Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF A SECRET
Lucas ran.
He reached the east staircase as Marco’s men flooded the hallway. A guard lay unconscious near the laundry room. Elena was on the floor, struggling to stand.
“They took her,” she cried. “Two men. One had a medical bag.”
Lucas knelt beside her. “Did you see where they went?”
“Service elevator. They said Victor wanted the girl alive.”
The words struck him harder than a bullet.
“Why Lily?”
Elena shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Lucas turned to Marco. “Seal the property. Pull every camera. Find the car.”
Isabella appeared at the top of the stairs, leaning against the railing. “Lucas, the recorder.”
He looked up.
“Thomas left something on it,” she said. “Victor wasn’t only trying to take the empire. He was looking for the account ledger. He believed Thomas had hidden a copy with his family.”
“Elena has it?”
“No. But Lily might.”
Lucas looked at Elena. “Did Thomas ever give Lily anything?”
Elena hesitated. “A little music box. He said it was a birthday present from someone important. She keeps it in her backpack.”
Marco hurried to the laundry room. He returned with the backpack, but the music box was gone.
Lucas understood. Victor had not taken Lily at random. He believed the child possessed the key to the evidence that could destroy him.
In the car, Lily sat between two men. One wore a medical coat. The other kept checking his phone.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Somewhere safe,” the man in the coat replied.
“My mommy said not to go with strangers.”
“We know your mother.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not strangers.”
The man glanced at his partner. “She talks too much.”
Lily reached for her inhaler. It was still in her pajama pocket. She held it close, trying to stay calm. Her mother had taught her to count slowly when she felt frightened.
One. Two. Three.
The car stopped beneath an old railway bridge. The medical man opened the door.
A familiar voice came from the shadows.
“Hello, Lily.”
Victor stepped into the light.
Lily recognized him from the mansion. “You’re the man who smells like the hospital.”
Victor smiled thinly. “Your father was a difficult man, sweetheart.”
“He was nice.”
“He was foolish.”
Victor crouched to her height. “Where is the little music box?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think carefully.”
Lily looked down. Her fingers brushed the small zipper pocket inside her backpack. She had hidden the box there before the men took the bag. She had seen her father put a tiny brass key beneath its wooden base. He had told her never to lose it.
“I left it at home,” she lied.
Victor’s expression hardened. “Then we’ll have to ask your mother.”
Back at the mansion, Lucas listened to the recording Thomas had left behind. Static crackled, followed by a man’s voice.
“If this is playing, I didn’t make it. Victor has been moving money through the Bellweather Foundation. He paid the doctor, the guards, and the men who set the fire. The ledger is hidden where the first song was written.”
Isabella closed her eyes. “The piano.”
Lucas turned the recorder over. A second file appeared. He pressed play.
Thomas’s voice returned, weaker this time.
“Lucas, if you find this, forgive me. I couldn’t save everyone. Daniel is with someone who knows the old family. He is safe for now. The child’s music box contains the final key. Don’t let Victor get it.”
A new message chimed on Lucas’s phone.
It was a photograph of Lily sitting beneath the railway bridge, her face frightened but unhurt.
Below it was a single line:
BRING THE LEDGER. COME ALONE.
Lucas stared at the message.
Isabella grabbed his hand. “You can’t go alone.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Lucas, he has Lily.”
“And I’m going to bring her home.”
He looked at Marco. “Get every man you trust. No one else. And call the one person Victor believes is dead.”
Marco’s eyes widened. “You mean—”
“Daniel’s guardian,” Lucas said. “Tell him the harbor is open.”
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For the first time in three years, Lucas Moretti had a reason to believe his family might be whole again.
And for the first time, Victor Romano had made a mistake he could not undo.
