Chapter 3 - The Stranger Arya Chose
The ringing came from beneath the kitchen floor.
Everyone heard it.
Mara stared at the tile.
"That's impossible."
Dante motioned his men back.
"Luca."
Luca crouched.
The sound stopped.
Then began again.
Mara moved toward it.
Dante caught her wrist.
"No."
"It's Emily's ringtone."
"That doesn't make it safe."
"She had that phone when she died."
Dante released her reluctantly.
Luca examined the cabinets and floor.
One tile near the refrigerator sat slightly higher than the others.
He lifted it.
Beneath was a narrow cavity.
Inside rested an old cell phone wrapped in plastic.
Mara covered her mouth.
"I've lived here five years."
Dante looked at her.
"Emily lived here first?"
"Yes."
"Then she hid it."
Luca removed the phone.
The screen displayed:
UNKNOWN CALLER.
It stopped.
A moment later a text appeared.
YOU FOUND THE FIRST ONE.
Mara whispered, "First what?"
Another message appeared.
ASK ROMANO ABOUT ROOM 314.
Dante's face changed.
Mara saw it.
"You know what that means."
He didn't answer.
"Dante."
It was the first time she had used his first name.
He looked at the phone.
"Room 314 was where Vivien died."
Mara froze.
"What?"
"St. Catherine's Hospital. She survived the crash for eleven hours."
"You said she died in an accident."
"She did."
"But she reached a hospital."
"Yes."
"Was she conscious?"
"For part of it."
"Did she speak?"
Dante's expression closed.
"A few words."
"To you?"
"No."
Mara waited.
"Who?"
Dante looked toward the broken window.
"Vincent."
The implications settled slowly.
Mara sank into a chair.
"Your wife warned you about him."
"Apparently."
"And he was alone with her before she died?"
"For less than three minutes."
"That's enough."
Dante's eyes sharpened.
"For what?"
"To hear whatever she was trying to tell you."
Luca spoke quietly.
"Or stop her from telling anyone else."
Dante turned.
The room changed.
Mara suddenly understood why men feared him.
Nothing dramatic happened.
No shouting.
No threat.
Dante simply became still.
"Find Vincent."
Luca nodded.
"Alive."
Another nod.
"And don't contact anyone who normally works his detail."
Luca left.
Mara looked at Dante.
"You really think he could have killed her."
Dante walked toward the shattered photograph on the floor.
It showed Mara and Emily years earlier.
He picked it up.
"I think I've learned not to confuse loyalty with history."
Mara took the photograph from him.
Emily smiled from behind cracked glass.
"I should have found the phone."
"You weren't supposed to."
"What?"
"Your sister hid it beneath a floor in an apartment she knew you'd eventually inherit."
"That's exactly why I should have found it."
"No."
Dante looked at the phone.
"She hid it well enough that someone had to tell you where to look."
Mara understood.
"A dead-man switch."
"Possibly."
"But six years later?"
"Could have been scheduled through an external service. Or someone recently activated it."
"Who?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
Mara crossed her arms.
"I'm not going back to your house."
"Your apartment isn't secure."
"Neither is your organization."
"Fair."
That answer frustrated her more than an argument would have.
Dante continued.
"But my daughter is there."
"What does that have to do with—"
"Nobody gets through me to her."
The certainty in his voice silenced her.
He looked around the destroyed apartment.
"I can put you in a hotel under protection."
"Your protection."
"Yes."
"From people who may work for you."
"Also yes."
"Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds?"
"Perfectly."
Mara stared at him.
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
That surprised her.
"Not yet."
Dante stepped toward the doorway.
"But you can trust that I want the same answer you do."
"What answer?"
"Who killed Emily."
He paused.
"And whether the same person killed Vivien."
Mara went back to the mansion.
Not because she trusted Dante.
Because every alternative suddenly felt worse.
Arya was asleep when they returned.
Mrs. Alvarez had prepared a room, but Mara couldn't sleep.
At two in the morning she found herself walking downstairs.
She discovered Dante in the kitchen.
Not the intimidating office.
Not the formal dining room.
The kitchen.
His jacket was gone.
Sleeves rolled to his forearms.
