Chapter 8 - The TrapThe police wanted us evacuated.
Dominic refused until the children were moved.
This time I didn’t argue.
Within an hour, Lily and the triplets were transported to a secure property outside the city.
I went with them.
Dominic remained behind with Nicholas and federal agents.
Before leaving, Adrian grabbed his father.
“Promise you’re coming.”
Dominic crouched.
“I promise.”
“No.”
Adrian’s eyes filled.
“Really promise.”
Dominic understood.
He placed both hands on his son's shoulders.
“I am coming home to you.”
Adrian nodded.
Then Dominic looked at me.
“Keep them safe.”
I almost laughed.
“You have approximately thirty armed professionals doing that.”
“I trust you more.”
The words stayed with me.
At the safe house, nobody slept.
At ten, Benjamin asked when Dad was coming.
At eleven, Caleb asked.
At midnight, Adrian stopped asking.
That worried me more.
Lily sat beside him.
“My dad died.”
I looked at her.
She rarely spoke about Michael with strangers.
Adrian stared.
“I know.”
“I used to think if Mom left the house, she might die too.”
My breath caught.
Lily continued.
“So I got stomachaches before she went to work.”
I had known about the stomachaches.
I hadn’t known why.
“You never told me,” I whispered.
She shrugged.
“I didn't want you to be sad.”
Children protect parents in terrible little ways.
Adrian whispered, “I make nannies leave before I like them.”
And there it was.
The entire mystery.
Not cruelty.
Control.
If he forced them away before loving them, their leaving couldn't surprise him.
Caleb started crying.
“I liked Ms. Parker.”
One of the former nannies.
“Then why did you put frogs in her bed?” Benjamin asked.
“Because I liked her!”
Lily looked at me.
“Boys are weird.”
I almost laughed while crying.
I gathered all four children against me.
“You don’t have to make people leave first.”
Adrian whispered, “People leave anyway.”
“Sometimes.”
It hurt to say.
“Sometimes people leave because life is unfair. Sometimes they leave because they make choices. But loving somebody isn't a contract that guarantees they stay forever.”
“Then why do it?”
I thought about Michael.
About two years of grief.
About every moment I would still choose again.
“Because the time you get with them matters.”
Adrian leaned against my shoulder.
At 12:43, my phone rang.
Dominic.
I answered immediately.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find the shooter?”
“No.”
Something in his voice felt wrong.
“Dominic?”
He was quiet.
Then he said, “Claire, listen carefully.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The messages weren’t sent from an outside phone.”
“What do you mean?”
“They originated from a device registered to the safe house.”
I looked around.
My skin went cold.
“Someone here?”
“Yes.”
“Who knows we’re here?”
“Marco. Federal agents. Nicholas. Victoria.”
“Victoria?”
“She was transported separately.”
I looked toward the hallway.
A door creaked.
One of the security guards appeared.
“Everything okay, ma’am?”
I stared at him.
I had never seen him before.
“Dominic.”
“Yes?”
“How many guards were assigned inside?”
“Four.”
“I count five.”
The stranger smiled.
I screamed.
He lunged.
I threw the phone at him and slammed the door.
“Kids! Bathroom! Now!”
The children ran.
The man hit the door.
Once.
Twice.
The lock cracked.
I pushed a dresser across it.
Lily dragged Caleb.
Adrian grabbed Benjamin.
Another impact.
Wood splintered.
“Claire!”
Dominic’s voice came faintly through the phone on the floor.
The man broke through.
I grabbed the nearest object.
A lamp.
I swung.
It shattered against his shoulder.
He cursed and grabbed me.
I kicked.
He threw me against the wall.
Pain exploded across my back.
Then Adrian attacked him.
A six-year-old launched himself at a grown man.
“NO!”
The intruder grabbed Adrian.
I saw red.
I hit him with the broken lamp base.
He dropped the boy.
Then gunfire sounded outside.
The man ran toward the back window.
Security entered seconds later.
“Down!”
I covered the children.
The intruder escaped through the window but was captured on the lawn.
Dominic arrived twenty-one minutes later.
I knew because I watched every minute on the clock.
When he entered, the triplets ran.
He dropped to his knees and caught all three.
Then Lily joined.
Then, inexplicably, I did too.
For a moment there was no billionaire.
No nanny.
No contracts.
Just six terrified people holding on to one another.
The captured intruder was named Evan Pike.
Former private security.
He had worked for the Moretti family seven years earlier.
He confessed within hours.
Raymond had paid him.
But Raymond wasn’t directing him anymore.
Someone else was.
“Who?” Dominic demanded.
Pike gave investigators a name.
Not Victoria.
Not Nicholas.
Not another Moretti.
May you like
Marco.
The man Dominic trusted with his life.
