Chapter 6 - The Evacuation
Red lights flashed throughout the hallway.
Nurses began moving patients.
Silvio looked immediately toward Ethan and Mia’s room.
His guards were already inside.
Smoke appeared near the far stairwell.
Lucinda backed away.
Silvio caught her arm.
“You’re coming with me.”
“I didn’t do this.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
He moved her toward the children.
Then the lights flickered.
A hospital employee in blue scrubs hurried toward Mia’s bed.
“We need to evacuate this room.”
Silvio looked at his badge.
No photograph.
He grabbed the man’s wrist.
The man reacted instantly.
Too instantly.
He drove an elbow toward Silvio’s throat.
Silvio blocked it.
The fake orderly pulled a syringe from his pocket.
One of the guards tackled him into the wall.
The syringe fell.
A nurse stared at it.
“What is that?”
Silvio looked at the man pinned against the floor.
“Who sent you?”
The man said nothing.
Security officers arrived seconds later.
The fire turned out to be small.
A trash container had been deliberately ignited in a service corridor.
A distraction.
The syringe contained a sedative strong enough to render a child unconscious.
Silvio looked at Lucinda.
She was shaking.
Not acting.
Actually shaking.
“You knew someone would try again.”
She stared at the man being dragged away.
“I knew Grant had people.”
“You’re his wife.”
“I was his wife before I understood what he was.”
Silvio’s anger sharpened.
“You had years to understand.”
“I was afraid.”
“Ethan and Mia were afraid inside that car.”
Lucinda closed her eyes.
Silvio leaned closer.
“Who was on the boat?”
She opened them.
“Father.”
Silvio froze.
“Our father?”
Lucinda nodded.
“Arturo was with Mateo before the explosion.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“Dad was in New York.”
“That’s what he told everyone.”
Silvio stepped back.
Arturo Moretti had died eleven months after Mateo.
Official cause.
Heart attack.
Silvio had believed his father carried himself into the grave because he could not survive losing his eldest son.
Lucinda lowered her voice.
“Mateo called Father that morning.”
“He told him he had proof Grant was stealing.”
“Father went to the marina.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know everything.”
Silvio stared at her.
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Lucinda looked toward the closed door where Ethan and Mia rested.
“I followed them.”
“You followed Dad?”
“I followed Grant.”
“Why?”
“Because Mateo told me what he found.”
Silvio’s face hardened.
“You knew.”
“I knew about the money.”
“And you protected Grant.”
Lucinda’s eyes filled.
“I thought it was fraud.”
“You thought stealing from two children was small enough to forgive?”
“They weren’t children then.”
“Ethan was four.”
Lucinda looked away.
Silvio’s voice dropped.
“What happened at the marina?”
“Grant met Dean Mercer.”
“Father arrived.”
“Mateo was already on the boat.”
“There was an argument.”
“Then Grant left.”
“And Dad?”
“He stayed.”
“With Mateo?”
Lucinda nodded.
“The boat left the dock.”
“Ten minutes later, it exploded.”
Silvio’s throat tightened.
“But Dad survived.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He was thrown into the water before the explosion.”
“Why didn’t he tell police?”
Lucinda looked directly at him.
“Because he believed the explosion was meant for him too.”
Silvio said nothing.
“And because Grant showed him something afterward.”
“What?”
Lucinda’s voice barely rose above a whisper.
“A video.”
Silvio felt dread gather inside him.
“What video?”
“Something that made Father spend the last year of his life doing exactly what Grant told him.”
Silvio stepped closer.
“What was on it?”
May you like
Lucinda swallowed.
“You.”
