Chapter 11 - The Wrong Driver
Milo moved Clara through a narrow service passage.
“Stay behind me.”
“My daughter—”
“Dora knows the route.”
They reached the laundry room as footsteps crossed the kitchen.
Dora appeared from the rear staircase carrying Noel’s shoes.
Noel followed in socks, clutching her horse.
“Quiet game,” she whispered.
Clara nearly broke.
“Yes, baby.”
They slipped into the garage.
Milo opened the back door of an old staff wagon.
“Get down.”
As he started the engine, someone struck the garage’s side door.
Once.
Hard.
Milo drove through the opening before it finished lifting.
The roof scraped metal.
Noel screamed.
Clara held her against her chest.
Behind them, a man ran into the driveway.
Milo didn’t stop.
He took them to a staffed hotel downtown under arrangements made by Raphael’s lawyer.
An investigator met them there.
So did Raphael, forty minutes later.
He looked at Noel first.
Then Clara.
“What happened?”
She handed him the phone.
He listened without speaking.
When Evelyn mentioned Noel, he closed his eyes.
When the recording ended, he asked Milo to take Dora and the child into the next room.
Clara stayed.
“You were right,” he said.
“About what?”
“Calling it off.”
She swallowed.
“You can call it off now.”
His attorney entered before he answered.
The investigators wanted everyone safe.
The threats were enough to act on.
The financial case would take longer.
The wedding could be canceled with officers present to prevent anyone approaching Clara or Noel.
Raphael agreed.
They arranged to meet at the church in the morning, before guests arrived, where the wedding documents and wine were already being delivered.
Victor had insisted on bringing both himself.
At dawn, Milo went ahead with Raphael.
A second driver was sent for Clara, Dora, and Noel.
Clara saw the car through the hotel window.
Then she saw the man beside it.
The same man from the driveway.
He was wearing a different coat.
That was all.
“He’s not ours,” she whispered.
Dora pulled Noel away from the window.
Clara called Milo.
No service.
The hotel phone at the desk had a line.
She used it to reach the investigator, then Raphael’s lawyer.
Both told her to stay upstairs.
Then a message appeared on her phone.
From Raphael’s number.
CHANGE OF PLAN. CEREMONY PROCEEDS.
Clara stared at it.
Raphael had promised to stop.
May you like
Either he had broken that promise—
Or somebody else had his phone.
