Chapter 3 - What Her Father Left Behind
Michael's body covered Aurora before she understood what was happening.
Another gunshot exploded below.
“Stay down.”
His voice had changed.
The controlled businessman was gone.
This was the Michael Moretti people feared.
Aurora clutched her father's letter.
Footsteps thundered downstairs.
Michael spoke quietly into his phone.
“North exit. Now.”
“What about the ledger?”
Aurora whispered.
Michael grabbed everything from the safe and shoved it into a leather bag.
“We're taking it.”
A third shot rang out.
Aurora flinched.
Michael looked at her.
“Eyes on me.”
She did.
“Whatever happens, don't run unless I tell you.”
“That's usually my specialty.”
Despite the situation, something flickered in his expression.
“Not today.”
His men appeared.
They moved quickly through a rear staircase and into an alley.
An SUV screeched around the corner.
Aurora climbed inside.
Michael followed.
The vehicle accelerated.
Only when the warehouse disappeared behind them did Aurora realize she was still holding Michael's hand.
She released it.
“Sorry.”
“You say that too often.”
“For what?”
“Existing near other people.”
Aurora stared at him.
Nobody had ever described her that accurately.
Michael looked away.
Back at the mansion, the ledger was spread across his desk.
Aurora sat beside him.
Names.
Dates.
Shipments.
Payments.
Most meant nothing to her.
Michael recognized several.
Then his finger stopped.
“Victor Hale.”
“Who's that?”
Michael leaned back.
“My father's former attorney.”
“Former?”
“He disappeared twelve years ago.”
Aurora frowned.
“Before my father died.”
“Yes.”
The ledger showed payments between Hale, Tony Falcone's uncle, and several transportation companies.
Aurora slowly understood.
“My father discovered something.”
“He discovered an operation moving stolen pharmaceuticals through legitimate freight routes.”
“And Regina?”
Michael turned several pages.
Her name appeared.
Aurora felt sick.
“She knew.”
Michael said nothing.
“She knew before Dad died.”
Another entry showed a payment to Regina three days after Daniel's fatal accident.
$75,000.
Aurora stood so quickly her chair fell backward.
“No.”
Michael rose.
“Aurora—”
“No.”
She walked toward the window.
Regina had cried at the funeral.
Regina had held Aurora's hand.
Regina had told everyone Daniel had been the love of her life.
Seventy-five thousand dollars.
Three days after his death.
“You don't know what the payment was for,” Michael said carefully.
Aurora turned.
“You're defending her?”
“No. I'm separating evidence from assumptions.”
She hated that he was right.
“What do we do?”
“We copy everything.”
“And then?”
“Give it to someone who can't be bought.”
“The police?”
“Federal investigators.”
Aurora stared.
“You would voluntarily give evidence to federal investigators?”
Michael's mouth twitched.
“Don't sound so surprised.”
“You're Michael Moretti.”
“So people keep reminding me.”
Aurora almost smiled.
Almost.
Then the door flew open.
Zach ran inside.
“You're back!”
Michael caught him.
Zach immediately looked at Aurora.
“Did you find treasure?”
“Sort of.”
“Gold?”
“No.”
“Diamonds?”
“No.”
“Then it's bad treasure.”
Aurora laughed.
Zach climbed down and handed her a folded piece of paper.
“I made this.”
It was a drawing.
Three stick figures.
One very tall man.
One woman in pink.
One tiny boy between them.
Above them Zach had drawn a crooked heart.
Aurora's throat tightened.
“Who's this?”
“Us.”
Michael stared at the picture.
Zach pointed.
“Dad, Aurora, me.”
“And Teddy?”
Zach gasped.
“I forgot Teddy.”
He ran away to correct the emergency.
Aurora looked at Michael.
“He's incredible.”
“Yes.”
“You've done a good job.”
Michael's expression shifted.
“He doesn't have a mother.”
“That doesn't mean he isn't loved.”
Michael looked at her for a long moment.
Then his phone rang.
His face hardened.
“What?”
He listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Find her.”
He ended the call.
Aurora's stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
“Regina disappeared.”
“When?”
“After the warehouse attack.”
“You think she ordered it?”
“I think someone is cleaning up loose ends.”
Aurora swallowed.
“Meaning Regina could be in danger?”
Michael nodded.
Aurora hated herself for caring.
But Regina had raised her.
Badly.
Cruelly.
Still, some childish part of Aurora remembered bedtime stories before the gambling, Christmas mornings, pancakes shaped like hearts.
“I need to find her.”
“No.”
“Michael.”
“No.”
“You can't keep deciding—”
His voice rose.
“I watched someone I loved die because I underestimated a threat once. I won't do it again.”
Silence.
Aurora stared at him.
Michael seemed to realize what he'd revealed.
“Zach's mother?”
He turned away.
Aurora waited.
Finally Michael spoke.
“Elena was killed four years ago.”
Aurora's anger disappeared.
“I thought she was sick.”
“That was what we told Zach.”
“Why?”
“Because he was two.”
Michael walked toward the window.
“A man wanted leverage against me. He couldn't reach me, so he reached her.”
Aurora's chest hurt.
“I'm sorry.”
Michael nodded once.
“That is why when I tell you something is dangerous, I'm not trying to control you.”
He turned.
“I'm trying not to bury someone else.”
Aurora had no answer.
That evening they copied the files.
Michael contacted an attorney he trusted.
A meeting with federal investigators was arranged for the following morning.
Aurora finally felt something she hadn't felt in months.
Hope.
Then, at 9:17 p.m., the mansion's security alarm sounded.
Michael stood immediately.
His men moved through the house.
Aurora found Zach upstairs.
“What's happening?”
“Nothing.”
“You're lying.”
“Yes.”
He seemed impressed by the admission.
Aurora locked the bedroom door.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Finally Michael entered.
“It's okay.”
“What happened?”
“Someone left something at the gate.”
He was holding an envelope.
Aurora's name was written across it.
Inside was a photograph.
Regina.
Bound to a chair.
Aurora covered her mouth.
On the back, someone had written:
Bring Daniel Bennett's original ledger to Pier 19 tomorrow night. Come alone, or she dies.
Michael took the photograph.
“No.”
Aurora looked at him.
“She'll die.”
“They'll kill you both.”
“You don't know that.”
“I know exactly that.”
Aurora looked toward Zach's room.
Then back at Michael.
“You said family protects family.”
His expression hardened.
“Regina isn't your family.”
Aurora swallowed.
“Maybe she stopped acting like it a long time ago.”
Her eyes filled.
“But I need to know whether she helped kill my father.”
Michael stared at her.
“And I need to hear it from her.”
Neither noticed Zach standing behind the half-open door.
Neither knew he had heard everything.
May you like
And neither knew that the six-year-old who had started this entire nightmare with a pinky promise was about to make another decision that would put all three of them in danger.
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