Chapter 2 - THE NAME I BURIED
Liam locked the apartment door.
Then he pulled every curtain shut.
“Pack a bag.”
“No.”
“Elizabeth.”
“I am not running again.”
“You are pregnant with the child of a man whose family may have murdered your parents.”
“We don’t know Alessandro had anything to do with it.”
“We don’t know he didn’t.”
That was the part neither of us wanted to say.
Seven years earlier, my father had worked as a forensic accountant.
His job was boring enough that I had never asked many questions.
Then, during my first semester of college, he began acting strangely.
He changed passwords.
He installed cameras around our house.
He stopped answering unknown phone calls.
One night, he told me that if anything happened to him, I should call Liam’s father, Detective Patrick Carter.
Three weeks later, my parents’ SUV went through a highway barrier outside Milwaukee.
The police called it an accident.
Patrick Carter did not.
He discovered someone had tampered with the brake line.
Before he could reopen the investigation officially, somebody broke into our house.
I had been inside.
Patrick got me out through the basement.
Within forty-eight hours, Elizabeth Shaw disappeared.
Months later, Patrick died from what authorities called a sudden heart attack.
Liam never believed that either.
For years, we had survived by doing exactly what Patrick told us.
Stay quiet.
Stay ordinary.
Never contact anyone connected to Thomas Shaw’s final case.
Then Liam found Halcyon Development.
Everything changed.
I sat on the edge of my bed.
“What if Alessandro sent that message?”
“Then we leave Chicago today.”
“What if he didn’t?”
“Then somebody wants you to think he did.”
I looked at my stomach.
Nothing showed yet.
There was no visible proof that another life had begun inside me.
But I already felt trapped between two terrible choices.
Tell Alessandro and possibly hand my child to the family I had spent years hiding from.
Or disappear and spend the rest of my life wondering whether I had stolen a father from my baby.
Liam crouched in front of me.
“You cannot think emotionally right now.”
“I’m pregnant, terrified, and being threatened.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
His expression softened.
“You’re right.”
I looked away.
“I thought that night was one mistake.”
“With Alessandro?”
“I didn’t even know why I stayed.”
“You were lonely.”
“That doesn’t make it less stupid.”
“It makes it human.”
My phone rang again.
Same unknown number.
This time Liam answered.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then his expression changed.
He put the call on speaker.
A man’s voice filled the room.
“Tell Elizabeth that hiding becomes more difficult when there are two heartbeats instead of one.”
My hand flew over my mouth.
Liam stood so fast the chair behind him tipped over.
“How do you know that?”
The caller laughed softly.
“Because unlike you, Mr. Carter, we prepare for possibilities.”
The line went dead.
Liam stared at me.
“They know.”
My knees weakened.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Then somebody knocked on the apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
Liam grabbed the baseball bat he kept beside the kitchen pantry.
“Stay here.”
He crossed the living room quietly.
I followed despite his glare.
He looked through the peephole.
His face hardened.
“Who is it?”
He didn’t answer.
Another knock.
Then a deep male voice came through the door.
“Ms. Reed?”
My heart stopped.
“My name is Gabriel Ross.”
Silence.
“I represent Mr. Alessandro Vitali.”
Liam looked at me.
I could barely breathe.
Gabriel continued.
“Mr. Vitali would like to speak with you.”
Liam leaned toward the door.
“She isn’t here.”
The answer came immediately.
“Yes, she is.”
Liam tightened his grip on the bat.
May you like
Then Gabriel said something that turned my fear into ice.
“And if she intends to remain alive, she should let me inside before the men watching this building realize I found her first.”
