Chapter 4 - The Threat Hidden Inside the Walls
Rafferty returned to Fay's apartment within ten minutes.
The door had been forced open.
The lock hung broken.
Furniture had been moved.
Drawers had been emptied.
Yet almost nothing had been stolen.
Silvano held up the photograph.
Someone had circled Fay's face in black ink.
On the back was a single sentence.
“She remembers too much.”
Fay stood behind Rafferty.
“What does that mean?”
He turned toward her.
“Did your mother ever tell you why she visited the monastery?”
Fay swallowed.
“No.”
“What about your father?”
Her expression changed.
“I never knew him.”
Rafferty frowned.
Silvano had found the old monastery records.
Marguerite Delacroix had worked there for several years.
But she had not simply worked there.
She had been close to a wealthy benefactor.
A man named August Cain.
Rafferty's grandfather.
Fay's eyes widened.
“Your grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“Why would my mother know him?”
“We don't know.”
Silvano produced another document.
A handwritten note.
Marguerite had received money every month from an account belonging to August Cain.
Not enough to make her wealthy.
Enough to support her quietly.
Fay whispered, “My mother never told me.”
Rafferty looked at the dates.
The payments began one month after Fay was born.
Then stopped abruptly when Fay was eleven.
The same year Rafferty had left the monastery.
Something was wrong.
He ordered every old Cain family record opened.
What they found was worse.
August Cain had secretly maintained a second charitable foundation.
Its purpose was supposedly to support orphaned children.
But the records revealed another function.
Certain children had been placed under protection because their parents had information about local criminal networks.
The monastery had been a hiding place.
Fay's mother had known.
And so had Rafferty's father.
The implication was dangerous.
Rafferty's childhood had not been random.
His adoption had not been random.
Someone had chosen who was protected.
Someone had chosen who disappeared.
That evening, Celeste came to the estate.
She had spent the night calling lawyers.
She demanded to see Rafferty.
He refused.
She threatened to expose private business arrangements between their families.
He still refused.
Eventually she shouted from the hall.
“You're throwing away a dynasty for a servant?”
Rafferty opened the door.
“You're confusing her value with your prejudice.”
Celeste stared at him.
“She manipulated you.”
“No.”
“She recognized your weakness and used it.”
Rafferty almost laughed.
“My weakness?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what my weakness is, Celeste?”
She said nothing.
“Believing people have good intentions.”
He stepped closer.
“I made that mistake with you.”
Her expression hardened.
“You think she's innocent?”
“I think she was on her knees because you ordered her there.”
“She was nobody.”
Rafferty's voice became quiet.
“Never say that again.”
Celeste realized too late that she had crossed a line.
Rafferty turned away.
The engagement was officially ended.
Within hours, the Vanderpools threatened retaliation.
The city began whispering.
But Rafferty was no longer concerned with reputation.
He was concerned with Fay.
When he returned to her apartment later that night, he found her sitting beside Josie.
The little girl was holding a paper boat.
She looked at Rafferty.
Then she held it toward him.
He smiled.
“That's mine.”
Fay laughed quietly.
“You've been teaching her stories.”
“She likes boats.”
Rafferty sat on the floor.
Josie placed her paper boat beside his old one.
Two boats.
Side by side.
The sight nearly broke him.
Fay watched.
“You remember everything?”
“Not everything.”
“Enough?”
“Yes.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I was afraid when I saw you again.”
“Why?”
“Because the boy I remembered was kind.”
She looked at him.
“You became the most feared man in New Orleans.”
Rafferty smiled sadly.
“I needed to.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody protected us.”
She knew exactly what he meant.
Her mother.
The monastery.
The children.
Fay reached for his hand.
“We survived.”
Rafferty looked down at their joined hands.
“Yes.”
Then someone fired a shot through the window.
Rafferty moved instantly.
He pulled Fay and Josie to the floor.
Silvano's men rushed in.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Then silence.
Rafferty crawled toward the window.
Outside, a dark vehicle disappeared around the corner.
Silvano ran in.
“They're gone.”
Rafferty looked at Fay.
She was shielding Josie with her body.
His jaw tightened.
“This ends now.”
He ordered a citywide search.
Every surveillance camera.
Every harbor entrance.
Every road out.
The shooter was identified before midnight.
A man connected to the Vanderpool organization.
But the real surprise came when he was caught.
He wasn't working for Celeste.
He was working for someone inside the Cain family.
Rafferty's own uncle.
The betrayal cut deeper than a bullet.
His uncle had been quietly communicating with the Vanderpools for years.
He knew about the monastery.
He knew about Fay's mother.
And he knew exactly why someone wanted Fay silent.
The old records contained one missing page.
A list of names.
Children protected by August Cain.
At the bottom was one final entry.
“Fay Delacroix — biological daughter of…”
The line had been torn away.
Rafferty stared at it.
Fay stood beside him.
“What if my father wasn't absent?”
Rafferty answered quietly.
“What if he was removed?”
Neither of them noticed Silvano's expression.
He had found something else.
A private medical record.
Fay's blood type.
Josie's blood type.
And the name of a hospital physician who had treated Fay's mother twenty-eight years earlier.
Dr. Elias Moreau.
A physician who had disappeared from New Orleans after the monastery scandal.
Silvano looked at Rafferty.
“I think we're looking in the wrong direction.”
Rafferty frowned.
“Why?”
May you like
“Because if Elias Moreau is still alive, he may know exactly who Fay's father was.”
And for the first time, Rafferty realized that the woman he had spent his life searching for might be carrying the secret that could explain his own past.
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