Chapter 4 - The Woman They Tried to Erase
Hope had heard enough voices through locked doors for one lifetime.
This time, she did not wait.
“Back exit?”
Luca pointed toward the bookcase.
Hope stared at him.
“You have a secret passage?”
“My father was paranoid.”
“For once, useful.”
Luca pulled a hidden latch.
The shelf opened.
Cal helped Vincent inside.
Hope followed.
Luca remained.
“What are you doing?”
“Buying time.”
“No.”
“Hope.”
“You just found out I’m your sister and you’re already trying to get yourself killed?”
The word sister stopped both of them.
It sounded absurd.
Impossible.
But Luca’s expression changed.
Hope hated that she cared.
“Come with us.”
He entered the passage.
The shelf closed.
Seconds later, someone entered the study.
Footsteps.
Marco’s voice.
“Luca?”
The hidden corridor was narrow.
They moved in darkness.
Vincent struggled to breathe.
Hope supported him.
“Stay awake.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
Cal whispered, “Where does this go?”
“Garage.”
Luca answered.
“Underground.”
“Of course it does.”
They reached a small utility room.
Luca opened another door.
An old tunnel extended beneath the property.
Hope stared.
“How many secrets does this family have?”
Luca looked at her.
“We’re discovering that together.”
Despite everything, Hope almost laughed.
---
Vincent survived.
The substance found in his blood was a sedative, not poison.
Someone wanted him unconscious.
Not dead.
That distinction troubled Cal more.
“If Marco wanted Vincent dead, Vincent would be dead.”
Hope sat beside Vincent’s hospital bed.
“So he needed him silent temporarily.”
“Or removed from the mansion.”
Luca stood near the window.
His cousin Marco had vanished.
Three guards had disappeared with him.
Security footage had been erased.
Cal’s team finally broke part of the flash drive encryption.
The first file contained bank transfers.
Millions moving between Red Meridian Logistics, shell companies overseas and accounts connected to Ferretti shipping routes.
Luca studied the numbers.
“This isn’t mine.”
“No one said it was,” Hope replied.
“Someone used my company.”
Cal nodded.
“Elias discovered it.”
A second file contained personnel names.
Private military contractors.
Customs officials.
Dock supervisors.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Gabriel Ferretti.
Luca’s dead uncle.
Hope pointed.
“If Gabriel ran this, why did it continue after he died?”
Cal looked at Luca.
“Because Gabriel wasn’t the top.”
Vincent stirred.
Hope leaned closer.
“Vincent?”
His eyes opened.
“Where…”
“Hospital.”
Fear immediately entered his face.
“Luca.”
“I’m here.”
Vincent looked toward him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I should have told you.”
“About Hope?”
“About everything.”
Luca approached.
“Then tell me now.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Gabriel did not die naturally.”
Cal leaned forward.
“You know that?”
“I arranged the doctor.”
Hope stared.
“You falsified his death?”
“No.”
Vincent swallowed.
“Gabriel was dying already. Cancer.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“He never told us.”
“He didn’t want sympathy.”
“Why fake anything?”
Vincent looked directly at Luca.
“Because Gabriel wanted the world to believe he died six months earlier than he actually did.”
Silence.
Hope asked, “Why?”
“To hunt the person who betrayed Elias.”
Cal stopped typing.
“Gabriel knew Elias was murdered?”
“Yes.”
Luca leaned against the bedrail.
“Who?”
“He never told me.”
“Where did he spend those six months?”
“A house in Maine.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Hope.
“With Rebecca Whitaker.”
Hope froze.
“My mother died eight years ago.”
Vincent shook his head.
“No, Hope.”
Her chair scraped backward.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She died in a hospital.”
“No.”
“I identified her belongings.”
“Daniel handled the identification.”
Hope stared at him.
“My father?”
“Daniel was protecting her.”
Hope could barely breathe.
“Protecting her from what?”
“Gabriel.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“You said Gabriel was hunting Elias’s killer.”
“He was.”
“Then why did Rebecca need protection from him?”
Vincent looked toward the door.
“Because Rebecca knew who the killer was.”
Hope’s entire body went cold.
