Chapter 4 - The Girl Nobody Was Supposed to Find
Clara nearly fell running up the staircase.
Vincent caught her arm.
“Where?”
“I don't know!”
“Why would Lily be here?”
“She wouldn't!”
Another shout came from the north corridor.
Vincent's guards rushed past.
Dominic barked orders into his radio.
“Seal the gates! Nobody fires unless they have a clean target!”
Clara tore free from Vincent and ran.
They found the girl inside the music room.
Six years old.
Dark hair.
Purple coat.
White sneakers soaked from rain.
A terrified housekeeper stood beside her.
Lily Hayes clutched a stuffed rabbit with one hand and a small backpack with the other.
Clara dropped to her knees.
“Lily!”
The girl ran into her arms.
“Mommy.”
Clara pressed both hands against Lily's face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“How did you get here?”
“A man picked me up.”
Vincent's expression darkened.
“What man?”
Lily looked at him and moved closer to her mother.
Clara softened her voice.
“Baby, tell me.”
“He said Aunt Rachel was sick.”
Clara closed her eyes.
“Did you know him?”
“No.”
“How did you get inside?”
“He left me by the gate.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
Their security logs should have caught that.
Vincent turned toward the housekeeper.
“Who brought her in?”
“She was outside the south service entrance, sir. Crying.”
“You didn't call security?”
“I did.”
“Who responded?”
The woman hesitated.
“Mr. Anthony.”
Vincent became perfectly still.
“Where is he?”
Nobody answered.
Dominic reached for his radio.
Before he could speak, Matteo appeared at the end of the hallway.
One of the guards pushed his wheelchair.
“Lily?”
Clara turned.
Matteo's face had changed completely.
He knew her.
Lily stared.
“Matteo!”
She ran to him.
Clara looked between them.
Vincent did the same.
“How do you know each other?”
Matteo glanced at Clara.
Then Lily.
“Video calls.”
Clara looked stunned.
“What video calls?”
Lily answered.
“Matteo calls me.”
Vincent slowly turned toward his son.
“You've been calling her?”
Matteo looked guilty.
“On Clara's tablet.”
Clara's mouth opened.
“You knew my password?”
“You use Lily's birthday.”
Despite everything, Vincent almost smiled.
Clara looked personally betrayed.
“That is not the point.”
Matteo reached for Lily's hand.
And Vincent saw something he had not seen since before the bombing.
His son looked alive.
Not recovered.
Not healed.
Alive.
Lily showed Matteo her rabbit.
Matteo told her the rabbit looked stupid.
Lily told him his hair looked stupid.
The guard behind the wheelchair coughed to hide laughter.
Clara closed her eyes briefly.
Children.
Even inside war, children could somehow manufacture normal.
Vincent's phone rang.
Anthony.
Everyone looked at it.
Vincent answered.
“Where are you?”
His brother sounded confused.
“Driving to your house.”
“You're already here.”
Silence.
“What?”
“You found Lily Hayes at my gate.”
Another silence.
Longer.
“Vincent, I haven't been there today.”
Clara watched his face.
Vincent said, “Where are you?”
“Mass Pike. Twenty minutes out.”
“Turn around.”
“What happened?”
“Turn around.”
Vincent ended the call.
Dominic said, “Could be lying.”
“Check road cameras.”
Dominic moved away.
Clara stood.
“Someone wanted us to think Anthony brought Lily here.”
Vincent nodded.
“Same as Bellini's badge.”
“They're framing people.”
“One at a time.”
“For what?”
Vincent looked toward Matteo and Lily.
“To make me destroy my own house.”
The answer settled heavily.
Their enemy did not merely want Vincent dead.
They wanted him isolated first.
Suspicious.
Violent.
Uncertain.
Exactly what was happening.
Ten minutes later Dominic returned.
“Anthony's telling the truth. Toll cameras have his car near Framingham.”
Vincent exhaled.
“Then someone used his credentials.”
“Or cloned them.”
“Who can do that?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Three people.”
“Names.”
“Me. You.”
“And?”
Dominic's face tightened.
“Isabella.”
Vincent stared.
“She had administrator access?”
“You insisted after Matteo was born.”
He remembered.
Isabella had mocked him for needing twenty-seven passwords.
