Chapter 2 - Someone Else Knew
Mina stared at Alfred.
“What did you say?”
He closed the bedroom door again.
“Someone knew.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I wish it were.”
“Who?”
Alfred didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he walked to the windows overlooking Boston.
Rain blurred the city lights.
“Three weeks ago, one of my men intercepted a message.”
“To whom?”
“A broker in Providence.”
“What kind of message?”
Alfred turned.
“A request for information about you.”
Mina felt cold.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know why anyone wanted you.”
“And now?”
“Now I do.”
Her hand returned to her stomach.
Alfred noticed.
He seemed unable to stop noticing.
“What exactly did the message say?”
He hesitated.
“Female accountant. Mina Vale. Possible pregnancy.”
The room tilted.
Mina grabbed the edge of the dresser.
Alfred moved toward her.
She raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Who knew?”
“My doctor.”
“Who else?”
“Nobody.”
“Family?”
“No.”
“Friends?”
“I haven't told anyone.”
Alfred’s jaw tightened.
“Then someone followed you.”
Mina thought about the appointments.
The pharmacy.
The café where she sometimes sat afterward.
The feeling she had dismissed twice that someone was watching her.
“Oh God.”
Alfred came closer.
This time she didn't retreat.
“When did you first suspect you were pregnant?”
“Almost two months ago.”
“And when did you confirm it?”
“At the clinic.”
“Which clinic?”
She told him.
Alfred took out his phone.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t send men there.”
“I’m finding out who accessed your records.”
“You don’t own every problem.”
His expression sharpened.
“No. But somebody threatening you became my problem long before today.”
Mina stared at him.
There it was again.
The thing that had made her love him.
And the thing that made her run.
Alfred solved fear with power.
But power always demanded more power.
“I still want to leave.”
His face barely changed.
“I know.”
“You said you wouldn't stop me.”
“I won't.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now.”
She hadn't expected that answer.
Alfred picked up the ultrasound again.
His thumb hovered near the edge.
“Is everything okay?”
The question was so ordinary that Mina nearly cried.
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Healthy.”
He nodded.
“Boy or girl?”
“Too early when that was taken.”
Another nod.
For several seconds, Alfred Costello simply stared at the first photograph of his child.
Then someone knocked.
Lev entered.
His expression was grim.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found the car.”
“What car?”
“The one following Mina.”
Mina’s blood went cold.
Alfred’s eyes hardened instantly.
“Where?”
“Two streets from her apartment.”
“Driver?”
“Gone.”
Lev handed him a phone.
“There’s something else.”
Alfred looked at the screen.
His face changed.
Mina stepped closer.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward her.
A photograph filled the screen.
Mina leaving her prenatal clinic.
Another.
Mina entering her apartment.
Another.
Mina standing outside the Costello office.
Then the final photograph.
Mina asleep beside her bedroom window.
Taken from outside.
Her stomach was visible beneath her nightshirt.
Mina covered her mouth.
Alfred’s voice became terrifyingly calm.
“Get everyone.”
Lev left immediately.
Mina looked at Alfred.
“You knew about these?”
“No.”
“Then who has them?”
Alfred stared at the screen.
“The man we pulled the phone from was dead.”
Mina’s breath caught.
“Dead?”
“Before we found him.”
“Who killed him?”
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
Mina looked around the luxurious room.
Suddenly the penthouse no longer felt like a prison.
It felt like the only place where the walls were thick enough.
Alfred noticed her fear.
“You’re staying here tonight.”
She almost argued.
Then she remembered the photograph through her bedroom window.
“Tonight,” she whispered.
“Tonight.”
He moved toward the door.
Mina caught his sleeve.
Alfred stopped.
“What happens tomorrow?”
He looked at her hand on his arm.
“That depends on what we learn tonight.”
“No. I mean us.”
His expression softened slightly.
“If you want your flight, I'll take you to the airport myself.”
Mina searched his face.
“You'd really let me leave with your child?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Her fingers released his sleeve.
Then Alfred continued.
“But loving you doesn't give me the right to cage you.”
That was not the Alfred she expected.
Perhaps it wasn't the Alfred he had been yesterday.
Before the ultrasound.
Before he learned that fatherhood could be taken from him before he even knew he had it.
Alfred walked out.
Mina remained alone.
Minutes passed.
She gathered the documents from the floor.
When she picked up the fake passport, she suddenly noticed something.
The envelope.
It was wrong.
She had purchased a plain manila envelope.
This one had a tiny blue mark near the seal.
Mina turned it over.
A number had been written faintly beneath the flap.
She frowned.
She hadn't written it.
She opened the envelope completely.
Something small fell onto the carpet.
A black plastic square.
Mina stared at it.
Then understood.
A tracker.
Someone had opened her escape envelope before Alfred ever found it.
Someone knew about her plan.
Someone had known exactly where she intended to go.
She ran into the hallway.
“Alfred!”
He appeared from the study.
Mina held out the device.
His expression darkened.
“Where?”
“Inside my envelope.”
Alfred took it.
“Who knew you put the envelope in the safe?”
“Nobody.”
“Think.”
“I did it alone.”
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
“Was anyone here?”
Mina froze.
There had been someone.
A housekeeper.
Two guards.
And—
“Lev.”
Alfred went still.
“He came upstairs that night.”
“Why?”
“He said you sent him for documents.”
“I didn't.”
Silence.
From downstairs came the faint sound of an elevator bell.
Alfred immediately reached beneath his jacket.
“Stay behind me.”
Footsteps approached.
Lev appeared at the end of the hallway.
He looked at Alfred.
Then at Mina.
Then at the tracker in Alfred’s hand.
And for the first time in four years, Mina saw fear on Lev’s face.
“Boss,” he said slowly, “I can explain.”
Alfred raised his gun.
“You'd better.”
But Lev’s answer changed everything.
“I wasn't tracking Mina.”
His eyes moved toward her stomach.
May you like
“I was tracking the person who planned to kill her.”
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