Chapter 5 - The Dollhouse Floor
The crash came from Lucy’s playroom.
Gabriel reached the doorway and found a window shattered inward.
Nora stood against the wall, one arm around Lucy.
Marco swept the room.
“No one inside.”
Gabriel went straight to his daughter.
“You okay?”
Lucy nodded, wide-eyed.
A brick lay on the carpet beneath the broken window.
Wrapped around it was a note.
Marco picked it up with gloved fingers.
Three words.
WHERE IS IT?
Gabriel looked at Lucy.
She stared at the note.
Then at the dollhouse in the corner.
He saw it.
The smallest change in her expression.
“Lucy?”
She did not answer.
Gabriel crouched.
“Do you know what they mean?”
Her breathing quickened.
Nora rubbed her shoulder.
“It’s all right, sweetheart.”
Lucy pointed at the dollhouse.
“The tablet.”
Gabriel looked at Marco.
“What tablet?”
“My old one.”
They crossed the room.
The dollhouse had belonged to Emily. It was almost four feet tall, handmade, painted pale yellow with tiny white shutters.
Lucy reached toward it, then stopped because of the crutches.
“Under the kitchen.”
Gabriel knelt and lifted the miniature floor panel.
A child-sized tablet was wrapped in a dish towel.
Lucy looked ashamed.
“I hid it.”
“Why?”
“Serena told me she threw it away.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“How did you get it?”
“I found it in her closet after I broke my leg.”
Marco powered it on.
The battery was nearly dead.
Most of the device contained games, drawings, photographs, and school projects.
Then Lucy opened an app.
“I record songs.”
There were dozens of audio files.
Silly songs.
A piano lesson.
Lucy talking to herself while drawing.
Then one file dated the day she broke her leg.
Twenty-three minutes long.
Gabriel pressed play.
At first there was only fabric movement.
Then voices.
Serena.
Pike.
They were muffled, but clear enough.
“He changed the Thursday route.”
“Then tell Vito.”
“I already did.”
“What about the girl?”
“She didn’t hear enough.”
“She saw the phone.”
A pause.
Then Serena’s voice.
“I’ll handle Lucy.”
Gabriel stopped the recording.
The room seemed smaller.
Marco spoke quietly.
“This is evidence.”
Gabriel looked at Lucy.
She had gone pale.
“Did you know it recorded that?”
She shook her head.
“I forgot it was on.”
Gabriel handed the tablet to Marco.
“Make copies. Give the original to investigators.”
Marco nodded.
Lucy grabbed Gabriel’s sleeve.
“Will Serena know?”
“Eventually.”
“Then she’ll be mad.”
Gabriel sat beside her on the carpet.
“She already chose to be angry. That is not your job to fix.”
Lucy leaned against him.
For the first time since the lawn, she did not look toward the door before doing it.
The investigation changed after the recording.
Pike’s role could no longer be explained as poor judgment.
Serena’s actions could no longer be dismissed as a stressed stepparent who had lost control.
There was planning.
Secrecy.
Money.
And fear.
Gabriel’s attorneys wanted to manage everything.
Public statements.
Private agreements.
Quiet settlements.
He refused.
“No settlement involving Lucy.”
His lawyer, Miriam Hale, removed her glasses.
“You understand that public proceedings may expose your household.”
“Yes.”
“And your business.”
Gabriel paused.
“Yes.”
Miriam studied him.
“You’re willing to accept that?”
“My daughter spent a week believing the truth would cost her family.”
He looked through the library window at Lucy doing physical therapy exercises with Dr. Chen’s assistant.
“She needs to see the truth cost the people who lied.”
Miriam nodded slowly.
“That may cost you too.”
“I know.”
It did.
Within days, investigators began asking questions far beyond Serena and Pike.
Old contracts.
Unreported partnerships.
Companies Gabriel had once considered untouchable.
Marco warned him.
“If this opens everything, we may lose half the network.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Then we lose it.”
Marco’s brows lifted.
“That easy?”
“No.”
Gabriel turned toward the window.
“That necessary.”
The Russo empire had been built long before Lucy was born.
His father had called it protection.
His uncle called it tradition.
Gabriel had spent most of his adult life calling it business.
But a business that required his daughter to know the sound of men lowering their voices around closed doors was not protection.
That evening, he found Lucy in the sunroom.
She was staring at the lawn.
The leash had been removed as evidence, but the grass still showed a faint flattened path.
“You want the curtains closed?” he asked.
“No.”
He sat beside her.
“I hate that grass.”
“We can replace it.”
She looked at him.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
“That’s silly.”
“I have money.”
She smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
“Did Serena ever love me?”
Gabriel’s answer caught in his throat.
He could have lied.
Children heard enough lies disguised as kindness.
“I don’t know.”
Lucy nodded.
“Did she love you?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Do you still love her?”
Gabriel thought about Serena’s laughter at dinner, the way she had once held his hand at Emily’s grave, the months he had believed she was helping his daughter heal.
“I loved who I thought she was.”
Lucy absorbed that.
“Is that different?”
“Yes.”
She looked back at the lawn.
“I miss who I thought she was too.”
Gabriel reached for her hand.
“So do I.”
His phone rang.
Marco.
“We found Pike’s vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned outside Joliet.”
“Serena?”
“No sign.”
“Pike?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Lucy.
He did not want the next part of his life to happen in rooms she could overhear.
“I’ll call you back.”
Marco stopped him.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“There was blood in the car.”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“How much?”
“Not much.”
“Whose?”
“Testing now.”
Gabriel ended the call.
Lucy was watching him.
“Bad?”
He sat back down.
“Complicated.”
She sighed.
“Adults say that when it’s bad.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
Then the front gate alarm sounded.
A car had arrived.
Not Serena.
Not Pike.
A woman stepped out carrying a manila envelope.
She told security her name was Claire Pike.
Anthony Pike’s wife.
And she wanted to tell Gabriel where her husband was.
Before leaving the playroom, Gabriel picked up the brick from the carpet and stared at the shattered window.
Lucy watched him.
“Are you mad?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
The question was so immediate that he turned.
“No.”
She nodded, but her shoulders remained tight.
Gabriel placed the brick back inside the evidence bag.
“When I’m angry, you never have to guess whether it’s your fault. I will tell you what I’m angry about.”
Lucy studied him.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
May you like
It sounded like a small thing.
To Lucy, it clearly was not.
