called his attorney and requested that a protected residence be prepared. He also asked for an independent child specialist to speak with Elena about Lily's unusual memory and observation skills.
Elena looked surprised.
“You want her tested?”
“Only if you agree. Not because she owes me anything. Because she deserves opportunities.”
Lily climbed onto the sofa and began coloring.
Dante watched her for a moment.
Then his phone rang.
Marco's voice was urgent.
“We found the sedan. It belongs to a company registered to a man named Adrian Voss.”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“Who is he?”
“A private security consultant. He used to work for your father.”
Dante went still.
May you like
His father's old security consultant had been dead for six years.
Or so everyone had believed.