He stood over an espresso machine as though coffee could solve betrayal.
"You don't sleep?" Mara asked.
"Sometimes."
"That's unhealthy."
"So I'm told."
He poured another cup.
"Coffee?"
"It's two in the morning."
"That wasn't an answer."
"Yes."
He handed her a cup.
For several minutes they stood in silence.
Mara finally asked, "What was Vivien like?"
Dante's fingers tightened around the ceramic.
"Complicated."
"That's a strange answer about your dead wife."
"It's an accurate one."
"Did you love her?"
He looked at Mara.
"Yes."
The simplicity made her regret asking.
Dante stared into his coffee.
"Vivien was the opposite of me."
"Meaning?"
"She believed everyone could be saved."
"And you?"
"I believe some people should be stopped before they hurt anyone else."
"That's not entirely opposite."
He almost smiled.
"She said the same thing."
Mara looked around the enormous kitchen.
"How did you meet?"
"She was protesting one of my construction projects."
Mara laughed before she could stop herself.
Dante looked offended.
"What's funny?"
"Of course she was."
"You didn't know her."
"I know the type."
"What type?"
"The kind of woman who marries a dangerous businessman after showing up to yell at him."
"She didn't know what I did when we met."
"When did she find out?"
"Before we married."
"And stayed?"
"She had conditions."
"I'd love to hear those."
"No guns in the house."
Mara glanced knowingly toward the guards beyond the doors.
Dante followed her gaze.
"I said she had conditions. I didn't say I obeyed all of them."
Mara laughed again.
It was the first genuine laughter Dante had heard in that kitchen since Vivien died.
He stared.
Mara noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
She looked away.
A small voice interrupted them.
"Mara?"
Arya stood barefoot in the doorway.
Mara immediately crouched.
"Hey."
Arya held the star box.
"I had a dream."
"Bad one?"
She nodded.
Dante approached.
Arya unexpectedly walked past him.
She went to Mara.
Dante stopped.
Something painful flickered across his face.
Mara saw it.
She didn't want to become a replacement.
Not for Vivien.
Not for anyone.
She sat on the floor with Arya.
"What happened in the dream?"
"Car."
Dante became still.
Arya rarely spoke about the accident.
Mara looked gently at her.
"What about the car?"
"Mommy was crying."
Dante's face lost color.
Mara did not look at him.
"Do you remember where you were?"
Arya nodded.
"Back seat."
Dante whispered, "Arya—"
Mara lifted one hand toward him.
Not now.
He obeyed.
Arya opened the star box.
"Mommy gave me this."
"Before the accident?"
The girl shook her head.
"After."
Dante's brow furrowed.
"What?"
Arya looked at him.
"At hospital."
Dante crouched.
"You weren't allowed inside her room."
Arya nodded vigorously.
"I was."
"Who took you?"
Arya's lower lip trembled.
"A man."
"What man?"
She hid her face against Mara.
Mara rubbed her back.
"No pressure."
Dante was struggling to breathe himself now.
Arya whispered something.
Mara bent closer.
"What?"
"Uncle Vinny."
Dante closed his eyes.
Vincent.
He had taken Arya into Vivien's hospital room without Dante knowing.
"What happened?" Mara asked.
Arya slowly opened the box.
"Mommy put something underneath."
"Underneath what?"
Arya pointed to the cardboard bottom.
Dante took the box.
The interior appeared ordinary.
Then he noticed one corner.
The cardboard had been glued twice.
Luca returned just as Dante used a knife to separate the false bottom.
Inside was a thin brass key.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Vivien standing beside a woman outside Harbor Light Community Center.
Mara gasped.
The other woman was Emily Ellison.
On the back, Vivien had written:
Emily found the children. If she dies, Vincent knows we know.
Dante stared at the sentence.
Luca looked pale.
Then Dante noticed another line.
Smaller.
Nearly hidden beneath the first.
The proof is inside the house. Dante must never know where unless Mara finds it first.
Mara looked at him.
"Why wouldn't she want you to know?"
Dante had no answer.
And for the first time, the mystery was no longer simply about who had betrayed him.
May you like
It was about what Vivien had been hiding from her own husband.
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