Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO REMEMBERED THE DELIVERY
Elena had been thinking about the tie delivery since the morning Lily cut it.
She remembered the box.
The delivery man had asked her to sign for it, but Victor had been waiting near the service entrance. He had told her to leave the package in the dressing room and not to open it.
At the time, she had thought nothing of it.
Now she remembered something else.
The delivery man had worn a ring with a small black stone. When he handed her the box, he had said, “Your boss is lucky to have people who take such good care of him.”
Elena had found the comment strange because she had never met him before.
She told Dante.
“Can you describe him?” Dante asked.
“Tall. Thin. A little older than you. He had a scar near his ear.”
Dante immediately called Marco.
“Does Voss have a scar near his ear?”
Marco checked the photograph.
“Yes.”
Elena nodded. “That's him.”
Dante thanked her.
“Why didn't you mention this earlier?”
“I didn't know it mattered. I only remembered because Lily drew him.”
Dante looked at her with respect.
“You remembered because you were paying attention.”
Elena glanced toward Lily.
“She gets that from her father.”
Dante did not ask more. He knew Jorge had died in an industrial accident, and he knew Elena had lost another child after his death. He had never asked how she had survived it.
For the first time, he wanted to understand.
But he also knew that kindness could become another kind of pressure when it came from a powerful man.
Instead, he asked whether she needed anything for the apartment.
“We have everything,” Elena replied. “Lily likes the birds.”
“Good.”
That afternoon, Marco found the delivery company's records. The package had been picked up by a courier service registered to Adrian Voss. The delivery had been arranged through Victor's office.
The evidence now connected Victor and Voss directly.
But the question remained: where was Salvatore?
A call came from the private airport.
A man matching Salvatore's description had boarded a plane under a false name. The flight plan listed a destination in Canada.
Dante looked at the departure time.
The plane had already left.
“Can we stop it?”
“Not without involving federal authorities,” Marco said.
Dante considered the situation.
“Then involve them. Give them the records. I want this handled legally.”
Marco looked surprised.
“Boss?”
“I'm not starting a war over a man who has spent twenty years hiding.”
Dante knew that the evidence could bring down several people. He also knew that if he used violence, the truth might disappear in the chaos.
He wanted answers.
And he wanted Lily to return to preschool without looking over her shoulder.
That evening, he visited Elena and Lily with a small box.
Inside was a set of colored pencils, a sketchbook, and a book about animals.
“For your drawings,” he told Lily.
She opened the box and gasped.
“There's a purple one!”
“Especially for you.”
Lily hugged the sketchbook.
“Thank you.”
Elena looked at Dante.
“You didn't have to.”
“I know.”
He stayed for tea. They spoke about ordinary things: Lily's favorite stories, Elena's work, and the little garden outside the apartment.
For an hour, the city seemed far away.
Then Dante's phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE CHILD OUT OF THIS.
Dante read it once.
May you like
Then he deleted it.
He did not tell Elena.
