Chapter 3 - The Forgotten Safe
Traffic became Mina's enemy.
Every red light felt personal.
She called Alfred.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
By the time Mina reached the penthouse building, Alfred's car was already outside.
Her stomach dropped.
She rushed through the lobby.
The private elevator seemed impossibly slow.
When the doors finally opened, the penthouse was silent.
“Alfred?”
No response.
Mina walked toward the study.
The door was open.
So was the safe.
Alfred stood beside it.
His jacket was gone. His sleeves were rolled up. In one hand he held the ultrasound photograph.
The burner phone and Sarah Jenkins identification lay on the marble desk.
Mina stopped breathing.
Alfred slowly raised his eyes.
“Whose baby is this?”
There were moments when lies could save a person.
This was not one of them.
Mina's hand moved instinctively toward her stomach.
Alfred noticed.
Something changed in his face.
“Mina.”
She couldn't speak.
He looked at the ultrasound again.
Then at her.
“How far along?”
“Twelve weeks.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Twelve.”
“Alfred—”
“You've known for twelve weeks?”
“Not all twelve.”
“And you weren't going to tell me.”
Mina looked toward the false identification.
His gaze followed hers.
He picked it up.
“Sarah Jenkins.”
Silence.
Then the burner phone.
Then the itinerary.
“Tomorrow?”
Mina nodded.
“You were leaving tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“With my child.”
“Our child.”
The correction struck harder than shouting could have.
Alfred placed both hands against the desk.
“Why?”
Mina stared at him.
“Pauly.”
His expression hardened.
“This isn't about Pauly.”
“It became about Pauly the moment you walked into my apartment covered in his blood.”
“Mina—”
“He has a four-year-old daughter.”
Alfred fell silent.
“I watched his blood go down my sink, and all I could think was that someday it might be yours. Or mine.”
Her hand tightened over her stomach.
“Or our baby's.”
“I would protect you.”
“You protect me by pretending I don't exist.”
His jaw tightened.
“That keeps you alive.”
“Exactly.”
The truth hung between them.
“If nobody can know about me, what happens when I'm visibly pregnant? What happens when there's a child calling you Daddy?”
Alfred looked away.
That frightened Mina more than anger would have.
“You don't have an answer,” she whispered.
He turned back.
“I would find one.”
“I couldn't gamble our child's life on that.”
Alfred lifted the ultrasound.
“You were going to let me wake up tomorrow and discover you were gone?”
Mina's eyes filled.
“If I'd said goodbye, you would've stopped me.”
“Yes.”
“That is why I couldn't.”
His expression hardened.
“You think I'm going to let you leave now?”
Before Mina could answer, a sound came from the hallway.
A faint metallic click.
Alfred instantly became another man.
He stepped between Mina and the doorway.
“Stay behind me.”
“Alfred—”
“Behind me.”
The handle moved.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Alfred opened a drawer and removed a handgun.
Mina's blood went cold.
A voice came from outside.
“Boss?”
Alfred relaxed slightly.
Lev entered.
Tall, gray-haired, and usually unreadable, Alfred's longtime security chief looked from Alfred to Mina, then to the open safe.
His eyes settled on the ultrasound.
Nobody spoke.
Lev's face changed.
“Who else knows?”
Alfred looked at Mina.
“Nobody.”
Mina hesitated.
Alfred noticed.
“Mina.”
“There was someone.”
His voice dropped.
“Who?”
“I went to a private clinic.”
“Name.”
“Dr. Evelyn Ross.”
“Anyone else?”
“The technician.”
Lev immediately pulled out his phone.
Then Mina remembered something.
Two days after the ultrasound, she had received a strange call.
Someone had asked for Sarah Jenkins.
At the time, she assumed it was connected to the false identity.
Now she wasn't sure.
“Alfred.”
He looked at her.
“I think someone already knows.”
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And for the first time since finding the ultrasound, Alfred's anger disappeared.
What replaced it was fear.
