Chapter 5 - A MOTHER’S GHOSTVictor read the message three times.
Each time, his face became colder.
Lena felt nothing cold.
She burned.
“Give her the ledger.”
Dominic said, “Lena—”
“Give it to her.”
“We don’t know whether she’ll release Noah.”
“I don’t care.”
Victor looked at her.
“I do.”
She stepped toward him.
“That’s easy for you to say. It isn’t your brother tied to a chair.”
“No. It’s my mother holding him.”
“And whose fault is that?”
The question struck.
Victor said nothing.
Lena regretted it for about half a second.
Then she remembered Noah’s frightened face.
“I saved your life last night. My home was destroyed. I found out your people knew my father was in danger. Then I learned one of them killed him. Now your supposedly dead mother has my brother.”
Her voice cracked.
“So yes, Victor. Give her the damn book.”
He nodded.
“We will.”
Dominic objected.
“That ledger is leverage.”
Victor turned.
“Noah is twelve.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
“I know exactly what you mean.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“And if becoming my father requires sacrificing children for leverage, I’d rather burn everything he built.”
Dominic fell silent.
Silas watched Victor with an unreadable expression.
They returned to Manhattan.
The second cassette waited inside the recovered evidence bag.
Lena held it before inserting it into the player.
Victor stood beside her.
“You don’t have to listen.”
“Yes, I do.”
Daniel’s voice emerged through static.
This recording was different.
Not a message.
A conversation.
Daniel: “Tell me what you did.”
A woman replied.
Isabella.
“You’re being melodramatic.”
Daniel: “Antonio is dead.”
Isabella: “Antonio was dying in every way that mattered.”
Victor shut his eyes.
Daniel: “You poisoned him.”
Isabella: “I freed everyone from him.”
Daniel: “Including Victor?”
Long pause.
Isabella: “Especially Victor.”
Daniel: “He loved his father.”
Isabella: “Children love monsters when monsters tuck them into bed.”
The tape crackled.
Daniel: “And the accounts?”
Isabella: “Insurance.”
Daniel: “You stole eighty million dollars.”
Isabella laughed softly.
“I relocated eighty million dollars.”
Victor turned away.
Then Daniel asked the question Lena needed answered.
“Did you order my death?”
Silence.
Isabella finally said:
“No.”
Lena’s breath caught.
Daniel: “Silas thinks you did.”
Isabella: “Silas believes whatever makes him useful.”
Daniel: “You told him I betrayed you.”
“I told him you became dangerous.”
Daniel: “You knew what he would do.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Lena stopped the tape.
She couldn’t breathe.
Silas stood in the corner, face gray.
“You knew she manipulated you,” Lena said.
“Eventually.”
“And that makes it better?”
“No.”
Victor watched Silas.
“You killed Daniel because my mother suggested it.”
“I killed Daniel because I was ambitious, afraid, and stupid enough to believe violence solved complicated problems.”
Silas’s voice held no defense.
“I have spent eighteen years understanding the difference between regret and absolution.”
Lena stared.
“And?”
“Regret belongs to me. Absolution belongs to you.”
“You’re never getting it.”
“I know.”
Victor’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
His mother’s voice filled the room.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Victor stood completely still.
“Mother.”
Lena had expected anger.
Instead, his voice sounded like that of a boy waking from a nightmare.
Isabella laughed gently.
“It’s been too long.”
“You’re dead.”
“Apparently not.”
“Release Noah.”
“Bring me the ledger.”
“You don’t need the boy.”
“I needed your attention.”
“You had it when I saw your photograph.”
“Silas always did enjoy theatrics.”
Silas leaned toward the phone.
“You’re getting predictable, Isabella.”
Her voice hardened.
“And you’re getting old.”
Victor interrupted.
“Where?”
“Pier Twenty-Seven. Midnight.”
“Too public.”
“That’s why it’s safe.”
“For you.”
“For everyone.”
Lena stepped closer.
“I want to speak to Noah.”
Silence.
Then Isabella said, “The maid.”
“My name is Lena.”
“I know who you are.”
“Put my brother on.”
A pause.
Then Noah’s voice.
“Lena?”
She nearly broke.
“I’m here.”
“I’m okay.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“No.”
Isabella came back.
“See? I’m not a monster.”
Lena’s voice turned hard.
“You kidnapped a twelve-year-old.”
“We all have flaws.”
The line went dead.
Dominic immediately began planning.
Snipers.
Vehicles.
Secondary teams.
Tracking devices in the ledger.
Victor listened, then shook his head.
