Chapter 2 - THE MAN EVERYONE FEARED
Ellie woke beneath white sheets.
For one terrifying second she thought she was home.
Then she smelled antiseptic.
A monitor beeped beside her.
She opened her eyes.
Private hospital room.
Fresh flowers.
An empty chair.
Her left shoulder was immobilized.
Her ribs were wrapped.
A nurse entered.
“You’re awake.”
“Where am I?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Ellie remembered the rain.
The black vehicles.
Adrian Moretti.
“My husband.”
The nurse hesitated.
“He hasn’t been here.”
Ellie almost laughed.
Of course he hadn’t.
Instead she asked, “The man who brought me?”
“Mr. Moretti?”
Even the nurse lowered her voice when saying his name.
“He’s outside.”
“Why?”
“I think he’s waiting for you.”
“For what?”
The nurse smiled carefully.
“You’d have to ask him.”
Ten minutes later, Adrian entered alone.
Without the rain, he looked less like a stranger and more dangerous somehow.
Dark suit.
White shirt.
No tie.
No visible jewelry except a watch.
Everything controlled.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
A faint movement touched the corner of his mouth.
“You have two cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a concussion. Nothing that should require surgery.”
Ellie studied him.
“How do you know?”
“I spoke to your doctor.”
“Doctors don’t usually tell strangers things.”
“They do when the patient gave permission.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did in the ambulance.”
Ellie remembered almost nothing.
Adrian placed something on the table.
Her purse.
Ellie stared.
“My purse.”
“It was thrown from the BMW about a mile from where we found you.”
Her heart dropped.
“My phone?”
“Inside.”
Ellie reached for it.
Then stopped.
“What happened?”
“Your husband reported you missing.”
Ellie laughed once.
The sound hurt her ribs.
“He abandoned me.”
“According to him, you became emotional after the gala, demanded he stop the car, then disappeared.”
Ellie stared at Adrian.
“He’s lying.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Adrian sat.
“Because his version changed three times before midnight.”
Ellie looked down.
Her phone contained thirty-two missed calls.
Her mother.
Her sister.
Two friends.
And nineteen from Philip.
Then a message.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Another.
STOP THIS NONSENSE.
Another.
You are destroying everything.
Ellie’s hands shook.
Adrian noticed.
“Would you like me to take the phone?”
“No.”
She kept scrolling.
Then she saw a message sent at 4:12 a.m.
Come home before this gets worse.
Ellie whispered, “Before this gets worse?”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“You think that’s a threat?”
“I think men like your husband rarely believe consequences apply to them.”
“Men like Philip?”
“Men who confuse control with love.”
Ellie looked at him.
“And men like you?”
Adrian was silent.
Then, surprisingly, he answered.
“Sometimes men like me confuse control with survival.”
The honesty unsettled her.
Before she could respond, someone knocked.
A hospital administrator entered looking pale.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“What happened?”
“Mr. Hughes is downstairs.”
Ellie froze.
“He knows I’m here?”
“He has apparently contacted several members of the board.”
Adrian stood.
Ellie’s breathing accelerated.
“No.”
Adrian turned.
“No what?”
“Don’t let him come in.”
“I won’t.”
“He’ll make a scene.”
“Then he’ll make it downstairs.”
“Adrian.”
It was the first time she had used his name.
He looked back.
Ellie swallowed.
“He always convinces people.”
Adrian studied her.
“Not everyone.”
Downstairs, Philip Hughes was shouting at a security supervisor.
“That is my wife.”
“She has requested no visitors.”
“She’s confused.”
“Sir—”
“She has a concussion. I am her legal husband.”
Then a voice came from behind him.
“And she said no.”
Philip turned.
Adrian Moretti stood twenty feet away.
Every employee in the lobby seemed to stop moving.
Philip’s anger vanished beneath surprise.
“Moretti.”
“Hughes.”
“What are you doing here?”
Adrian continued walking.
“I brought your wife in.”
Philip’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But Adrian saw it.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Where?”
Adrian stopped.
“Interesting question.”
Philip forced a smile.
“Ellie and I had an argument. She got out of the car.”
“Your first version said she disappeared while you were buying fuel.”
Philip’s smile vanished.
“You talked to police?”
“No.”
“Then how—”
“I listen.”
Philip stepped closer.
“This is between my wife and me.”
“No.”
“It absolutely is.”
“Not once she asked you to stay away.”
Philip lowered his voice.
“You have no idea what kind of woman she is.”
Adrian’s eyes became dangerously still.
Philip continued.
“She dramatizes things.”
“Does she also dislocate her own shoulder?”
Silence.
Several people heard it.
Philip’s face reddened.
“You should mind your own business.”
Adrian leaned slightly closer.
“I was minding my business when I found her bleeding in the road.”
Philip stared at him.
Adrian spoke softly.
“That made it my business.”
Philip left twenty minutes later.
But before he reached his BMW, he called someone.
“Find out everything Moretti knows.”
A voice answered.
“And Ellie?”
Philip looked up toward her hospital window.
“She comes home.”
“What if she refuses?”
Philip’s jaw tightened.
“She won’t.”
Upstairs, Ellie was staring at an envelope delivered anonymously to her room.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
Ellie at the gala.
Philip beside her.
And behind them, watching from across the ballroom—
Adrian Moretti.
May you like
Written on the back were five words.
HE DIDN’T FIND YOU BY ACCIDENT.
