Chapter 3 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Everything happened at once.
Security doors slammed.
Nurses ran.
A voice announced a lockdown.
Marcus pushed me behind a concrete pillar.
“Don't move.”
“My son—”
“I'll get him.”
“No.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“I'm coming.”
“Claire, you don't know what you're walking into.”
“I know exactly what I'm walking into.”
We ran.
Paige unlocked the pediatric wing using a security card.
Inside, Noah was still standing beside the glass.
“Mama?”
I wanted to reach him.
I wanted to hold him.
But alarms were screaming.
Paige grabbed his hand.
“Come on.”
We moved through a secondary corridor.
Three security officers appeared.
One was genuine.
Two weren't.
Marcus recognized them immediately.
“Down!”
A gunshot struck the wall.
Noah screamed.
I grabbed him and dropped to the floor.
For the first time in my life, I held my son.
Not as an idea.
Not as a name in a file.
A real child.
Warm.
Shaking.
Alive.
He clung to my coat.
“I knew you'd come.”
I couldn't breathe.
“How?”
He looked at me.
“Dad said you would.”
I froze.
“Evan told you about me?”
Noah nodded.
“He said you were brave.”
I closed my eyes.
He knew.
He had always known.
The attack lasted less than four minutes.
But those four minutes changed everything.
Marcus and the legitimate security officers pushed the attackers out.
Noah was taken to a protected room.
Paige locked the door behind us.
Then she looked at me.
“He knew this day would come.”
“Evan?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
That answer terrified me.
Before we could continue, Noah spoke.
“Mom.”
I turned.
“Dad said never trust Uncle Daniel.”
My blood froze.
Daniel Voss.
The man Evan claimed was dead.
“What did he tell you about Daniel?”
Noah shook his head.
“He said Daniel is why we had to hide.”
Paige looked at Marcus.
Marcus nodded.
“We need to leave now.”
We moved Noah to a private vehicle.
I sat in the back seat beside him.
He leaned against me.
I couldn't stop touching his hair.
His hands.
His face.
Ten years.
Ten years I'd missed bedtime stories.
First steps.
First day of school.
Birthday cakes.
Everything.
I looked at Marcus.
“How did Evan think he could keep this from me?”
“He thought you were safer.”
“That is not his decision.”
Marcus lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
We drove to a safe house outside the city.
There, I finally opened the second folder.
Inside was a timeline.
My pregnancy.
The birth.
The attack.
Evan taking Noah.
My marriage.
And one sentence written by Evan.
If Claire ever finds out, tell her I did it because I was afraid she would die.
I stared at the words.
It didn't make me forgive him.
But it made the pain more complicated.
Paige sat across from me.
“There's something you need to know about me.”
“I’m listening.”
“I wasn't Evan's lover.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“He needed the world to believe I was.”
“Why?”
“To protect Noah.”
She explained.
Three years earlier, a rival faction learned that Evan had a hidden child.
They believed Noah was the heir to the Moretti empire.
They planned to abduct him.
Evan needed a believable reason to spend time near the hospital without revealing the child's identity.
Paige became his cover.
People would assume he was visiting her.
They would never think he was visiting his son.
“The photographs,” I said.
“Were staged.”
“The coffee?”
“Staged.”
“The touching?”
Paige's face flushed.
“Mostly.”
I stared.
“Mostly?”
She looked away.
“Evan was emotionally wrecked.”
I almost laughed.
“That's not comforting.”
“I know.”
“What about the last four months?”
Paige shook her head.
“He wasn't with me.”
“Then where was he?”
She handed me another envelope.
“Trying to find Daniel.”
Inside was a photograph.
Evan standing outside a prison.
Next to him was a woman I recognized.
My mother.
I stopped breathing.
“My mother died eight years ago.”
Paige nodded.
“We know.”
I stared at the photograph.
“When was this taken?”
“Eleven days ago.”
My entire world shifted.
My mother was supposed to be dead.
Unless—
I called the number on the document.
No answer.
Then the safe house lights went out.
Marcus immediately moved in front of us.
“No one panic.”
The generators started.
A second later, a phone rang.
It was Evan's.
I picked it up.
“Claire.”
His voice.
I couldn't speak.
“I know you found Noah.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“You knew I'd find him?”
“Yes.”
“You hid my son from me.”
Silence.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wanted you dead.”
“You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“No, you didn't.”
His breathing changed.
“You're right.”
That surprised me.
“I was wrong.”
I closed my eyes.
“Where are you?”
“At a place you shouldn't go.”
“Then tell me where.”
“No.”
“Evan.”
“I need you to trust me one last time.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You lost that privilege.”
“I know.”
A pause.
Then he said something that made every hair on my arms rise.
“Your mother is alive.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where?”
“She has been working with Daniel.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Daniel Voss is not the enemy.”
“Then who is?”
Evan's voice dropped.
“The person who ordered your mother's death.”
My hands went cold.
“Who?”
He whispered one name.
“Marco Moretti.”
I stared at Marcus.
“Your brother?”
May you like
“Yes.”
Then the line went dead.
