Chapter 1 - The Night the Dead Woman Came Home
The little girl screamed when the lights went out.
Alexander Moretti had heard men beg for their lives.
He had watched billion-dollar deals collapse in the space of a phone call.
He had stood beside his wife's coffin while a priest told him that grief was the price people paid for love.
None of it had prepared him for the sound of a child calling him Daddy in the dark.
"Nobody move!" he shouted.
A chair crashed against the marble floor.
Someone screamed near the windows.
Then came the unmistakable sound of a heavy door slamming shut.
"Vincent!"
His brother didn't answer.
Alexander reached for the phone Elena Reyes had placed on the table.
His fingers found nothing.
"Elena!"
"I'm here!"
Her voice came from somewhere to his left.
"Get down!"
A sharp crack split the darkness.
Something struck the chandelier above them, raining tiny fragments of crystal across the dining table.
Alexander dropped behind a chair.
It hadn't been a gunshot.
It was the sound of a security baton smashing an overhead light fixture.
Someone wanted the room completely dark.
He heard small footsteps.
Then another frightened cry.
"Daddy?"
Alexander's heart twisted.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
He had never said those words before.
Not to a child.
Not as a father.
But something deep inside him understood that the little girl was looking for him.
"Keep talking," he said.
"I'm scared."
"I know."
"Uncle Vincent said you wouldn't want me."
Alexander stopped breathing.
Across the room, a man grunted.
A woman's voice followed.
"Get away from her!"
Elena.
Alexander moved toward the sound.
He struck a table corner with his hip and stumbled.
Then his hand closed around someone's sleeve.
A small sleeve.
Red wool.
He pulled the child behind him.
"You're safe," he whispered.
The girl clung to his jacket.
"Are you really my daddy?"
He closed his eyes.
"I think I am."
Behind them, Vincent laughed softly.
"You always were sentimental, Alex."
Emergency lights flickered on along the floor.
The dim red glow revealed Vincent standing beside the locked entrance.
Two security guards flanked him.
One held a black restraint bag.
The other had his hand wrapped around Elena's upper arm.
Vincent straightened his cuffs.
"Give me the girl."
Alexander placed himself between his brother and the child.
"Not another step."
"You're making this unnecessarily difficult."
"You told me my wife was dead."
"Because she was supposed to be."
The words hung in the room.
Alexander stared at him.
Vincent seemed to realize what he had admitted.
For a moment, neither brother spoke.
Then Alexander said quietly, "You arranged the accident."
Vincent's expression hardened.
"I arranged a solution."
"To what?"
"To a woman who couldn't understand when to stop asking questions."
Elena twisted against the guard holding her.
"She's still alive!"
Vincent turned toward her.
"That was your first mistake."
He looked at Alexander.
"And trusting a waitress with your second chance was hers."
Alexander's hand tightened around the little girl's shoulder.
"What's her name?"
Vincent blinked.
"What?"
"My daughter's name."
The child answered before anyone else could.
"Lucia."
Her voice trembled.
"Mommy calls me Lucy."
Alexander knelt.
In the emergency lighting, he could see her properly for the first time.
Dark curls.
A small straight nose.
A faint dimple in her left cheek.
And Isabella's eyes.
Those impossible gray-green eyes.
"Hello, Lucy."
She studied him.
"Mommy said you were nice."
His throat closed.
"She did?"
Lucy nodded.
"She said you used to sing to her when she was sad."
Alexander remembered Isabella standing barefoot in their kitchen, laughing because he couldn't carry a tune.
The memory struck him harder than any accusation.
He gently touched Lucy's cheek.
"Your mommy was right about one thing."
"What?"
"I'm going to take care of you."
Vincent sighed.
"Touching."
He glanced at the guards.
"Take the child."
The first man advanced.
Alexander rose.
"Try it."
The guard hesitated.
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"Alex, don't embarrass yourself."
Alexander smiled without warmth.
"You seem to have forgotten whose restaurant this is."
"You seem to have forgotten who controls the security system."
"Not all of it."
Alexander tapped his watch.
"Benjamin."
A voice crackled through its tiny speaker.
"Mr. Moretti?"
Vincent's face changed.
Alexander kept his eyes on his brother.
"Activate the building's independent fire alarm."
"Sir, the security network is showing a lockdown."
"I know."
"Are you in danger?"
"Yes."
"Understood."
Vincent lunged forward.
