Chapter 7 - The Last Passenger
Federal agents surrounded Riverside Cold Storage before Dominic was allowed within three blocks.
He hated every second.
Anna hated it more.
They sat inside an unmarked SUV while winter sunlight crawled across the dashboard.
Michael sat in the back wearing a cap low over his face.
Twenty minutes passed.
Anna stared at her hands.
“What if he doesn’t remember me?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I’ve imagined finding Noah a thousand times,” she said. “Sometimes I hit him. Sometimes I hug him. I never imagined he might look at me like a stranger.”
Michael leaned forward.
“He drew your name.”
“Someone could have told him.”
“He kept the drawing.”
Anna looked away.
Dominic said quietly, “Whatever he remembers today is not a measurement of what you were to him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I forgot things about Michael while he was gone. His laugh. The stupid song he whistled. The exact way he said my name when he wanted money.”
Michael smiled faintly.
“Forgetting details didn’t mean I loved him less,” Dominic said.
Then Evelyn’s voice crackled through the radio.
“We have movement.”
Everyone went still.
“Two suspects exiting north. One in custody. Teams entering office area.”
Anna stopped breathing.
A minute passed.
Then another.
“Victim located. Adult male. Conscious.”
Anna grabbed the door handle.
Dominic caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“That’s my husband.”
“I know.”
“Let go.”
“When they clear it.”
Seconds later:
“Anna Carter may approach with an agent.”
Dominic released her.
She ran.
The warehouse smelled of cold metal and old cardboard.
An agent guided her into a small office.
Noah sat on a folding chair with a blanket around his shoulders.
For one suspended second, Anna did not know him.
He had lost weight.
There were lines around his eyes.
His hair was longer and threaded with gray.
Then he looked up.
His eyes were exactly the same.
Anna stopped.
“Noah.”
His face changed.
Not recognition at first.
Pain.
Confusion.
Then his mouth opened.
“Ana?”
He had always dropped one n when teasing her.
Anna crossed the room.
She fell to her knees and put both hands around his face.
“Noah.”
His fingers touched her wrist.
“I knew your voice,” he whispered. “I couldn’t remember your face every day. But I knew your voice.”
Anna cried against his chest.
He held her carefully, as if learning the shape of home again.
Dominic stopped outside the doorway.
Michael stood beside him.
Neither brother entered.
After several minutes, Noah saw Michael.
“You.”
Michael swallowed.
“Hey.”
Noah stood too fast.
Anna caught him.
“You got me into this,” Noah said.
Michael nodded.
“I did.”
“You said we could fix it.”
“I was wrong.”
Then Noah saw Dominic.
Fear crossed his face.
“Why is he here?”
Anna stood between them without thinking.
Dominic noticed.
So did Noah.
“Because Lily borrowed him,” Anna said.
Noah blinked.
“What?”
“Our daughter walked up to Dominic Moretti at a charity gala and asked if she could borrow him because I needed somebody scary.”
Noah stared.
Then he started laughing.
The laugh broke into tears.
“That sounds like her.”
“You remember Lily?”
“Pieces.”
Anna’s face crumpled.
“Red rain boots. She hated peas. She used to sleep with both hands over her ears.”
“She still hates peas.”
Noah closed his eyes.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s safe.”
“Can I see her?”
“As soon as the doctors say you can.”
Evelyn entered.
Victor had escaped.
But Noah remembered something important.
Victor’s hatred had never been only about money.
Twenty-five years earlier, Victor’s father had died in a warehouse fire while working for Dominic’s father.
Victor believed the elder Moretti had ordered the doors locked.
Dominic did not know if the story was true.
“If it is,” Dominic said, “my father was wrong.”
Noah continued.
Victor had spent years making himself necessary to the Moretti family.
He wanted them to trust him before he destroyed them.
He also kept a hidden original server containing unedited financial logs.
It was the one system capable of proving which transactions were real and which had been fabricated.
“Where?” Evelyn asked.
Noah struggled for the memory.
Then looked up.
“The Bellamy ballroom.”
Dominic frowned.
Noah nodded.
“Behind the old musicians’ gallery.”
Evelyn reached for her phone.
Noah stopped her.
“He’ll know if anyone opens it.”
“Silent alarm?”
“Yes.”
Michael frowned.
“Why build that?”
Dominic understood.
“He wants us to find it.”
Noah looked at him.
“Yes.”
The next evening, Bellamy was holding an emergency press conference.
Reporters.
Board members.
Donors.
City officials.
All in one room.
Victor had built himself a stage.
Dominic spoke quietly.
“He’s going to destroy me in the same room where Lily found me.”
Noah shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
He looked at Anna.
“He’s going to make you prove him right.”