“My mother is alive?”
Vincent nodded.
“As far as I know.”
Hope stood.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“You helped erase her life!”
“I helped her disappear.”
“Why?”
Vincent’s eyes filled with regret.
“Because she came to me six days after Elias died and said the man responsible had discovered Hope existed.”
Hope looked at Luca.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“You were the leverage.”
Luca’s expression became murderous.
“Against who?”
“Against Rebecca.”
Hope pressed her hands against the bedrail.
“What did my mother know?”
Vincent whispered, “She knew the Ferretti organization had been infiltrated for decades.”
Cal frowned.
“By law enforcement?”
“No.”
“Rival family?”
“No.”
Vincent shook his head.
“By someone who wanted Luca to inherit an empire already poisoned from inside.”
Hope felt sick.
“Who?”
Vincent looked at Luca.
“Your father.”
Luca laughed softly.
“My father has been dead fifteen years.”
“Yes.”
“But his system isn’t.”
Vincent explained slowly.
Domenico Ferretti had built parallel operations inside his own organization.
Hidden accounts.
Smuggling routes.
Political influence.
A network known only to a few people.
Elias discovered those routes were being used for weapons trafficking overseas.
He began collecting evidence.
The convoy attack happened weeks later.
Hope listened in stunned silence.
“My mother knew?”
“She had treated people for Domenico’s organization when she was young. She knew names. Codes. Places.”
“And she never told me.”
“She wanted you outside this world.”
Hope looked at Luca.
“How well did that work?”
He did not answer.
Cal returned to the flash drive.
“There are more encrypted files.”
“How long?”
“Hours.”
Hope turned to Vincent.
“You said you don’t know where my mother is.”
“I don’t.”
“But someone does.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Elias left a contact protocol.”
“What protocol?”
“A phone number that could only be activated by a phrase.”
Hope remembered the dying man.
“Did my brother eat dinner?”
Vincent stared.
Hope’s pulse accelerated.
“He kept asking me whether Luca had eaten.”
Luca looked at her.
Vincent nodded slowly.
“That was the phrase.”
Cal already had a phone out.
“What number?”
Vincent recited it.
Cal dialed.
A recorded voice answered.
“State your message.”
Hope took the phone.
Her hands shook.
She looked at Luca.
Then said, “Did my brother eat dinner?”
Silence.
The line disconnected.
Nothing happened.
Hope laughed bitterly.
“That’s it?”
Cal checked the phone.
“Wait.”
Incoming call.
Unknown number.
Hope answered.
No voice.
Then a woman breathed.
Hope knew that breath.
Memory did not need photographs.
“Mom?”
Silence.
Hope stood perfectly still.
“Mom?”
A sob came through the phone.
Small.
Broken.
“Hope.”
Hope’s knees weakened.
Luca caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I had to.”
“For eight years?”
“To keep you alive.”
Hope’s anger cracked open.
“Elias is dead.”
Rebecca went silent.
“He found me,” Hope continued. “He knew who I was.”
“I know.”
“He died holding my hand.”
A cry escaped Rebecca.
Hope closed her eyes.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“Because they were watching you.”
“Who?”
Rebecca whispered, “The same man who is watching you now.”
Hope looked toward the hospital window.
Across the street stood a parking garage.
On the roof, a figure.
Cal saw him.
“Down!”
Glass exploded.
Everyone dropped.
Luca covered Hope.
A bullet struck the wall above Vincent’s bed.
Security rushed inside.
Hope’s phone remained in her hand.
“Mom!”
Rebecca was still there.
“Hope, listen to me. You have to leave Luca.”
Hope stared at him.
“What?”
“Get away from him.”
“Why?”
Rebecca began crying.
“Because Elias was wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
“He thought Luca didn’t know.”
Hope’s blood went cold.
“Know what?”
Before Rebecca could answer, the line filled with static.
Then one final sentence came through.
“Ask Luca what happened the night your father died.”
The call disconnected.
Hope slowly turned.
Luca was staring at her.
She whispered, “What happened the night Daniel Whitaker died?”
May you like
And for the first time since Hope had met him, Luca Ferretti looked afraid of answering.
---
