Chapter 4 - The Woman on the Camera
I drove to the warehouse without waiting for backup.
It was a mistake.
I knew that before I arrived.
But grief is not logical.
Neither is hope.
The warehouse stood near the old industrial district.
Victor's car was parked outside.
I entered alone.
The building was empty.
Too empty.
There was one chair.
One table.
One projector.
And one screen.
The screen turned on.
Elena appeared.
Not old footage.
Live footage.
She was sitting in a room I didn't recognize.
Her face looked thinner.
Her hair was shorter.
But it was her.
"Vincent."
My knees almost failed.
"Where are you?"
She looked directly into the camera.
"I know you're watching."
The video cut.
Then another message appeared.
COME ALONE.
Behind me, footsteps echoed.
I turned.
Clara.
I stared.
"What are you doing here?"
"Saving you from doing something stupid."
"I told you to stay at the estate."
"I ignored you."
"I noticed."
She looked at the screen.
"Is that Elena?"
"Yes."
She touched my arm.
"Then we need to think."
"No."
I pulled away.
"We need to find her."
"That's exactly what they want."
I stopped.
Clara was right.
The room had been designed to provoke me.
I had spent years using fear to control situations.
Now someone was using my grief to control me.
We left.
Back at the estate, Dominic had found the source.
The video was being transmitted through a server in one of my old companies.
A company I had sold three years earlier.
But the server still existed.
And Victor had administrator access.
"Find him."
"We're trying."
Then Clara's phone rang.
She answered.
Nobody spoke.
She listened.
Then hung up.
"What?"
She looked pale.
"It was Daniel."
My heart stopped again.
"Your brother?"
She nodded.
"He said Elena is alive."
"Where?"
"He doesn't know."
"Then how did he call?"
"He said he has been tracking Victor."
I stared.
Daniel had supposedly disappeared eighteen months earlier.
"What really happened to him?"
Clara swallowed.
"He went undercover."
"Into my organization?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Elena asked him."
My anger changed direction.
"Why didn't she ask me?"
"Because she didn't know who had betrayed you."
I looked away.
"She should have trusted me."
Clara said nothing.
Perhaps because she knew that wasn't completely true.
The next day, we found Daniel.
He was in a safe house in Indiana.
Alive.
Older.
Exhausted.
When he saw Clara, he hugged her.
Then he looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
"You should be."
He lowered his head.
"Elena believed Victor had infiltrated the Rossi organization with someone above him."
"Who?"
"Your father."
I stared.
"My father died twenty years ago."
"Exactly."
Daniel opened a file.
"He left behind an operation that continued without him."
I read the names.
Financial brokers.
Private investigators.
Judges.
Businessmen.
And one name that appeared again and again.
Anthony Rossi.
My uncle.
I hadn't spoken to him in ten years.
"He's alive."
"Yes."
"Where?"
Daniel shook his head.
"We don't know."
Clara stepped closer.
"Elena went after him."
I looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because she discovered he had arranged the bombing."
My heart broke all over again.
"My uncle killed Elena?"
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"He ordered the attack. But Elena survived."
I gripped the table.
"Where is she?"
"Protected."
"By whom?"
Daniel looked at Clara.
"Her."
I turned.
Clara said nothing.
Then she finally confessed.
"Elena survived the blast."
"Why didn't she come home?"
"Because she believed whoever ordered the bombing would come after Matteo."
"So she stayed away."
"Yes."
"She left me believing she was dead."
"Because she thought grief would keep you unpredictable."
I laughed bitterly.
"It did."
Clara stepped closer.
"Vincent."
I looked at her.
"She told me that if you found out she was alive too early, you'd destroy everything trying to get her back."
I couldn't answer.
I had.
I absolutely would have.
That was the painful truth.
The revelation came that night.
Elena was brought to the estate under heavy protection.
Matteo was asleep.
I stood in the hallway when she stepped through the door.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then she whispered,
"Vincent."
I forgot every word.
I walked toward her.
She cried.
So did I.
I held her.
Not because I was angry.
Because I had spent fourteen months believing that feeling no longer belonged to me.
She whispered against my chest,
"I'm sorry."
"You should be."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You watched me fall apart."
"I know."
"Why?"
She pulled back.
"Because the person who ordered the bombing was inside your life."
"Anthony."
She nodded.
"And Victor worked for him."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because if I had, you would have killed them."
I stared at her.
She looked at me.
"I knew you."
She touched my face.
"And I knew what vengeance would turn you into."
My eyes burned.
"I already became him."
"No."
She shook her head.
"You stopped."
Then she looked at Clara.
She smiled.
"She helped."
I glanced at Clara.
My feelings became impossible to name.
Gratitude.
Respect.
Something deeper.
Elena saw it.
She understood.
"You love her."
Clara froze.
I looked at Elena.
"That's not what this is."
Elena smiled sadly.
"It doesn't have to be today."
She walked toward Matteo's room.
I stopped her.
"He's changed."
"How?"
"He's speaking."
Elena covered her mouth.
I opened the door.
Matteo woke.
He stared at his mother.
For a second he didn't recognize her.
Then he whispered,
"Mommy?"
Elena dropped beside him.
They embraced.
I stood in the doorway.
Clara stood beside me.
She whispered,
"You got your family back."
I looked at her.
"Not all of it."
She looked up.
"What do you mean?"
I couldn't answer.
Because I had just realized something terrifying.
The hidden cameras had shown me my wife was alive.
They had shown me who had betrayed me.
May you like
But they had also shown me Clara.
And I couldn't stop thinking about her.
