Chapter 2 - The Man in the Blue SuitEmma had spent months imagining the moment she would finally be free of Connor Blake.
In every version, the door closed behind him.
The police believed her.
The fear ended.
Reality was different.
Reality smelled like antiseptic and cold coffee.
Reality had fluorescent lights and security cameras.
Reality had Connor sitting twenty feet away while an officer asked him questions.
And reality had Luca Moretti standing outside Emma's hospital room like a man who had been expecting trouble long before anyone else saw it coming.
The nurse locked the door.
Emma sat carefully on the edge of the bed.
Her daughter slept beside her in the hospital bassinet.
The name card read Grace Carter.
Emma touched the clear plastic wall of the bassinet.
Grace moved one tiny hand.
That movement gave Emma enough strength to look at Luca.
He stood near the window.
"Tell me everything."
Luca remained silent.
Emma waited.
"I mean it."
Her voice became firmer.
"You walked into this hospital like you knew Connor."
"You signed a form like you belonged here."
"You mentioned Marco."
"And Connor just suggested Marco's death wasn't an accident."
Luca looked toward Grace.
Then he pulled a chair away from the wall and sat across from Emma.
"I knew Connor Blake three years ago."
Emma stared at him.
"How?"
"He worked with my family."
"Doing what?"
"Financial consulting."
Emma almost laughed.
"Connor told me he sold commercial insurance."
"He did that too."
Luca leaned forward.
"But he also advised several companies that did business with Moretti Development."
Emma had heard the name before.
Nearly everyone in Chicago had.
Moretti Development owned hotels, office buildings, apartment towers, and construction projects across several states.
Marco had rarely spoken about the company.
Whenever Emma asked, he changed the subject.
"You own Moretti Development?"
"My father founded it."
"That wasn't my question."
Luca nodded.
"I run it now."
Emma looked at his black coat.
Then at the expensive watch half-hidden beneath his sleeve.
Suddenly his presence made more sense.
It also created ten new questions.
"Marco never told me that."
"Marco spent most of his adult life trying not to be identified by our last name."
"Why?"
"Because he wanted a life that belonged to him."
Emma remembered Marco laughing in her tiny kitchen.
Marco repairing a cabinet door without being asked.
Marco arriving with grocery-store flowers because he thought expensive bouquets looked ridiculous.
He had never acted like a wealthy heir.
He had never acted like someone whose brother could walk into a hospital and make security guards pay attention.
"Connor knew Marco?"
"Yes."
"How well?"
"Too well."
Emma's stomach tightened.
Luca continued.
"Marco was reviewing financial records for one of our construction divisions."
"He found discrepancies."
"Missing invoices."
"Fake consulting fees."
"Payments routed through shell companies."
Emma shook her head.
"I don't understand any of this."
"You don't need to."
"I think I do."
Luca paused.
"Marco believed Connor was involved."
Emma closed her eyes.
Three months earlier, Marco had died when his car left a wet highway outside Milwaukee.
Police called it an accident.
Emma had accepted that explanation because grief gave her no strength to question it.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Marco was worried before he died."
"About Connor?"
"About something."
Luca reached inside his coat.
Emma stiffened immediately.
He stopped.
"It's just an envelope."
He slowly removed a cream-colored envelope.
Marco's handwriting covered the front.
Emma recognized it instantly.
Her name was written there.
Emma Carter.
Her breath caught.
"Where did you get that?"
"Marco left it with our family attorney."
"When?"
"Two days before he died."
Emma stared at the envelope.
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
"I didn't know who you were."
"My name is on it."
"Emma Carter isn't exactly rare."
"You found me today."
"Because the attorney called me this morning."
"Why this morning?"
Luca looked toward Grace.
"Because Marco left instructions."
Emma's pulse quickened.
"What instructions?"
"If a woman named Emma Carter ever gave birth at St. Catherine's Medical Center, I was supposed to come here personally."
Emma stared at him.
"Marco planned this?"
"He planned for the possibility that he wouldn't be here."
Emma's eyes burned.
She looked at the envelope again.
"Give it to me."
Luca held it out.
Her fingers shook as she took it.
The paper felt impossibly heavy.
She opened the envelope.
Inside were three things.
A handwritten letter.
A small key.
And a photograph.
Emma lifted the photograph first.
It showed Marco standing beside Connor Blake outside a warehouse.
Marco was looking directly at the camera.
Connor wasn't.
Connor was staring at someone beyond the frame.
Emma turned the photograph over.
Three words were written on the back.
Trust no one.
Emma looked at Luca.
"What does the key open?"
"I don't know."
A knock came at the hospital room door.
Luca immediately stood.
The nurse checked through the narrow window before opening it.
A hospital security supervisor entered.
His face was serious.
"Mr. Moretti."
"What?"
"The court order was fake."
Emma exhaled.
But the supervisor wasn't finished.
"The person who called knew the mother's room number."
Luca stared at him.
"Who has access to that?"
"Hospital staff."
The room became silent.
Then the supervisor added something worse.
"And according to our system, someone just changed Ms. Carter's discharge status."
Emma sat straighter.
"Changed it to what?"
May you like
The supervisor looked directly at her.
"According to the computer, you and the baby were discharged twenty minutes ago."
Related Stories
