Chapter 5 - THE VOICEMAIL
Dr. Evelyn Evans agreed to speak to Luca only after three conditions were met.
No Moretti guards.
No private Moretti property.
And Hannah Carter had to be present.
I did not understand the third condition.
Neither did Luca.
But at eleven thirty that morning, we drove north in an unmarked SUV with one plainclothes security officer following three cars behind.
The meeting place was a public library in Lake Forest.
Dr. Evans was fifty-three.
Thin.
Gray beginning at her temples.
Her eyes went directly to me when we entered.
“You’re Hannah.”
“Yes.”
She stood.
For one strange second, she looked close to tears.
Then she hugged me.
I froze.
Luca did too.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For not finding you.”
She released me.
Luca’s voice became careful.
“You knew Hannah existed?”
Evans looked at him.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Sophia talked about her constantly.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“Dominic told me she had stopped.”
“Dominic lied.”
No hesitation.
No softening.
“He lied to you repeatedly.”
Luca sat across from her.
“Tell me everything.”
Evans looked around the small study room.
“Your daughter had severe trauma after the crash.”
“She had nightmares.”
“Panic whenever water touched her face.”
“Fear of cars.”
“She also had intense fixation on Hannah.”
“Not unhealthy fixation.”
“Safety association.”
“She believed Hannah would come back.”
My eyes burned.
Evans continued.
“I told Dominic that reconnecting them might help Sophia.”
“What did he say?”
“That Hannah refused.”
I felt sick.
“He showed me a letter supposedly from you.”
“What did it say?”
“That you wanted no further contact with the Moretti family.”
“I never wrote that.”
“I know that now.”
Luca leaned forward.
“How?”
“Because six months later, I overheard Dominic arguing with Dr. Marcus Vale.”
The neurologist.
“What about?”
Evans opened her bag.
She removed a flash drive.
“About you.”
She looked at me.
“Dominic said you had become a liability.”
I stared at her.
“What kind of liability?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then.”
She slid the drive across the table.
“What is this?”
Luca asked.
“A copy of a therapy audio note.”
“Why did you record her?”
“Trauma recall.”
“She spoke more freely during guided relaxation.”
“Listen.”
Luca plugged the drive into his laptop.
Sophia’s younger voice filled the room.
Five years old.
Frightened.
“Mommy was mad.”
Evans’s recorded voice answered.
“At whom?”
“Uncle Dom.”
“Why?”
“He took her phone.”
“Where?”
“At the house.”
“What happened next?”
“He gave it back.”
“Then what?”
“She said we were going to see Daddy.”
A pause.
Tiny breathing.
“Then the bird man was by the car.”
My heart started pounding.
Evans asked, “What bird man?”
“The man with wings.”
“Where were the wings?”
“On his hand.”
Luca paused the recording.
Nobody moved.
The tattoo.
The man on the hotel freight elevator.
The man Sophia remembered near Alessandra’s car.
Evans looked at Luca.
“There’s more.”
He resumed.
Sophia began crying.
“Mommy called Daddy.”
“You remember that?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘If you get this, don’t trust—’”
The audio crackled.
Then Sophia’s voice became distant.
“I don’t want to.”
“You’re safe.”
“No.”
“We can stop.”
“He found us.”
“Who?”
“Uncle Dom.”
The recording ended.
Luca sat motionless.
Evans spoke quietly.
“The next morning, Dominic removed me from Sophia’s case.”
“And your son?”
“Three days later, he was hit by a car while biking.”
My stomach tightened.
“Hit-and-run?”
“Yes.”
“He survived.”
“Barely.”
Luca’s face had become almost colorless.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“The detective told me there wasn’t enough evidence to connect the incidents.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Evans laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“I tried.”
Luca said nothing.
“I called your office eleven times.”
“I wrote you.”
“I sent the recording.”
Luca’s voice broke.
“I never received it.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Dominic called me afterward.”
The study room became silent.
“What did he say?”
Evans looked directly at him.
“He told me I needed to understand that every road to Luca Moretti went through him.”
For the first time, I understood the scale of what had happened.
Someone had not simply hidden me from Sophia.
Someone had built an entire wall around Luca.
Intercepted letters.
Medical reports.
Therapists.
Calls.
Evidence.
Maybe even people.
Luca closed the laptop.
“Do you still have the original?”
“Yes.”
“Give it to the police.”
“I already did this morning.”
He looked surprised.
Evans smiled bitterly.
“I learned.”
We left the library at one fifteen.
Matteo called before we reached the parking lot.
“We recovered part of Hannah’s voicemail.”
I stopped walking.
Luca put him on speaker.
“How?”
“The old phone synced fragments to an abandoned cloud account.”
“Can you play it?”
“Not safely over the phone.”
“Why?”
“There’s something in the background.”
“What?”
“You need to hear it yourself.”
Twenty minutes later, we were inside a private office belonging to Luca’s attorney.
An audio technician placed headphones on the table.
The recording began.
A man’s voice.
Calm.
Professional.
“Ms. Carter, this is regarding your continued attempts to contact Sophia Moretti.”
I remembered every word.
“You have been advised that contact is not medically appropriate.”
“For Sophia’s health, you are instructed to stop calling the family, the foundation, or any member of her treatment team.”
“If you continue, legal action may be taken.”
A click.
I expected silence.
Instead, the recording continued.
Four seconds.
Six.
Then muffled voices.
The caller had apparently failed to disconnect.
A second man spoke.
“Think she bought it?”
The first voice answered.
“She’s a waitress.”
I flinched.
I had not been a waitress then.
I had worked hospital registration.
The second man laughed.
“What if she keeps pushing?”
The first voice became clearer.
“Then remind her she was in the river.”
A pause.
“And if Sophia ever sees her?”
Another pause.
Longer.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“We cannot let that happen.”
“Why?”
“Because Carter heard Alessandra in that car.”
My heart stopped.
The second man asked, “Heard what?”
The first voice answered.
“Dominic’s name.”
Nobody moved.
Luca stared at the speaker.
I barely managed to breathe.
The recording continued.
May you like
The caller said one final thing before the voicemail ended.
“And if the girl remembers why her mother was afraid of Dominic, Luca will start asking about the brakes.”