She wanted emergency access to every system in the house.
After her death, Vincent assumed her accounts had been deactivated.
“Were they?”
Dominic didn't answer fast enough.
Vincent swore.
“Check.”
Minutes later they discovered Isabella's administrator profile was still active.
Worse, it had been accessed three times in the previous month.
From inside the estate.
Clara looked at Vincent.
“Someone has been using your dead wife's account.”
The sentence chilled the room.
“Trace the device.”
Dominic worked from his tablet.
“Guest network.”
“Which room?”
“It's bouncing.”
“How?”
“Signal repeaters.”
Vincent looked around.
Someone had prepared for this.
Weeks.
Maybe months.
Suddenly Lily touched Clara's sleeve.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“The man gave me something.”
Everyone stopped.
Lily opened her backpack.
Inside was a yellow envelope.
Clara reached for it.
Vincent caught her wrist.
“Don't.”
He took gloves from a security officer.
Opened the envelope carefully.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Vincent recognized the handwriting.
Isabella's.
His dead wife.
The message contained only one sentence.
VINCENT, IF MATTEO SURVIVED, DON'T TRUST THE STORY THEY TOLD YOU ABOUT THE BOMB.
Vincent read it twice.
Then a third time.
Clara whispered, “Is it hers?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Lily said, “The man told me to give it to the scary man.”
Vincent looked down.
“The scary man?”
She nodded solemnly.
“You.”
Even Dominic almost laughed.
Vincent ignored it.
“What did the man look like?”
“He had a hat.”
“What kind?”
“Baseball.”
“Hair?”
“I couldn't see.”
“Voice?”
“Old.”
“How old?”
Lily thought carefully.
“Older than Mommy.”
Clara looked offended.
Vincent continued.
“Did he say anything else?”
Lily nodded.
“He said the lady in the picture was brave.”
“What picture?”
Lily reached inside her coat.
She pulled out a photograph.
Isabella.
Daniel Hayes.
Carlo Bellini.
And another man.
They stood together outside a warehouse.
Vincent knew the fourth person.
Dominic.
Clara stared at the photograph.
Vincent turned toward his security chief.
“Explain.”
Dominic looked at the image.
His face changed.
Not guilt.
Grief.
“Isabella found us.”
“Found you doing what?”
“Trying to prove who was stealing from you.”
Vincent's voice dropped.
“You knew.”
Dominic nodded.
Clara stepped forward.
“You knew Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
Clara slapped him.
Hard.
Nobody moved.
Dominic accepted it.
Clara's hand trembled.
“You let me think my husband died because nobody believed him.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I tried to get him out.”
“Not hard enough.”
“No.”
The word carried no defense.
Vincent said, “Who was stealing?”
Dominic looked toward Matteo.
“Not here.”
“Who?”
Dominic's eyes met Vincent's.
“Your father.”
The room went silent.
Vincent almost laughed.
“My father died six years ago.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
Vincent stared.
“What did you say?”
Dominic spoke slowly.
“Salvatore Rossi never died.”
Vincent felt the entire world tilt.
He had stood beside his father's coffin.
He had watched it lowered into the ground.
Dominic continued.
“The body in that coffin wasn't his.”
Vincent reached for the edge of a table.
Clara looked equally stunned.
“Why fake his death?”
Dominic answered.
“Because he stole nearly seventy million dollars from the Rossi organization and knew sooner or later you'd find out.”
Vincent's face hardened.
“And Isabella?”
“She found him.”
“Where?”
“Three weeks before the bombing.”
The note in Vincent's hand suddenly felt heavier.
Dominic continued.
“She planned to expose everything.”
Vincent whispered,
“So my father killed my wife.”
“I don't know.”
“Daniel?”
“I don't know.”
“You seem to know every other secret.”
Dominic's voice broke for the first time.
“Because I failed them.”
Vincent stared at him.
Then Matteo spoke from across the room.
“Grandpa.”
Everyone turned.
Matteo looked terrified.
Vincent went to him.
“What?”
“The man at the car.”
His small hand shook.
“The ring.”
Vincent crouched.
“What about it?”
Matteo swallowed.
“It wasn't Uncle Tony's.”
He looked toward the photograph.
May you like
Then whispered,
“It was Grandpa's.”
