Chapter 9 - What Lila Remembered in the Dark
“No.”
That was all I said.
One word.
Adrian stood in the cellar of my father's old lodge, claiming the man who supplied Bianca with whatever had harmed my daughter had somehow been trying to protect her.
I looked at Salvatore.
He seemed exhausted.
Not guilty.
Not innocent.
Just old.
“Explain,” I said.
Adrian gestured toward a table.
“Sit.”
“I'll stand.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Bianca moved toward me.
I raised a hand.
She stopped.
Not now.
I needed facts.
Adrian began.
“Daniel Voss found me three years ago.”
“Why?”
“The Ledger.”
“Everyone wants this thing.”
“Because it can put powerful people in prison or graves.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
I almost laughed.
“Then this meeting is already disappointing.”
“Your father knew.”
“My father's dead.”
“Before he died, he divided the archive.”
“Why?”
“So nobody could use it alone.”
I listened.
According to Adrian, Antonio Moretti had not stolen the Ledger for money.
He discovered that the archive contained evidence linking several criminal networks, corrupt officials and private contractors to activities even he considered too dangerous.
He took it to prevent a sale.
Carlo Russo thought Antonio wanted leverage.
Their friendship collapsed.
Years later, Adrian learned that Daniel Voss had spent his career searching for the pieces.
“Why fake your death?” I asked.
“Voss tried to recruit me.”
“And?”
“I pretended to cooperate.”
“For three years?”
“I was trying to find where he stored his records.”
“And Sal?”
Salvatore answered.
“I helped him disappear.”
“You let Bianca bury an empty coffin.”
His eyes lowered.
“I thought it protected her.”
“You people seem to confuse lies with protection.”
No one argued.
“Now explain Lila.”
Adrian's face tightened.
“Voss discovered that your father's final piece could only be accessed through something you possessed.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“I don't have a key.”
“Not a metal key.”
“Then what?”
“A phrase, pattern, location—none of us knows.”
“So he targeted my daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To pressure you into searching.”
I looked at Sal.
“And you supplied Bianca.”
Sal stepped forward.
“What Voss gave Bianca first wasn't what he claimed.”
“I know.”
“When Adrian and I realized what was happening, we tried to replace it.”
“With what?”
“A harmless substitute.”
My eyes narrowed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. Test it.”
“Some of Lila's later symptoms continued.”
“Damage doesn't disappear immediately.”
Adrian interrupted.
“Voss noticed Bianca skipping doses. He started watching the house more closely. Sal had to make it appear she was still cooperating.”
Pieces clicked together.
Not comfortably.
But logically.
Bianca using packets.
Sal meeting her.
Cameras tracking her.
Why she cried after adding substances.
“Then why did the research notes show ongoing exposure?”
Adrian's face changed.
“Because Bianca wasn't the only source.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“Someone else in your house continued administering the real compound.”
I thought of every staff member.
Rosa.
Cooks.
Security.
Tutors.
Nurses.
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
My phone was already in my hand.
Marco answered.
“Get Lila out of the house.”
“What happened?”
“Now.”
“Where?”
“Clinic. Keller. Nobody gives her anything except sealed supplies.”
“Understood.”
I ended the call.
Adrian continued.
“Voss wanted Bianca blamed if the truth came out.”
“That part nearly worked.”
Bianca looked at me.
I didn't meet her eyes.
“Why did you let Eli see her?” I asked.
Sal frowned.
“We didn't.”
“Someone did.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“Then Voss may have wanted the boy to reach you.”
That possibility returned.
Break my marriage.
Turn me against Sal.
Distract me.
Meanwhile the true source remained inside my house.
“Who has daily access to Lila?”
Bianca answered.
“Rosa. Two nurses. Tutors before we stopped lessons. Kitchen staff. Me. You.”
“What about security?”
“Not food.”
“Who prepares her tea?”
“Rosa usually.”
My reaction must have shown.
Bianca immediately shook her head.
“Rosa would never.”
“Everyone says that until someone does.”
But I didn't believe it.
Rosa had helped raise Lila.
Still, belief no longer counted.
Only evidence.
