Chapter 10 - The Right-Hand Man’s Betrayal
Dante Moretti was on his knees beside the motel bed when Adrian forced him to confess.
He didn't deny sending information to Silas. He didn't deny knowing that Karen had planned to frame me.
But he insisted he had never intended to hurt Emma.
“Silas has my younger brother,” he said. “He took him two years ago and promised to release him if I helped recover the ledger.”
Adrian pressed his gun against Dante's forehead.
“You let a child be thrown into a dumpster.”
“No. I didn't know Karen was going to put Emma there. I thought she was moving the baby to another property.”
“You disabled the cameras.”
“Yes.”
“You gave them Isabella's identity.”
Dante looked at me.
“I gave them the name of an employee who had found the missing medical files. I didn't know Karen would make you the scapegoat.”
“You knew enough to stop her,” I said.
He had no answer.
Adrian lowered his weapon, but his expression was colder than before.
“If you're lying, I'll bury you myself.”
“I'm not.”
Dante gave us the location of the medical facility and explained how to enter without triggering its security alarms. His betrayal had not made him innocent. It had made him useful.
Santos organized a quiet operation with two officers she trusted. Adrian insisted on going with them.
I insisted on going too.
“No,” he said.
“Lucia is my sister.”
“It's dangerous.”
“So was the dumpster. So was your basement. So was being arrested for something I didn't do. I'm done being locked in rooms while other people make decisions about my life.”
Adrian studied me for a long moment.
Then he handed me a small communication device.
“You stay behind the officers.”
I nodded, though I had no intention of standing still if Lucia needed me.
At eleven forty-five, we reached the medical facility.
The building was dark except for a single lit window on the second floor.
Dante's instructions worked. We entered through a service corridor and found a stairwell leading to the basement.
We heard a child crying before we reached the bottom.
I rushed toward the sound.
Lucia sat on a narrow bed, pale and frightened, with an intravenous line attached to her arm.
“Isabella?”
I ran to her.
She clutched my neck so tightly that I could feel her trembling.
“I knew you'd come.”
Behind the bed, a monitor displayed her heart rhythm. The medication beside it was unfamiliar.
A nurse appeared in the doorway.
“Step away from the patient.”
Santos raised her badge.
“Police. Put your hands where I can see them.”
The nurse reached for an alarm.
Dante stopped her.
For one hopeful second, I thought we had won.
Then a screen flickered on above Lucia's bed.
Silas Valente appeared, smiling into the camera.
“Adrian,” he said, “I wondered when you'd come to rescue your favorite people.”
He leaned closer.
“You have ten minutes to return Emma to me.”
The screen changed.
May you like
Emma lay in a crib in an unfamiliar room.
A gloved hand entered the frame and lifted a syringe.
