Chapter 8 - THE CHILD WHO REMEMBERED THE FIRE|
Evelyn had one reason for returning to the Ferrara mansion.
Her younger sister, Lily Hayes, was coming home from boarding school that weekend, and Evelyn refused to let the girl discover that her family had collapsed through rumors or a phone call from someone who hated them.
Roman arranged for Lily to meet them at a quiet café near the hospital.
The seventeen-year-old arrived carrying a backpack and wearing a denim jacket that had clearly survived several winters. She rushed toward Evelyn, then stopped when she saw the medical equipment attached to her sister's bag.
“What's happening?”
Evelyn smiled weakly.
“I'm getting treatment.”
“You said you were fine.”
“I was trying not to worry you.”
Lily's eyes filled.
“You always do that. You tell everyone you're fine, and then I find out you've been sleeping in hospital waiting rooms.”
Roman stood several feet away, allowing the sisters to speak privately.
Lily noticed him.
Her expression hardened.
“You're the reason she almost died.”
Roman didn't defend himself.
“Yes,” he said.
Evelyn looked at him in surprise.
Lily folded her arms.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I don't want to make the same mistake again.”
The girl studied him for several seconds before turning back to Evelyn.
“I need to tell you something about Dad.”
Evelyn's smile faded.
“What about him?”
“The week before the accident, he asked me to memorize a phone number. He said if anything happened, I should call it and ask for a man named Paul.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Paul Hensley?”
Lily nodded.
“I didn't know his last name. Dad said he worked with the fire department, and he was helping him investigate something dangerous.”
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“Because Dad made me promise not to. And after he died, I was afraid.”
She reached into her backpack and removed a folded sheet of paper.
The number was written in Thomas's handwriting.
Roman handed it to Dante, who immediately began checking the records.
Lily looked at Evelyn.
“There's something else. Dad used to take me to the workshop on Sundays. One day, he hid me in the storage room because two men came looking for him. I heard them arguing.”
“What did they say?” Evelyn asked.
Lily swallowed.
“One man said the old man was making things difficult. The other said the girl had already seen too much.”
Evelyn went pale.
“What girl?”
“I don't know. They never said a name.”
Roman crouched in front of Lily so that he was no longer towering over her.
“Did you recognize either voice?”
She hesitated.
“One of them sounded like Mr. Rossi.”
Vanessa's father had died shortly after the fire, officially from a heart attack. His name appeared repeatedly in the financial records.
Roman looked at Dante.
“Find every surviving associate of Anthony Rossi.”
Dante nodded.
Lily reached into her backpack again.
“I also kept something Dad gave me.”
She produced a small cassette tape in a plastic case.
“He said it was a recording of a meeting. He told me never to play it unless Evelyn was in danger.”
Roman looked at the cassette.
“Do you have a player?”
“Dad kept one in the workshop.”
They returned to the building with a portable cassette player Dante found in a storage cabinet. Evelyn sat on an old wooden chair while Roman pressed the play button.
Static filled the room.
Then a man's voice spoke.
“Once the fire starts, the ventilation failure will look like an accident. No one will question the invoices.”
Another voice answered.
“And Ferrara?”
“He'll be found. The girl will take the blame if anything goes wrong.”
Roman's face darkened.
The second voice was unmistakable.
Claudia.
Lily covered her mouth.
Evelyn gripped the chair.
The recording continued.
“Make sure Hayes understands the consequences,” Claudia said. “If he talks, neither he nor his daughters will be safe.”
The tape clicked off.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Evelyn began to cry.
Not because she had discovered that Claudia had threatened her family. She had suspected that for years.
She cried because her father had known how dangerous the truth was and had still tried to protect everyone else.
Roman knelt beside her.
“I am so sorry.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Don't apologize because you feel bad.”
“I apologize because I helped them make you suffer.”
She looked at him through her tears.
“Then help me make sure nobody else does.”
May you like
Roman took her hand.
For the first time since the night of the fire, she did not pull away.