We left the lodge with Adrian.
Sal remained behind to avoid alerting Voss that our alliances had shifted.
I hated the plan.
I hated trusting either man.
But if there was another person in my house, we needed them to believe nothing had changed.
At the clinic, Lila sat in a bright examination room eating crackers from a sealed package.
She heard me enter.
“Daddy?”
“Right here.”
I hugged her.
She touched my jacket.
“You smell like the old house.”
I looked at her.
“What old house?”
“Grandpa's.”
I hadn't brought Lila to the lodge since she was four.
“You remember?”
“It smells like wood and fireplace.”
Her memory remained extraordinary despite everything happening to her.
I sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, I need your help.”
“With what?”
“Remembering.”
She smiled faintly.
“I'm good at that.”
“Yes, you are.”
I asked about meals.
Drinks.
Who brought them.
Which tasted unusual.
She remembered far more than I expected.
“Mommy's vitamins tasted strange.”
“Every time?”
“No.”
That caught me.
“Explain.”
“Sometimes they tasted like pennies.”
“And other times?”
“Nothing.”
Sal's substitute.
“What about when Mommy wasn't there?”
Lila thought.
“Sometimes my tea tasted funny.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Usually Miss Caroline.”
I looked at Bianca.
One of the nurses.
Caroline Price.
She had been hired four months earlier.
Recommended by a private medical staffing company.
Which company?
I called Marco.
He checked.
The agency had been paid through a subsidiary connected to Voss's research network.
There it was.
“Where is Caroline?”
“Off today.”
“Address?”
“I'm getting it.”
Lila continued talking.
“Miss Caroline always made me drink everything.”
My stomach turned.
“What did she say?”
“That medicine only works if you finish it.”
“Did she add anything?”
“I couldn't see.”
“Did you hear anything?”
Lila became very still.
Then she tapped the table with one finger.
Click.
Pause.
Click.
My mind returned to what she said that morning.
Like a pen.
“What is that?”
“She had something that clicked.”
Bianca looked at me.
A dosing device.
Or some kind of dispenser.
We didn't need to know exactly how it worked.
We needed to find Caroline.
Marco called ten minutes later.
“Her apartment is empty.”
“Recently?”
“Looks cleared.”
“Vehicle?”
“Found at the airport.”
“She flew?”
“No passenger record.”
“Then somebody picked her up.”
“Probably.”
I looked at Adrian.
“Voss.”
“Likely.”
Dr. Keller entered with preliminary results.
We all turned.
He looked at Lila before speaking.
“Her current blood work shows a significant decline in the abnormal markers.”
I stood.
“Meaning?”
“Whatever she was being exposed to appears to have stopped or decreased substantially.”
Bianca covered her mouth.
“And her sight?” I asked.
“Too soon.”
“How soon?”
“Days before we know anything meaningful. Maybe longer.”
Lila listened.
“Doctor?”
He moved closer.
“Yes?”
“Can eyes wake up?”
Keller smiled gently.
“Sometimes they can.”
She nodded.
“Mine are sleepy.”
“Yes.”
“Tell them Daddy's waiting.”
I had to turn away.
Later, while Bianca sat with Lila, Adrian approached me in the hallway.
“We found something on Caroline's employment file.”
“What?”
“A reference.”
“Who?”
He handed me his phone.
The reference name was fake.
The number wasn't.
It belonged to my father's old private office line.
A number disconnected twelve years ago.
Or supposedly disconnected.
Marco traced the current routing.
The calls were being forwarded.
To one location.
Downtown Atlanta.
A building I knew well.
The headquarters of the Moretti Group.
My legitimate corporate office.
The enemy wasn't merely inside my home.
He was inside the company that carried my name.
And the person controlling Caroline had been close enough to me to redirect a dead man's telephone line without anyone noticing.
That narrowed the possibilities dramatically.
There were only four people with that level of access.
Marco.
My chief financial officer.
My attorney.
And the man who had been my father's closest friend.
One of those four people had helped put Caroline beside my daughter.
By sunset, I intended to know which one.
May you like
And this time, nobody would have a chance to delete the evidence.
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