Chapter 11 - Ten Minutes to Save Emma
Adrian had never looked helpless before.
Now he stood in a basement watching a man threaten his daughter, unable to reach her without putting her directly in danger.
Silas spoke calmly from the monitor.
“Bring Emma to the chapel. Come alone. If you involve the police, the child dies.”
Adrian stared at the screen.
“Let me speak to her.”
“You've spent your life giving orders, nephew. Consider this an opportunity to discover what it feels like when someone else holds the power.”
The image disappeared.
Santos immediately called the officers upstairs and ordered the building secured. Lucia was transferred into the care of a paramedic, while another officer gathered the medical evidence.
I stayed beside my sister.
“Your heart,” I whispered. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head weakly.
“They said someone was paying for my surgery. They told me you had stolen the money.”
My hands clenched.
“Who said that?”
“Karen.”
Across the room, Adrian turned toward us.
Lucia swallowed.
“She said you had tried to kill Emma because you wanted the money for me.”
“I never believed that,” Lucia said quickly. “I knew it wasn't true.”
I held her face between my hands.
“You don't have to prove anything to anyone.”
Then she reached into the pocket of her hospital gown and produced a folded piece of paper.
“I took it from the nurse. I thought it might help.”
It was a medical order bearing Silas's signature.
The document authorized the transfer of Lucia's surgery funds into a private account, with the operation to be postponed indefinitely.
But beneath Silas's signature was another name.
Dr. Paul Whitmore, the physician who had repeatedly assured us that Lucia's surgery was simply delayed.
Santos photographed the document.
“We have enough to establish the financial conspiracy, but we still need the original ledger and a confession connecting Silas to Sofia's murder.”
Adrian looked toward the stairs.
“Then we get both.”
I stood.
“I'm coming.”
“No,” he said automatically.
I waited.
He seemed to hear his own words and reconsidered.
“This isn't a negotiation,” he added more quietly. “It's a rescue operation. You stay with your sister.”
I hated that he was right.
Lucia grabbed my hand.
“Go,” she whispered. “If you let them hurt that baby, you'll never forgive yourself.”
I bent down and kissed her forehead.
“I'm coming back.”
Adrian, Dante, and Santos left through the service entrance. Their plan was to go to the chapel, where Silas expected them.
But as the door closed, my phone rang.
My father's voice came through, strained and breathless.
“Isabella, there's something you need to know about Emma.”
“What?”
“She's not only the heir to the Saint Fund.”
A pause.
May you like
Then he said the words that made every hair on my arms rise.
“She's the only person who can identify the man who killed her mother.”