Alexander struck him across the face.
His brother staggered into the table.
A second later, alarms erupted throughout the restaurant.
The sprinkler system released a violent sheet of cold water.
Guests screamed.
The security guard holding Elena loosened his grip.
She drove her heel into his foot and broke free.
"Alexander!"
She threw him the cracked smartphone.
He caught it against his chest.
"Take Lucy!" she shouted.
"Come with us!"
"Someone has to open the service exit!"
The emergency release beside the kitchen began flashing.
Elena ran toward it.
A guard chased her.
Alexander grabbed a fallen chair and shoved it into the man's path.
The guard crashed over it.
Lucy screamed again.
Alexander lifted her into his arms.
She wrapped both hands around his neck.
"Daddy!"
This time, he answered without hesitation.
"I've got you."
The service door clicked open.
Elena pulled it inward.
Cold air rushed into the room.
"Go!"
Alexander ran.
They burst into a narrow corridor behind the private dining suite.
Kitchen workers stood frozen beside steel counters.
A chef dropped a tray when he saw Alexander carrying a child.
"Mr. Moretti?"
"Call the police!"
Alexander kept moving.
"Tell them there's been an armed threat and an attempted abduction."
Behind them, Vincent's voice echoed.
"Alexander!"
He stopped at the far end of the corridor.
His brother stood beneath a flickering exit sign, soaked from the sprinklers.
There was blood at the corner of his mouth.
But he was smiling.
"You don't understand what you've done."
Alexander shifted Lucy higher in his arms.
"Then explain it."
Vincent's expression turned strangely sad.
"Isabella didn't disappear because I hated her."
"Don't say her name."
"She disappeared because she discovered something that would destroy this family."
"You destroyed this family."
Vincent glanced at Lucy.
"No, Alex."
His voice dropped.
"She did."
A heavy security shutter began descending between them.
Elena seized Alexander's arm.
"We have to go!"
Alexander backed away.
Vincent leaned forward beneath the lowering metal.
"Ask Elena why she knew where to find the child."
Elena went rigid.
Alexander looked at her.
"What?"
The shutter slammed shut.
And Vincent vanished.
Outside, Chicago rain struck the pavement like handfuls of gravel.
A black sedan screeched to a stop near the service entrance.
Alexander recognized the driver immediately.
Benjamin Hale.
His longtime head of personal security.
Benjamin climbed out.
"Get in!"
Alexander opened the rear door.
Elena slid inside.
He handed Lucy to her, then climbed in beside them.
"Drive."
Benjamin pulled into traffic.
"Where?"
Alexander stared at the phone in his hand.
The screen displayed Isabella's frozen face.
"Somewhere Vincent can't find us."
Benjamin looked at him through the rearview mirror.
"Then we have a problem."
"What problem?"
"The entire executive security system was transferred to Vincent's office forty minutes ago."
Alexander's stomach sank.
"Transferred by whom?"
Benjamin swallowed.
"By an authorization carrying your digital signature."
Alexander looked back at the restaurant.
Police sirens were approaching.
But several unmarked black vehicles were already leaving the parking structure.
Vincent's vehicles.
Alexander tightened his hold on Lucy's trembling hand.
"That signature was forged."
"I assumed so."
"How many people know?"
Benjamin hesitated.
"Everyone who matters."
His phone buzzed.
A notification appeared on the dashboard.
Benjamin read it.
Then his expression changed.
"Sir."
"What?"
"Your brother just issued a companywide emergency announcement."
Alexander stared at him.
Benjamin turned the screen.
The message was short.
A photograph accompanied it.
Alexander's face.
And beneath it:
ALEXANDER MORETTI IS EXPERIENCING A SEVERE PSYCHIATRIC CRISIS.
DO NOT ASSIST HIM.
CONTACT CORPORATE SECURITY IMMEDIATELY.
Alexander slowly looked down at the little girl asleep against Elena's shoulder.
His wife was alive.
His daughter had been stolen from him.
And the brother he had trusted with everything had just declared him a danger to himself and others.
Then Elena whispered something that made his blood run cold.
"Mr. Moretti."
He turned.
Her face was pale.
"There's something Isabella told me."
"What?"
Elena glanced toward Benjamin.
"She said Vincent wasn't the person we should be most afraid of."
Alexander felt the car grow suddenly smaller.
"Who is?"
May you like
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"Your father."
