Chapter 2 - THE HAND IN THE DARK
The first thing Vincent heard was Lily scream his name.
The second was glass breaking somewhere near the study door.
He moved before anyone else did.
“Lily!”
His hand swept across the desk, knocking Sophia’s cassette player to the floor. Around him, chairs scraped violently against hardwood as guards reached for weapons.
“Phones!” Vincent snapped. “Lights!”
Emergency lamps should have activated automatically.
They didn’t.
That told Vincent everything he needed to know.
This was not a neighborhood outage.
Someone had disabled the mansion.
Beside him, Hannah stumbled against the desk.
“Lily!”
Vincent heard her running toward the doorway.
He caught Hannah around the waist before she could disappear into the dark.
“Stay behind me.”
“They took her!”
“I know.”
“Then let me go!”
“And if whoever took her is waiting for you?”
Hannah stopped fighting.
Vincent hated the logic of his own words.
From the hallway came hurried footsteps.
Then a child sobbed.
Hannah twisted toward the sound.
“Lily?”
No answer.
Vincent pulled his phone from his pocket.
No signal.
His private security network had been jammed.
Someone had planned this.
“Marco!” he shouted.
A guard answered from somewhere downstairs.
“Here!”
“Lock the perimeter manually. Nobody leaves.”
“The electronic gates are down.”
“Then put vehicles across them.”
“Yes, boss.”
A flash of white appeared near the hallway window.
Vincent moved toward it.
Hannah followed despite his warning.
On the floor lay Lily’s cardigan.
Hannah picked it up.
Still warm.
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
There were few things in his life capable of frightening him.
Men with guns did not.
Police investigations did not.
Enemies did not.
But his daughter’s sweater lying abandoned on a dark floor made something ancient and violent awaken inside him.
Hannah touched his arm.
“Vincent.”
He looked down.
She pointed toward the service staircase.
A thin beam of moonlight crossed the floor.
In it were muddy footprints.
Small?
No.
Adult.
They led downstairs.
Vincent followed.
Behind him, one of his guards found a flashlight.
The beam swept across the wall.
The footprints continued through the service corridor toward the kitchen.
Then stopped beside the rear delivery entrance.
The door stood open.
Rain blew inside.
Marco arrived breathless.
“North cameras are dead. Generator line was cut.”
“Vehicles?”
“Still here.”
Vincent stared into the rain.
If no vehicle had left, whoever took Lily was either still on the grounds—
Or had entered with the guests.
Hannah suddenly ran past him.
“Hannah!”
She crossed the kitchen and disappeared into the pantry corridor.
Vincent followed, furious until he realized where she was going.
A narrow servants’ passage ran behind the wine cellar.
Only household staff usually knew it existed.
Hannah opened the door.
At the bottom of the stairs lay one of Vincent’s guards.
Unconscious.
Alive.
Vincent crouched.
There was blood near the man’s temple.
Someone had struck him from behind.
Hannah looked ahead.
At the end of the passage, another door stood partially open.
It led to the old greenhouse.
They entered together.
Rain hammered the glass roof.
Plants shuddered in the wind.
Vincent heard breathing.
Then a frightened whisper.
“Hannah?”
Hannah ran.
Behind a stone planter, Lily sat crouched with both hands over her mouth.
Hannah dropped to her knees.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Lily threw herself into her arms.
Vincent closed his eyes for half a second.
Relief nearly weakened his legs.
He crouched beside them.
“Are you hurt?”
Lily shook her head.
“Who grabbed you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Man or woman?”
“A man.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“What happened?”
“He carried me down the stairs. I bit him.”
Despite everything, Vincent almost smiled.
“That’s my girl.”
“He dropped me when somebody came through the kitchen.”
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
Lily rubbed her eyes.
“He smelled funny.”
“How?”
“Like Grandma’s closet.”
Vincent looked at Hannah.
Hannah frowned.
“Cedar?”
Lily shook her head.
“Cigars.”
Vincent went still.
Sophia Romano had hated smoking.
But one man had spent enough time in her house that cigar smoke permanently clung to several coats in the old downstairs closet.
Vincent’s uncle.
Dominic Romano.
The man who had helped raise him after his father died.
The man Vincent trusted to supervise the family whenever Vincent traveled.
The man currently attending the engagement party downstairs.
Vincent stood.
“Stay here with Hannah.”
Lily caught his hand.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“The man said something.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘Your grandmother should’ve stayed quiet.’”
Every trace of relief disappeared.
Vincent returned to the ballroom.
Emergency lights now illuminated the mansion.
Guests stood in frightened clusters.
Several demanded explanations.
Vincent ignored them.
His eyes searched the room.
Caroline was still under guard near the fireplace.
His aunt Elena sat beside her.
Marco blocked the main doors.
But Dominic was gone.
“Where’s my uncle?”
Silence.
Marco looked around.
“He was here ten minutes ago.”
Vincent walked to Caroline.
She stared up at him.
“Where is Dominic?”
“I don’t know.”
