Chapter 3 - THE CHILD THEY USED AS LEVERAGE
"My mother has been dead for five years," Adrian said. "Don't use her name to excuse what you've done."
Marcus Reed stood perfectly still.
Then he removed an old photograph from his wallet.
Margaret Romano stood beside him outside a children's hospital.
On the back was a handwritten message.
If anyone comes for Marian's daughter, get her somewhere safe. No questions about who sent them.
Below it was Margaret's signature.
Adrian recognized her handwriting immediately.
"She gave you this?"
"Six weeks before she died."
"And you kept it from me?"
"She told me not to tell anyone until I understood who was threatening the woman."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"So when did you understand?"
Marcus looked ashamed.
"Too late."
He explained that Margaret had asked him to watch over Marian's daughter, Elise Vale.
But after Margaret died, Elise disappeared from Chicago.
Marcus searched for months.
Then the trail went cold.
Eleven days earlier, while reviewing unauthorized access to the estate's security system, Marcus discovered Daniel Foster entering a sealed basement corridor.
He began investigating quietly.
He found Elise locked inside.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Adrian demanded.
"Because Victor still receives security reports from three of our commercial properties. I didn't know whether your private system was compromised, too."
"You should have trusted me."
"I should have," Marcus admitted.
The simple answer seemed to anger Adrian more than an excuse would have.
"Where is Elise now?"
"In a protected apartment near Oak Park. Two guards. A nurse. Nobody from the company knows the address."
Nicholas stepped forward.
"Is she conscious?"
"Yes. But frightened."
Vanessa lowered herself into a chair.
For the first time that evening, she looked less like a wealthy woman protecting her reputation and more like someone who had reached the end of a terrible bargain.
"She won't speak unless she knows Owen is safe," Vanessa said.
Emily held up the child's drawing.
"Her son?"
Vanessa nodded.
"He's seven."
"Where is he?"
"With people my father controls."
Adrian stared at her.
"Graham Sterling?"
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
"My father runs Sterling Pediatric Services. Five years ago, he partnered with the Romano Children's Fund."
Adrian knew the partnership.
His mother had established the fund to pay for medical care for children whose families couldn't afford it.
After her death, Victor continued managing its accounts.
Adrian signed annual donations.
He attended fundraising dinners.
He thought he had been helping children.
"What does the fund have to do with Elise?" he asked.
Nicholas answered.
"Her mother found evidence that children were being billed for treatment they never received."
Emily felt her stomach tighten.
"What kind of treatment?"
"Hearing rehabilitation. Occupational therapy. Specialized pediatric services."
She looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa couldn't meet her eyes.
"Jacob," Emily whispered.
No one answered.
Emily stepped toward her.
"What have you done to my son?"
"Emily, I haven't hurt Jacob."
"You threatened to take away his treatment."
"I know."
"You told me he'd lose his coverage if I talked about the basement."
Vanessa began crying.
"I'm sorry."
Emily's voice trembled.
"Sorry doesn't tell me what happened to my little boy."
Adrian placed himself between them.
"Get me every financial record connected to Jacob Carter," he told Marcus. "Tonight."
Then he turned toward Emily.
"We'll find out."
But Emily wasn't comforted.
She had worked six days a week for nearly three years.
Every extra shift meant another appointment.
Every missed family dinner meant another payment toward the equipment Jacob needed.
She had trusted the clinic because Vanessa told her the Romano Foundation would help.
Now she didn't know what to believe.
"Where's your son?" Adrian asked.
"With my aunt Teresa. He thinks I'm working late."
"Call him."
Emily shook her head.
"He worries when I sound upset."
"Then tell him you're coming home."
She took out her phone and sent Teresa a message.
Please tell Jacob I love him. I'll be there soon.
An answer came almost immediately.
He's drawing. He's okay.
Emily stared at those three words.
He's okay.
For now.
An hour later, Adrian drove Emily to the protected apartment.
Nicholas accompanied them.
Vanessa remained at the estate under guard, though Adrian made it clear she was not being restrained from leaving.
"If you want to help," he told her, "tell the truth to someone who can hold you accountable."
Elise Vale sat on a couch beside a window.
She was thirty-three, with dark hair cut unevenly at her shoulders.
Her hands trembled around a cup of tea.
When Emily entered, Elise stood.
"You're the maid."
"My name is Emily."
Elise's eyes filled.
"You kept the label."
Emily nodded.
"I didn't know what was inside."
"My mother sewed it there."
Nicholas turned.
"Marian?"
Elise nodded.
"Your mother wrote the warning before she died. Mine hid it where she thought only someone cleaning that old couch would find it."
Emily remembered how close Vanessa had come to taking the label from her.
"Why the couch?"
"Margaret used to read there. My mother knew Adrian would never throw it away."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Why didn't you come to me?"
Elise looked at him with exhausted eyes.
"Because five years ago, I watched your uncle threaten my mother. Then she disappeared. Then Nicholas vanished, too."
Nicholas flinched.
"I tried to find you."
"I know that now."
"But you didn't trust me."
Elise's voice broke.
"I had a baby. I couldn't afford to trust anybody."
Adrian sat across from her.
"Tell me about Owen."
Her eyes went immediately to the child's drawing in Emily's hands.
"He made that last month. They let me see him for twenty minutes."
"Who are they?"
"People working for Graham Sterling."
She explained that Owen had been placed in a private residential program after Graham's staff claimed Elise was medically unfit to care for him.
She had challenged the placement.
Then she received photographs showing Owen alone at the facility.
Whenever she demanded his return, Graham threatened to transfer him somewhere she couldn't find him.
"Why did he imprison you here?" Adrian asked.
"Because I found my mother's old records. They proved the fund was paying for treatments children never received."
"Where are those records?"
Elise looked toward Nicholas.
"He knows about the notebooks."
Nicholas shook his head.
"I know they existed. I never found the originals."
Elise rubbed her forehead.
"My mother kept copies. Graham thinks I know where they are."
Adrian leaned forward.
"Do you?"
She hesitated.
"Some of them."
Nicholas stood abruptly.
"Elise—"
"No." She looked directly at him. "I've protected people for five years. Look what it cost me."
Her gaze shifted to Emily.
"Your son has hearing difficulties, doesn't he?"
Emily nodded.
"Jacob is nine."
"Has he been receiving therapy every Tuesday?"
"No. His clinic reduced his appointments six months ago. They said funding was exhausted."
Elise closed her eyes.
When she opened them, they were full of tears.
"Then it's happening again."
"What is?"
"The clinic bills for treatment even when children aren't there. That's how the money disappears."
Emily felt suddenly dizzy.
"Jacob hasn't been to Tuesday therapy since April."
Elise reached for her hand.
"Emily, I reviewed last month's billing records before they locked me up."
"And?"
Elise swallowed.
"Your son's file showed four completed sessions."
"That's impossible."
"I know."
Emily pulled back slowly.
The money she'd believed was paying for her son's future had been going somewhere else.
And someone had used his medical needs to keep her silent.
May you like
Elise's next words were barely audible.
"Emily, they've been billing for Jacob's treatment while telling you he's no longer eligible to receive it."
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