“She’ll anticipate all of it.”
Silas agreed.
“Yes.”
Dominic glared.
“I don’t remember asking you.”
“You should.”
Lena looked at the ledger.
“What does Isabella actually want?”
“To destroy it,” Victor said.
“Then we don’t give her the original.”
Dominic frowned.
“She’ll check.”
“Not before Noah is released if she thinks we’re scared.”
Victor studied Lena.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Make a copy.”
Silas smiled faintly.
“There’s Daniel.”
Lena ignored him.
“Give her something good enough to survive five minutes. We only need Noah back.”
Victor nodded slowly.
Dominic began arranging a replica.
But Lena had another idea.
“What if the ledger isn’t her real problem?”
Victor looked at the cassette.
“The confession.”
“Yes.”
Isabella didn’t know they had it.
That was leverage.
By eleven thirty, rain covered Manhattan.
Victor, Lena, and Dominic drove toward the pier.
Silas stayed behind under guard, though Lena suspected no room could hold him if he truly wanted out.
The replica ledger rested in a leather bag.
Lena wore a wire.
Victor carried no visible weapon.
Pier Twenty-Seven was nearly empty.
A river tour vessel rocked against its dock.
Isabella waited beneath a covered pavilion.
Lena recognized her immediately from old photographs.
Elegant.
Silver hair.
Perfect posture.
Victor stopped twenty feet away.
For several seconds mother and son simply stared.
Isabella smiled.
“My beautiful boy.”
Victor’s face remained expressionless.
“Where is Noah?”
“You don’t hug your mother after eight years?”
“You’re not my mother tonight.”
Something flickered in her eyes.
Then two men brought Noah forward.
His hands were bound.
Lena started toward him.
A guard blocked her.
Isabella lifted a hand.
“Ledger first.”
Victor held up the bag.
“Noah first.”
“Halfway.”
They moved simultaneously.
Dominic remained near the car.
Lena followed Victor.
Noah walked with the guards.
When they reached the center, Victor tossed the bag.
One guard caught it.
Isabella opened the ledger.
She flipped three pages.
Lena watched her face.
For one glorious second, Isabella believed it.
“Release him.”
The guard cut Noah’s restraints.
He ran.
Lena grabbed him.
“Go to Dominic.”
Noah sprinted.
Isabella kept flipping pages.
Then she stopped.
Victor saw it.
She smiled.
“Oh, Victor.”
His hand moved inside his jacket.
Isabella tore out a page.
“This copy is impressive.”
Everything exploded.
Men emerged from behind shipping containers.
Dominic fired.
Victor pulled Lena down as bullets struck metal.
Noah reached the car.
Isabella disappeared behind her guards.
Victor shouted, “Move!”
They ran.
Lena slipped.
Victor caught her.
Dominic covered them.
Then one of Isabella’s men appeared ten feet away and raised a pistol.
Before he could fire, a shot came from above.
The man fell.
Victor looked toward a warehouse roof.
Silas Kane stood there holding a rifle.
Dominic shouted, “I told him to stay behind!”
Lena almost laughed from panic.
They reached the SUV.
Noah was safe inside.
Victor climbed behind the wheel himself.
They sped away as sirens approached.
Lena hugged Noah.
“You okay?”
He nodded.
Then reached into his sleeve.
“I took something.”
She stared.
“What?”
“When that woman was looking at the fake book.”
He opened his hand.
A small gold key lay in his palm.
Victor glanced through the mirror.
“Where did you get that?”
“It fell out of her purse when she grabbed the ledger.”
Stamped on the key were the letters:
GRAND CENTRAL — 417.
Dominic stared.
“A locker.”
Victor looked at Noah.
“You stole my mother’s key?”
Noah shrugged.
“She kidnapped me.”
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Victor laughed.
A real laugh.
Lena did too.
Then Victor’s expression became serious.
“If Isabella was carrying that key during an exchange, whatever is in that locker matters.”
At 1:20 a.m., Dominic opened locker 417 beneath Grand Central Terminal.
Inside sat one envelope.
Victor removed it.
On the front, written by Isabella Romano herself:
FOR VICTOR, AFTER I’M GONE.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Victor read it.
Then read it again.
His face went white.
Lena stepped closer.
“What?”
Victor handed her the document.
Father:
Antonio Romano.
Mother:
Isabella Romano.
Child:
Dominic Anthony Romano.
Lena looked at Dominic.
Dominic stared at the page as though it were a bomb.
May you like
Victor whispered:
“You’re my brother.”
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