Chapter 3: The Woman Behind the Doors
“Open those doors,” I said.
Mother stepped between me and the entrance.
“No.
This is exactly what they want.”
“Who are they?”
“The people using that child against us.”
Sophie’s fingers tightened around my sleeve.
The pounding came again, followed by a voice I had heard in dreams for three years.
“Roman!
Please!”
I crossed the ballroom, but two security guards blocked me.
Mother lifted one hand.
“Mrs.
D’Angelo is unstable.
Do not let her inside.”
I turned to Ellis Grant, the head of security.
“You take orders from me.”
Mother’s voice sharpened.
“This estate belongs to the family trust.
Until the board settles Roman’s condition, you take orders from me.”
Ellis looked from her to Sophie.
Then he removed his earpiece and unlocked the doors himself.
Lucia fell across the threshold.
Her hair had been cut roughly above her shoulders.
One wrist carried a deep red mark, and her bare feet were covered in mud.
“Mommy!” Sophie cried.
Lucia dropped to her knees and opened her arms.
Sophie ran, but Lucia stopped her before touching her.
“Did she hurt you?”
“No.
I found Daddy.”
Lucia looked up at me.
Her face folded.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
Mother seized Lucia’s arm.
“Enough of this performance.”
Lucia jerked free.
“Tell him about the north lodge, Evelyn.”
The name moved through the ballroom in whispers.
Evelyn D’Angelo never permitted anyone but me to use her first name that way.
Mother raised her chin.
“You disappeared voluntarily.”
“You locked us inside.”
“You were ill.”
“You told Sophie her father was gone.
You made me write letters saying I had left him.”
“Because you threatened this family.”
Lucia pulled back her sleeve.
Numbers had been written along her forearm in blue ink.
“What are those?” I asked.
“Dates.
Account transfers.
Every time Evelyn moved money from the family foundation, she made me verify the totals.”
Mother laughed once.
“She has always been imaginative.”
Lucia pointed at the key in my hand.
“That opens the steel drawer beneath the desk in your father’s old study.
I hid copies there before she took us.”
Mother’s smile vanished.
“Ellis,” she said, “remove Lucia and the child.”
Ellis stood beside me instead.
“No, ma’am.”
Mother reached into her evening bag.
I caught her wrist before she could remove her phone.
“Who were you calling?”
“My attorney.”
The screen was already open to a message.
BURN THE NORTH LODGE.
NOW.
Ellis read it over my shoulder.
“I have officers stationed at the gate,” he said.
“Nobody leaves.”
“You planned this,” Mother snapped.
“You and Lucia planned all of it.”
Sophie began shaking.
Lucia drew her close while I held the phone where the guests could see it.
“What is in the lodge?” I asked.
Mother did not answer.
A siren sounded beyond the gates.
Then another.
She smiled.
“You think they came for me?”
The ballroom doors opened, and two uniformed officers entered with a court official.
May you like
“Roman D’Angelo?” the official called.
“We have an emergency order removing the child from your custody.”
