Chapter 4 - The Box Jacob Voss Left Behind
Dante read Lucia’s letter four times.
Each reading made the room feel smaller.
Rosa sat across from him while the old recorder and leather notebook remained between them.
Neither touched them.
Not yet.
Adrian Cole’s face in the photograph had changed everything.
Dante and Adrian had met at nineteen.
They had survived Dante’s father together.
Survived family wars.
Survived the years after Lucia disappeared.
When Dante stopped sleeping, Adrian handled meetings.
When Dante refused to attend Lucia’s memorial, Adrian stood outside his bedroom door until morning.
When Sebastian Mercer wanted Dante to step aside because grief had “weakened his judgment,” Adrian supported Dante.
Or appeared to.
Dante looked again at the photograph.
Adrian looked perhaps twenty-seven.
Jacob stood beside him.
Lucia was between them.
All three appeared tense.
The photograph had been taken after Lucia’s supposed death.
Dante could tell by her hair.
She had cut it shoulder-length shortly before disappearing.
The date stamped on the back confirmed it.
October 19.
Eleven days after the crash.
Dante’s hand tightened.
Rosa watched him.
“You said that man works for you.”
“He does.”
“Does he know we have this?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure he didn’t know an hour ago.”
That answer did little to calm her.
Rosa walked toward the bedroom door.
“Ellie and I should leave.”
“Where?”
“My sister’s house in Connecticut.”
“If Adrian is involved, he knows your relatives.”
“How would he know that?”
“He runs background checks on every senior employee at the estate.”
Rosa turned pale.
“You investigated me?”
“Everyone with access to the house is investigated.”
“You knew about Jacob?”
“I knew what was in the report.”
“Which apparently wasn’t much.”
Dante had no defense.
Someone had cleaned Jacob’s history.
He suddenly realized that.
The man had worked near Lucia fifteen years earlier, yet nothing in Rosa’s employment screening connected Jacob to the Mercer family.
That kind of omission did not happen accidentally.
“What about the notebook?” Rosa asked.
Dante opened it.
Most pages contained dates, initials and numbers.
Some entries referred to companies Dante recognized.
Others meant nothing.
Near the middle was a line written in larger letters.
L.M. moved. A.C. insists S.M. cannot know.
Rosa leaned closer.
“L.M. is Lucia Mercer.”
“Probably.”
“A.C.?”
“Adrian Cole.”
“And S.M.?”
Dante did not need to answer.
Sebastian Mercer.
Rosa sat down.
“So Adrian helped your sister?”
“Maybe.”
“Then the photograph doesn’t prove he betrayed you.”
Dante looked at her.
“No.”
It was possible Adrian had been protecting Lucia.
Possible he had lied for fifteen years because Lucia demanded it.
Possible Jacob had worked with him.
Yet another question immediately followed.
Why had Adrian never told Dante even after fifteen years?
Why had he watched Dante mourn a living woman?
The recorder remained.
Dante picked it up.
The battery was dead.
Rosa found replacements downstairs.
Ellie followed her back into the bedroom.
“I want to hear.”
“No,” Rosa said.
“Why?”
“Because this is grown-up business.”
Ellie looked at Dante for support.
He surprised Rosa.
“Your mother is right.”
Ellie sighed dramatically.
“Grown-ups always say that when something interesting happens.”
Dante nearly smiled again.
“Go downstairs.”
“Can I finish your grilled cheese?”
“I thought it was mine.”
“It’s getting cold.”
“I see.”
“You don’t want cold cheese.”
Dante nodded.
“Save me half.”
Ellie seemed satisfied and disappeared.
Rosa stared at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re looking at me strangely.”
“I’ve worked in your house four years.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never heard you joke.”
“I’m beginning to regret it already.”
Rosa inserted the batteries.
Dante pressed play.
Static.
Then Jacob Voss’s voice filled the bedroom.
Rosa stopped breathing.
Three years had passed since she heard her husband speak.
The sound immediately shattered something inside her.
“If you’re hearing this, I probably failed to keep this buried.”
Rosa sat down.
Dante turned the volume higher.
“My name is Jacob Voss. In October, fifteen years ago, I was employed by a transportation contractor connected to Mercer Holdings. On the night Lucia Mercer disappeared, I was ordered to drive a second vehicle toward the river.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“There were two cars?”
Jacob continued.
“I didn’t know the plan. I was young and needed money. I was told to follow instructions and ask nothing.”
Rosa wiped tears from her face.
“When I reached the access road, I found Lucia alive. Her car had been damaged, but she had escaped before it went into the water. She was terrified. She told me someone in her family wanted her dead.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“I helped her leave.”
Static crackled.
“Adrian Cole found us the next morning.”
Dante looked up.
“He wanted to take Lucia back to Dante. Lucia refused. She believed Sebastian had people around Dante and would know the moment she returned.”
The recording paused.
Rosa whispered, “So Adrian was helping her.”
“Maybe.”
Jacob’s voice resumed.
“Adrian arranged a safe place for Lucia. For several months, I transported messages. Then something changed. Adrian stopped coming.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Lucia became convinced he had been compromised.”
More static.
“The last time I saw her was fourteen years ago. She gave me an envelope for Dante but made me promise I would only deliver it if someone began asking questions.”
Dante glanced at Lucia’s letter.
“If nothing happened, I was supposed to destroy everything.”
A long silence followed.
Then Jacob’s voice changed.
More frightened.
“Years later, I realized someone had begun following me again.”
Rosa covered her mouth.
“I had Rosa by then. Then Ellie.”
His voice cracked when saying his daughter’s name.
“If you are Dante Mercer and you’re listening to this, I need you to know something.”
Dante stared at the recorder.
“I never betrayed your sister.”
“I tried to protect her.”
“And if something happens to me, protect my family.”
The recording ended.
Rosa cried silently.
Dante did not move.
Jacob’s final request remained in the room.
Protect my family.
Ellie’s footsteps sounded downstairs.
The ordinary noise suddenly felt unbearably fragile.
Rosa wiped her eyes.
“My husband knew he was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“And three months later his car went off the highway.”
Dante looked at her.
“You said three years ago.”
“He made this recording ten weeks before he died. The date is on the file.”
Dante’s expression became colder.
Rosa whispered, “You don’t think it was an accident.”
“I don’t know.”
But they both knew what he believed.
His phone vibrated.
Adrian Cole.
Dante stared at the name.
Rosa whispered, “Are you going to answer?”
“Yes.”
He accepted the call.
“Dante.”
Adrian sounded completely normal.
“We have a problem at the estate.”
“What problem?”
“The east-wing alarm just triggered.”
Dante’s eyes moved toward Lucia’s letter.
“Where?”
“The old music room.”
Dante stood.
Rosa’s face changed.
Lucia’s note had said another piece of evidence was hidden where their mother taught them to play.
The music room.
Dante had told no one.
Not even his security team.
Yet somehow, minutes after they opened Jacob’s box...
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someone had entered the exact room Lucia’s letter told Dante to search.
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