Chapter 5 - A DOOR OPENED BY BLOOD
Alessandro's residence occupied the top three floors of a limestone building overlooking Lake Michigan. A private elevator opened into a quiet foyer with dark wood floors, modern art, and windows that made the city seem far away.
Two security men escorted me inside.
I wore my only clean dress, a navy sweater dress borrowed from Rachel, and kept the silver key in my coat pocket. Liam had insisted on coming, but the guards refused to let him past the lobby.
“You can wait downstairs,” I told him.
“I don't like this.”
“Neither do I.”
He caught my wrist. “If anything feels wrong, leave.”
I nodded.
The elevator doors closed.
Alessandro was standing near the windows when I entered. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms and dark trousers. No tie. No jacket. He looked less like the man from the gala and more like someone who had been awake all night.
“Emma.”
“Alessandro.”
He came toward me, then stopped as if unsure whether he was allowed to touch me.
“You look tired.”
“So do you.”
“I've been looking for you.”
“I know.”
He studied my face. “Are you in trouble?”
I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to say I was frightened, that someone had threatened me, that I was pregnant, that I had gone to his gala looking for evidence against his company. But the message about his father sat in my mind like a blade.
“I need something from you,” I said.
His expression changed. “All right.”
“A safe deposit box. Opened in your name. At a bank on LaSalle Street.”
He didn't ask how I knew about it. He went very still.
“Where did you get that information?”
“My father.”
“What was his name?”
“Daniel Vale.”
Alessandro's eyes narrowed. “Daniel Vale worked in compliance.”
“You knew him?”
“I knew of him. He disappeared from the company records after a dispute with my father.”
“He didn't disappear. He died.”
Alessandro's face hardened. “When?”
“Six years ago. A car accident.”
He looked toward the window. For a moment, he seemed to be searching for something he had lost.
“Your father came to see me,” he said finally. “Not long before he died.”
My breath caught. “What?”
“He asked for a meeting. I was in London. My assistant told him I was unavailable. When I returned, I was told he had resigned.”
“He left you something?”
“I don't know. I never received anything.”
I took out the bank receipt.
Alessandro read it. His jaw tightened.
“I opened this account,” he said. “But I don't remember the archive. My father handled most of the private banking arrangements then.”
“Can you open it?”
“Yes.”
“Will you?”
He looked at me. “If the contents are connected to Daniel Vale, yes.”
I almost asked him about his father. Instead, I asked the question that mattered most.
“Why did you call me?”
“Because someone accessed the hotel footage. Because your name appeared in a security report. Because I was told you were in danger.”
“My name isn't Emma.”
He waited.
“My real name is Elizabeth Vale.”
He repeated it quietly. “Elizabeth.”
“I used Emma because I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because your family has people who want me dead.”
Alessandro's face went cold.
“Who told you that?”
“I received messages. Someone knows I was at the gala. Someone knows about the baby.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Silence.
Alessandro stared at me.
“What baby?”
My heart slammed against my ribs. I could still take it back. I could say the message was a threat, that it was a lie, that I was talking about someone else's child.
But he was looking at me with the same amber eyes that had made the ballroom disappear.
I took a breath.
“I'm pregnant.”
He did not move.
“Six weeks,” I added. “I took two tests this morning.”
His expression changed slowly, disbelief giving way to something raw and unguarded.
“Mine?”
I nodded.
He sat down as if his legs had stopped working.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he looked up.
“Are you safe? Are you hurt? Has anyone touched you?”
“I'm okay.”
“Does Liam know?”
“He's my best friend. He knows.”
Alessandro's jaw tightened at the name, but he did not comment.
He stood and came toward me carefully. “I won't force you to stay here. I won't make decisions for you. But I need you to let me protect you.”
“I don't know if I can trust you.”
“I know.”
“Your father may be connected to my parents' deaths.”
His expression changed.
“Then we'll find out,” he said.
I looked at him. “What if the truth destroys your family?”
He held my gaze.
“Then it was already broken.”
He picked up the phone on the table and called his security director.
“Lock down the building. No one enters or leaves without my approval. And get Naomi Brooks on the line.”
Then he looked back at me.
“Elizabeth, there is something you need to know about my father.”
“What?”
“Matteo Vitali has been asking about you for six weeks.”
May you like
He paused.
“And yesterday, he learned you were pregnant.”
