Chapter 4 - Room 317
Luca was sitting upright when Tessa returned.
Against medical advice.
Naturally.
A bandage covered part of his abdomen. His face remained pale, but the weakness in his eyes had changed into anger.
Tessa walked into the room.
“You’re supposed to be resting.”
“I was shot at.”
“And apparently that cured you?”
The corner of Marco’s mouth moved.
Luca looked at Tessa.
“You found Evelyn?”
“She’s alive.”
Relief crossed his face.
That surprised her.
“You care about my mother?”
“She fed me dinner every Friday for two years.”
Tessa stared.
Memories returned in fragments.
A teenage Luca sitting at their table.
Her father telling her not to bother him while he studied blueprints.
Her mother putting extra pasta on Luca’s plate.
“You were at our house.”
“Frequently.”
“Why don’t I remember?”
“You were seven.”
“Eight when Dad died.”
Luca looked away.
“You were sent to your aunt in Virginia for months afterward.”
Tessa remembered that.
Her mother had said the house required repairs.
Apparently the entire truth required them too.
She held up Key 317.
Luca’s expression changed.
“You’ve seen it?”
“Once.”
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“Yes.”
His answer came without defensiveness.
Tessa believed him.
That irritated her.
Marco explained what Daniel’s tape had said.
Luca listened silently.
When Marco mentioned Antonio, Luca showed no surprise.
But when he heard Daniel’s warning about another man, Luca’s jaw tightened.
“You know who he meant,” Tessa said.
“I have an idea.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Stephen Harland.”
Tessa frowned.
The name was familiar.
Then she remembered.
Chief medical officer.
The physician currently overseeing several administrative aspects of Luca’s case.
“You think a hospital executive has been trying to kill you for twenty-five years?”
“No.”
Luca’s voice went low.
“I think his father was.”
Tessa stared.
“Harland’s father worked for the Vesceris?”
“He was our family doctor.”
The phrase made Tessa uncomfortable.
Family.
Again.
Luca continued.
“My father discovered Dr. Harland Senior falsified death certificates, medical records, and injury reports for Antonio. He was going to expose both men.”
“And the dock fire happened first.”
“Yes.”
Tessa looked toward the hallway.
“If Stephen inherited his father’s secrets…”
“He may have inherited his debts too.”
Room 317 turned out to be less dramatic than expected.
It was an abandoned consultation room in the oldest wing of the hospital.
Renovations had sealed it behind temporary walls years earlier.
Tessa knew because she had once worked that floor.
At 2:40 a.m., she, Luca, Marco, and two security men entered through a maintenance corridor.
Luca should not have been walking.
Tessa told him so repeatedly.
“You could reopen your surgical wound.”
“I’ll try not to be inconvenient.”
“You’re already inconvenient.”
He gave her a tired smile.
For the first time, she saw the boy from the photograph inside the feared man.
Room 317 smelled like dust.
Old cabinets lined one wall.
Key 317 fit none of them.
Then Tessa noticed an antique medication refrigerator embedded beneath the counter.
Its locking plate had been painted over.
She scraped it with a metal instrument.
A small keyhole appeared.
Daniel’s key fit.
Inside sat a rusted metal container.
Marco opened it.
No ledger.
Only another envelope.
Luca swore.
Tessa read the note.
If this box has been opened, the hospital is compromised. Do not look for the ledger here. Look for the patient who never existed.
Marco frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Luca sank into an old chair.
Tessa immediately checked his pulse.
“I told you this was too much.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re sweating through your shirt.”
“That’s because you keep yelling at me.”
She almost laughed.
Almost.
Then she noticed Luca’s hand.
It was trembling.
Not from fear.
From exhaustion.
Tessa crouched.
“Luca.”
He looked at her.
“You do not have to prove anything in this room.”
Something in his expression softened.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
For several seconds neither spoke.
Marco discreetly turned toward the cabinets.
Luca lowered his voice.
“I remember the night Daniel died.”
Tessa froze.
“He called me.”
“What did he say?”
“He said if anything happened to him, I had to make sure you and Evelyn disappeared.”
Tessa swallowed.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“My aunt in Virginia.”
“I arranged it.”
“You were seventeen.”
“Eighteen.”
“That’s not better.”
Luca smiled faintly.
“I felt older.”
Tessa’s anger loosened.
“Why didn’t you ever contact us?”
“Because somebody followed me to your mother’s house after the funeral.”
Her skin went cold.
“I stayed away because I thought distance was protection.”
“And now?”
His gaze met hers.
“Now I think distance only made you easier to reach.”
A sound came from the corridor.
Marco raised his weapon.
The lights died.
Darkness swallowed Room 317.
Tessa heard Luca shift.
“Don’t move.”
“Tessa—”
“That was directed at you.”
A gunshot cracked outside.
Someone shouted.
Marco returned fire.
Tessa grabbed Luca and pushed him behind the heavy metal cabinet.
His breath caught.
Pain.
She pressed a hand against his surgical dressing.
Warm blood touched her fingers.
“You reopened it.”
“I noticed.”
“Be quiet.”
Footsteps approached.
A flashlight swept across the doorway.
Tessa saw a silhouette wearing hospital scrubs.
Not a gunman.
A woman.
She whispered:
“Tessa?”
Tessa recognized the voice.
“Beth?”
Beth Alvarez, a night nurse Tessa had worked beside for three years, stepped into the room.
“I saw security rushing down here. I came to help.”
Tessa started to stand.
Luca caught her wrist.
“No.”
Beth looked toward them.
“What happened?”
Tessa stared.
Why had Beth known exactly where they were?
Nobody outside Luca’s inner security team knew about Room 317.
Marco returned.
His weapon pointed directly at Beth.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Beth’s face collapsed.
“What are you doing?”
Tessa whispered.
“How did you know we were here?”
Beth looked at her.
Too long.
Then she began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Tessa’s stomach dropped.
“Beth.”
“I didn’t know they were going to kill him.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
Beth sobbed.
“They said they only wanted the key.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Who said that?”
Beth looked past him toward the dark corridor.
“The man who paid my brother’s debt.”
“Name.”
Her lips trembled.
“Dr. Harland.”
A shot exploded.
Beth jerked.
Tessa screamed.
Marco pulled her down.
Beth collapsed in the doorway.
A dark figure vanished at the end of the corridor.
Tessa crawled toward Beth.
Blood spread across the nurse’s shoulder.
Alive.
Barely.
Beth caught Tessa’s sleeve.
“The patient…”
“What patient?”
“The one who never existed.”
She struggled for breath.
“Your father created the file.”
“What file?”
Beth closed her eyes.
May you like
Then whispered the name that changed everything.
“Luca Ward.”
