Chapter 6: The Rooms Without Names
Bianca pulled the power cable from the laptop.
“He activated a remote wipe.”
Daniel removed the hard drive.
“You made another copy?”
Her eyes filled.
“I sent one to my mother.”
“Where is she?” Deputy Mercer asked.
“At North Shore Haven.
My father owns the clinic through her trust.”
Gabriel grabbed his coat.
“Then we go now.”
Mercer blocked the door.
“Marco wants you angry and careless.
Give me ten minutes to call a judge.”
“Ruth may not have ten minutes.”
Claire stepped between them.
“I’m going with Gabriel.”
“Mia stays here,” Sofia said.
Mia wrapped both arms around Claire’s leg.
“No more people going away.”
Sofia knelt beside her.
“I went away from the truth once.
I won’t do it again.
I will stay right here until your mother comes back.”
At the clinic, Dr.
Hale met them beside a locked security door.
“We have no patients named Ruth Bennett or Luca Valenti.”
Mercer displayed the emergency search order on her phone.
“Then opening the rooms should be easy.”
Hale folded his arms.
“That order does not cover confidential medical records.”
A voice came through the door.
“Claire?”
Claire struck the metal with both palms.
“Mom!”
Hale stepped toward her.
“Control yourself.”
Gabriel moved between them.
“Open it.”
“You no longer represent Valenti Holdings.”
“I represent the family you imprisoned in there.”
Hale turned to Mercer.
“Remove them.”
Mercer held up her badge.
“Open the door, Doctor, or I call the state police and the medical board.”
The lock clicked.
Ruth stumbled from the first room and fell into Claire’s arms.
“I’m sorry,” Ruth sobbed.
“I should have told you about Luca.”
“Where is he?”
“Last room.”
Gabriel ran down the corridor and pulled open the door.
Luca sat on the floor with one wrist fastened to the bedrail.
His face was bruised, but he looked up and smiled.
“You got old, Gabe.”
Gabriel dropped beside him.
“You missed six birthdays.”
“I missed all of Mia’s.”
Claire stopped in the doorway.
Luca’s smile vanished.
“Claire.”
“You let me believe you had abandoned us.”
“I didn’t know about Mia until Elena found the hospital record.”
“You could have called.”
“Marco followed every call I made.”
“You called Gabriel tonight.”
“Because Marco already found you.”
Claire’s hand came across Luca’s face, then stopped inches from his cheek.
She lowered it and began to cry.
“I hated you so I could survive.”
Luca looked at Mia’s photograph taped inside his sleeve.
“I loved you from a locked room.”
Gabriel unlocked the restraint with Hale’s keys.
Luca caught his arm.
“Don’t pretend you searched for me.”
Gabriel went still.
“I buried you.”
“You buried the story Marco gave you.
Elena begged you to question the pension accounts eighteen years ago.”
“I was fourteen.”
“And six years ago?”
Gabriel’s hands dropped.
“I believed the police report.”
Luca stood unsteadily.
“You believed whatever allowed the company doors to stay open.”
Gabriel backed into the wall.
Claire took his hand before he could turn away.
“He is right to be angry,” she said.
“But Marco built this lie.
Don’t carry all of it for him.”
Mercer entered with two state officers.
“Dr.
Hale is being detained.
We found Ruth’s identification and Luca’s medication log in his safe.”
Hale shouted from the corridor, “Marco ordered everything!
I never touched them!”
Ruth stepped out of Claire’s arms.
“You kept me in a room without my name.”
Hale lowered his eyes.
Bianca’s mother appeared at the end of the corridor holding a flash drive.
“My daughter sent me the files,” she said.
“I brought the second copy.”
Luca looked at the drive.
“That may prove the payments, but Marco still controls the board.
If he wins tomorrow’s vote, he can dissolve the pension trust and move the money overseas.”
Gabriel’s phone rang.
Marco’s voice came through clearly.
May you like
“The board voted early, nephew.
Valenti Holdings belongs to me now.”
