Chapter 11 - THE CHILD HE HAD TRIED TO ERASE|
Samantha recognized the hospital corridor before she recognized herself in the photograph.
Six years earlier, she had been exhausted, frightened, and alone. Tyler had been born three weeks early after a difficult delivery. The doctors had assured her he was healthy, but the first night had been a blur of blood tests, unfamiliar faces, and questions she had been too tired to understand.
She remembered a man visiting her room the following afternoon.
He had introduced himself as a relative of Nico's.
He had worn a dark suit, carried a leather folder, and spoken with the quiet confidence of someone accustomed to being obeyed.
Now she knew his name.
Salvatore Richetti.
“He told me Nico had died,” Samantha whispered.
Franco stood opposite her, his face rigid.
“When was this?”
“The day after Tyler was born. Salvatore said Nico had been killed in a car accident and that his family wanted to take care of the baby.”
Franco stared at the photograph.
“My uncle told me you had left New York before the baby was born.”
“He lied to both of us.”
Samantha remembered the envelope Salvatore had placed on her hospital tray. He had offered her money, an apartment, and a guarantee that she would never have to work another day in her life.
All she had needed to do was sign a document giving the Richetti family temporary guardianship of Tyler.
She had refused.
“I told him that if Nico was dead, I would raise my son myself. Salvatore said I was too young to understand the family I'd just become connected to.”
“What did he do?”
“He smiled. He said I would change my mind when I understood how dangerous your family was.”
Franco lowered his head.
“That sounds like him.”
She turned toward him.
“Did he know where I lived?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Tyler was yours?”
“Yes.”
“Then you need to stop telling me you didn't know. You didn't know the details. But your family had enough information to find me, watch me, and threaten me, and nobody thought I deserved to know why.”
Franco accepted the accusation without defending himself.
“You're right.”
A sharp knock interrupted them.
Luca entered, carrying a second file.
“Salvatore has left the city. His driver says he's heading toward Connecticut, but the car has disappeared from the highway cameras.”
“Did you search his house?” Franco asked.
“There's nothing there. He cleared his office two days ago.”
Franco opened the new file. Inside were transfers from Salvatore to a company controlled by Brandon Wells. The payments began six years earlier and continued for nearly a year after Tyler's birth.
Samantha pointed to one line.
“What's this?”
Luca leaned closer.
“A private security arrangement.”
“For whom?”
He checked the entry.
“Samantha Cooper. And an unnamed minor.”
Her stomach twisted.
“So Salvatore paid people to watch us.”
“Apparently.”
Franco closed the file.
“Find him.”
Luca hesitated.
“Boss, if he ran, he probably expects you to come after him. Wells may be waiting for that.”
“Then we'll disappoint him.”
Samantha took the file from the desk.
“No. We'll make him explain.”
Both men turned toward her.
She could feel her hands shaking, but she refused to hide them.
“I've spent six years wondering why Nico disappeared. I spent six more wondering whether I could keep my child fed, safe, and happy without help. If your uncle has information about Tyler, I want to hear it from his mouth. I'm not going to stand in another room while men decide which truth I'm allowed to know.”
Franco studied her for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
“We'll find him together.”
That evening, Salvatore's private number appeared on Franco's phone.
Franco answered on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere you can't reach me.”
“Why did you visit Samantha in the hospital?”
A sigh.
“Because your father wanted the child removed from the succession.”
Franco went completely still.
“My father was dead by then.”
“Your father had been dead for eleven months,” Salvatore replied. “And his instructions had been prepared long before that.”
Samantha leaned toward the phone.
“Why did you threaten me?”
“I didn't want the boy harmed.”
“You wrote that he had to disappear.”
“From the records. From the people who wanted to use him.”
“You expected me to believe that?”
“No,” Salvatore said. “I expected you to hate me. It was preferable to having you dead.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, the room remained silent.
Then Luca examined the call record.
“He's using a disposable phone, but we can trace the tower.”
Franco was already reaching for his coat.
Samantha stopped him.
“Don't rush into another trap.”
He looked at her.
She held his gaze.
“If Tyler has taught us anything, it's that being frightened doesn't mean you have to act without thinking.”
For the first time that night, Franco sat back down.
Together, they waited for the trace.
At 11:16 p.m., Luca received a location.
An abandoned private airfield outside Hartford.
Franco stared at the map.
Then he noticed the second alert beneath it.
A message from an unknown number.
The uncle is not your immediate problem. Look at the security roster for tomorrow.
Luca opened the roster.
One name had been added that afternoon.
The man assigned to escort Tyler to his specialist appointment.
May you like
He had been employed by Franco's family for eleven years.
And he had just requested a transfer to Brandon Wells's personal security team.
