Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Disappeared
Leo's temperature was 103.4 degrees.
Dr. Marino met us at a private clinic I owned through three holding companies and one completely legal medical partnership.
The baby had a respiratory infection.
Treatable.
Not immediately dangerous.
But another night outside in September rain might have changed that.
Emma refused to leave his side.
When a nurse tried to take Leo for a chest examination, she followed so close that she nearly stepped on the woman's shoes.
“Emma,” I said.
She ignored me.
The nurse smiled gently.
“You can come.”
Only then did Emma breathe.
I watched the children disappear through the examination-room door.
Dominic stood beside me.
Tall.
Gray suit.
Military posture.
He'd been running my personal security for twelve years.
Unlike Frank, Dominic had never pretended we were brothers.
That may have been why I trusted him.
“What did Frank say?” I asked.
“Nothing useful.”
“He deny knowing Sarah Carter?”
“He denies ever meeting her.”
“He's lying.”
“You know that?”
“The girl does.”
Dominic frowned.
“Kids make mistakes.”
“Not that kind.”
I handed him my phone.
“Sarah Carter. Moretti Children's Foundation. Everything.”
He began searching internal files.
I stared through the clinic window.
Emma sat beside Leo's examination table.
Her feet didn't touch the floor.
“Why was an accounting manager at one of my charities living in a motel?”
Dominic's fingers stopped.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward me.
Sarah had been terminated eleven days earlier.
Cause listed: financial misconduct.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
Dominic looked closer.
The signature was perfect.
Too perfect.
“Who authorized the termination?”
“According to this, you.”
“I didn't.”
The next document was worse.
An internal review claimed Sarah had transferred $287,000 from foundation accounts.
“She stole?”
“No.”
I looked at the date.
The report had been created three days after Sarah disappeared from work.
Someone wasn't investigating her.
They were building a story around her absence.
“Who handled the review?”
Dominic scrolled.
“Frank.”
There it was.
A betrayal becoming architecture.
Not one act.
A system.
“Where's Frank?”
“Moretti House.”
“Keep him there.”
“Nicholas, if he really did this—”
“He doesn't know what we know yet.”
Dominic understood.
“Good.”
“Find Sarah.”
“I'll put everyone on it.”
“No police yet.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“She has two children, one of them sick, and she disappeared after telling her daughter to find me. If whoever took her learns the girl reached me, Sarah becomes leverage.”
Dominic nodded.
“Quiet search.”
“Very.”
Dr. Marino returned.
“Leo will be fine.”
I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath.
“He needs antibiotics, fluids, warmth, and actual sleep.”
Emma appeared behind him.
“What does that cost?”
The doctor glanced at me.
“Nothing.”
Emma frowned.
“Doctors aren't free.”
“This one is.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
She didn't like that answer.
Children who grow up fast don't trust miracles.
“What do you want?”
I stared at her.
“From you?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing.”
“People always want something.”
That sounded learned.
Not imagined.
I crouched beside her.
“Then here's what I want. I want you to let the doctor make your brother better.”
She looked skeptical.
“And then?”
“You eat.”
“We ate.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
“A muffin.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
I stood.
“Dominic.”
“I heard.”
Twenty minutes later, someone brought sandwiches, soup, juice, fruit, milk, and enough food to feed twelve adults.
Emma looked horrified.
“I can't pay for that.”
“I can.”
“That doesn't mean you should.”
“I'm beginning to understand why you and I are going to argue.”
Her mouth almost moved into a smile.
Almost.
She ate half a turkey sandwich.
Then wrapped the other half in a napkin.
“For later?”
She nodded.
I didn't tell her there would always be later from now on.
Promises to frightened children should only be made when you control the outcome.
I wasn't sure I controlled anything anymore.
Dominic returned an hour later.
“We found the motel.”
“And?”
“Sarah checked in with both children six nights ago under the name Sara Collins.”
“One letter difference.”
“She paid cash.”
“Cameras?”
“Working on it.”
“Apartment?”
“Barlow Street is empty.”
“Evicted?”
“No.”
He lowered his voice.
“The lease was terminated by the landlord after a buyout.”
“Who paid?”
“Moretti Urban Development.”
My company.
I looked at him.
“I never authorized that either.”
The pattern was becoming unbearable.
Someone had been using my businesses, my signatures, my authority.
The Moretti name was being used to crush a woman I'd never met.
And she'd blamed me.
I understood why.
If someone sent men with my company's paperwork, my driver's face, and my name on official letters, why wouldn't she?
Emma watched us.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You made the angry face.”
“What angry face?”
“The one where your eyebrows go like this.”
She demonstrated.
Dominic looked away to hide a smile.
“Your mother worked for my foundation.”
“I know.”
“Did she ever talk about her job?”
“She said numbers don't lie.”
“And people?”
“All the time.”
Definitely her mother's daughter.
“Did she tell you what she found?”
Emma looked toward Leo.
Then back at me.
“She told me never to talk about the blue folder.”
Dominic and I exchanged a glance.
“What blue folder?”
She immediately regretted saying it.
“I wasn't supposed to tell.”
“Emma.”
“Mom said only if she didn't come back.”
“She didn't.”
Her eyes filled.
I softened my voice.
“I'll bring her back if I can.”
“If you can?”
I wouldn't lie to her.
“Yes.”
She studied my face.
Then reached into the bottom of the candy box.
Beneath the chocolate bars was a piece of cardboard.
She lifted it.
A small brass key had been taped underneath.
A white paper tag was attached.
417.
My heartbeat changed.
“What does it open?”
“I don't know.”
“Did your mother give it to you?”
Emma nodded.
“She said if she was gone more than two days, I should find you.”
“But you said she told you I was the reason you were in danger.”
“She did.”
“Then why find me?”
Emma's answer came immediately.
“Because she said the only person who could stop Nicholas Moretti…”
She paused.
“…was Nicholas Moretti.”
Dominic let out a slow breath.
I looked at the key.
417.
Somewhere in Boston, something had been waiting for me.
Possibly evidence.
Possibly a trap.
Probably both.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then breathing.
Male.
Slow.
“You found the children.”
I recognized the voice.
Not Frank.
Someone else.
“Who is this?”
“You should have gone to your meeting, Nicholas.”
My blood cooled.
“Where is Sarah?”
A quiet laugh.
“You still think this is about one accountant?”
The call ended.
Dominic was already tracing it.
I looked at Emma.
She had heard enough to know something was wrong.
“Is that the bad man?”
“I don't know.”
She hugged the candy box to her chest.
Then Leo began crying from the next room.
Emma ran to him.
Dominic looked at me.
“What now?”
I took the brass key.
“Find out what room 417 belongs to.”
He nodded.
I stopped him.
“And Dominic?”
“Yes?”
“For the first time in twenty-three years, assume my name doesn't mean I'm in control.”
He understood exactly what I meant.
Somebody had built an operation inside my world.
They had my signatures.
My companies.
My driver.
They had known my schedule.
And now they knew I'd found the children.
May you like
The question wasn't whether I'd been betrayed.
The question was how many people I trusted were involved.
