Chapter 4 - ELENA'S SECRET
The bullet missed Elena by less than six inches.
Luca heard the glass explode.
Then Elena screamed.
He threw himself from the wheelchair.
His legs failed instantly.
But his hands caught Elena around the waist.
They crashed together behind the desk.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Victor fired toward the window.
"DOWN!"
Maya screamed from the hallway.
Luca's blood froze.
"GET HER OUT!"
Guards rushed Maya downstairs.
Elena lay beneath Luca.
Neither moved.
"You okay?"
She nodded.
"You?"
"No idea."
Another shot never came.
The shooter disappeared.
Thirty minutes later, police found an abandoned rifle half a mile away.
No prints.
No shell casings.
Professional.
Luca sat in the study afterward.
Elena stood across from him.
Vale's final message remained on the desk.
ELE.
Elena.
Or something else.
"Tell me everything."
She looked at him.
"I have."
"No."
His voice was quiet.
"You haven't."
Elena looked away.
Luca waited.
Finally, she spoke.
"Someone contacted me twelve years ago."
Luca stopped breathing.
"When?"
"After you disappeared."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"What did they say?"
"They told me you were dead."
Luca stared at her.
"They knew about us?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I don't know."
"Did they know you were pregnant?"
Elena hesitated.
That hesitation answered him.
Luca whispered, "Jesus."
"They offered me money."
"How much?"
"Five hundred thousand dollars."
Luca's face went cold.
"What did you do?"
"I refused."
"Why?"
"Because they wanted something in return."
"What?"
Elena looked toward the window.
"They wanted me to disappear."
Luca's stomach tightened.
"With Maya."
"Yes."
"What exactly did they say?"
Elena's voice trembled.
"They said if Luca Costello ever learned he had a child, people would die."
Luca stared.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I thought you were dead!"
"Later."
"I didn't know who you were!"
"Later, Elena."
She shouted.
"Because I was terrified!"
Silence.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I had a baby."
"I had no money."
"I had no family."
"And some stranger knew where I lived, knew who you were, knew I was pregnant, and knew things about me nobody should have known."
She wiped her face angrily.
"So I ran."
Luca's anger disappeared.
"Where?"
"Milwaukee."
"For how long?"
"Four years."
"Then?"
"Indiana."
"Then Chicago."
"Why come back?"
Elena laughed bitterly.
"Because after twelve years, I thought whoever wanted us gone had forgotten."
She looked around his mansion.
"Then I got a housekeeping job here."
Luca stared at her.
"You didn't know this was my house."
"No."
"Not until you saw me?"
"No."
"And you still stayed?"
Elena's eyes moved toward the garden.
"Maya saw you first."
Luca understood.
The hedge.
The dancing.
The impossible accident that had brought his daughter directly to him.
"You should have told me."
"Yes."
"Immediately."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you?"
Elena looked at him.
"Because I wanted to know if you were dangerous."
Luca almost laughed.
"I am."
"Not to her."
"No."
"That's what I needed to know."
Luca looked away.
He couldn't hate her for that.
He might have done the same thing.
Victor entered carrying a plastic evidence bag.
"We found this inside the rifle case."
A photograph.
Luca took it.
It showed Elena leaving a hospital.
Twelve years earlier.
She was holding newborn Maya.
Written across the bottom were five words.
THE CHILD SHOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED.
Luca's face changed.
Then he turned the photograph over.
May you like
There was another message.
SHE STILL CAN.