“You called Rebecca Shaw.”
Caroline swallowed.
“I panicked.”
“And someone arrived minutes later.”
“I didn’t call Dominic.”
“You already lied about my mother.”
“I told you, I can explain that.”
“Then start.”
Caroline looked toward the guards.
“I want privacy.”
Vincent leaned closer.
“You lost the privilege.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You think this is about Lily?”
“Yes.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then what is it about?”
Caroline looked at Hannah, who had just returned carrying Lily.
For the first time, Caroline’s arrogance disappeared entirely.
“It’s about your father.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
Antonio Romano had been dead for thirteen years.
Caroline continued.
“Your mother discovered something after he died. Something about St. Matthew’s.”
“What?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“Stop lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Then why steal the box?”
“Because Dominic told me to.”
The room seemed to narrow around Vincent.
Hannah held Lily tighter.
Vincent stared at Caroline.
“My uncle?”
“He contacted me six months after we started dating.”
“You expect me to believe Dominic recruited my own fiancée?”
“He didn’t recruit me.”
“What would you call it?”
“He threatened me.”
Vincent laughed once without humor.
“You come from one of the wealthiest families in Manhattan.”
“My father’s company is drowning in debt.”
That was new.
Vincent knew Whitaker Capital had struggled recently.
He had not known how badly.
Caroline’s voice shook.
“Dominic promised he could make the debt disappear. All I had to do was get close to you and tell him if Sophia had left anything behind.”
“Why?”
“He never said.”
“You expect me to believe you locked my daughter in a pantry over a music box you knew nothing about?”
Caroline looked down.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You had the key.”
“I wanted Lily away from the party because she kept following Hannah.”
Hannah stared at her.
“Because you thought she’d tell me about the box?”
Caroline nodded.
Vincent’s anger became almost unnaturally still.
“You slapped Hannah.”
Caroline said nothing.
“You lied to my child and told her I was ashamed of her.”
No answer.
“You threatened Hannah’s job.”
Still nothing.
“And tonight, someone tried to take my daughter.”
“I didn’t know that would happen.”
Vincent studied her.
He believed that part.
Not because Caroline deserved trust.
Because genuine terror had entered her face.
“Where is Dominic now?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent turned to Marco.
“Find him.”
Marco left immediately.
Then Vincent remembered the phone call.
Rebecca Shaw.
He pulled out his phone as the signal returned.
Three missed calls.
All from the same number.
He called back.
Voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
On the third attempt, someone answered.
But nobody spoke.
“Dr. Shaw?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
“Rebecca?”
A faint sound came through.
A woman crying.
Vincent put the phone on speaker.
“Dr. Shaw, tell me where you are.”
The woman whispered:
“They found me.”
Hannah’s face drained.
“Who?”
“I can’t—”
A crash interrupted her.
Then a man’s voice in the background.
Too distant to understand.
Rebecca spoke faster.
“Listen to me. Go to St. Matthew’s old records building. Basement archive. Locker 314.”
“What’s inside?”
“Your mother’s copy.”
“Copy of what?”
“The birth ledger.”
Vincent glanced at Hannah.
Rebecca continued.
“It lists every baby delivered that night.”
“And Lily?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Hannah’s daughter?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
Vincent lowered his voice.
“Rebecca, whose child am I raising?”
The doctor began sobbing.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Vincent felt cold.
“What’s the right one?”
“Ask why there were three bracelets.”
Nobody in the room moved.
Hannah whispered, “Three?”
Rebecca inhaled sharply.
Then her voice disappeared from the call.
A struggle.
A muffled cry.
“Rebecca!”
The phone hit something hard.
Then another voice came onto the line.
Male.
Calm.
Familiar.
“You should have left this buried, Vincent.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Hannah recognized that expression.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“Dominic.”
The caller laughed softly.
“At least your hearing still works.”
Vincent stepped away from Lily.
“If you hurt Rebecca—”
“You’re in no position to threaten me.”
“You tried to take my daughter.”
“No.”
Vincent stopped.
Dominic continued.
“If I’d wanted Lily, she’d be gone.”
“Then who grabbed her?”
“That’s the problem, nephew.”
“What problem?”
“You still think there are only two sides.”
The call ended.
Vincent stared at the dark phone.
Caroline whispered, “What does that mean?”
No one answered.
Then Marco returned from the security room carrying a tablet.
His face looked wrong.
“Boss.”
Vincent turned.
“We recovered twelve seconds from the backup camera near the greenhouse.”
“Show me.”
Marco placed the tablet on the table.
The video was grainy.
A hooded man crossed the frame carrying Lily.
Then another figure appeared behind him.
The kidnapper dropped Lily and ran.
The second figure chased him.
Vincent leaned closer.
The image froze for one clear frame.
The second man’s face was visible.
Hannah gasped.
Vincent said nothing.
Because the man who had apparently saved Lily from the kidnapper had been officially dead for thirteen years.
May you like
It was Vincent’s father.
Antonio Romano.
