Chapter 2 - THE BOY WHO KNEW A DEAD MAN'S NAME
“Your sister is trying to take my son, and you're standing here telling me he belongs to your dead brother?”
Hannah Collins had never raised her voice to Luca Moretti before.
Now she was shaking so badly she could barely hold her phone.
On the other end, her babysitter, Mrs. Parker, was crying.
“Hannah, they're still outside. The woman keeps saying she's a family friend.”
“Lock the door,” Hannah said. “Don't let anyone inside. Not even if they say they're police.”
“Mommy?”
A small voice came through the phone.
Hannah nearly collapsed.
“Eli? Baby, are you okay?”
“I'm okay. Mrs. Parker made popcorn.”
Hannah pressed her hand over her mouth.
“Listen carefully, sweetheart. Stay with Mrs. Parker. Mommy's coming.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Why does that lady know about my blue watch?”
The room went silent.
Luca looked sharply at Vanessa.
“What blue watch?”
Vanessa stepped backward.
“Luca, please. We need to talk privately.”
“No,” Hannah said. “You can talk in front of me. Whatever this is, it involves my child.”
Luca's security chief, Marco Bellini, appeared in the doorway.
“Two vehicles are leaving the property, boss. I've sent men to Mrs. Collins's apartment.”
“Tell them nobody touches the child. Secure the building and identify everyone outside.”
Marco nodded and disappeared.
Hannah was already reaching for her coat.
Luca caught her attention.
“I'll drive you.”
“I don't need your permission to see my son.”
“I know.”
Something in his voice made her stop.
There was no command in it.
Only urgency.
Twenty minutes later, Luca's black SUV pulled onto a quiet street outside Hannah's apartment in Newport.
Two security vehicles were parked nearby.
Caroline Whitmore stood beside a silver Mercedes, arguing with Marco.
“This is outrageous! I was checking on the boy!”
“Then why did you tell his babysitter you were taking him away?” Marco demanded.
Caroline noticed Luca approaching.
Her expression changed.
“Luca, thank goodness. Your security chief has lost his mind.”
Luca didn't slow down.
“Move.”
“Please, just listen—”
“Move, Caroline.”
He passed her without another word.
Hannah rushed upstairs.
Eli was sitting on the living room rug with a small red fire truck in his lap.
The moment he saw her, he ran.
“Mommy!”
She dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around him.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
She kissed his hair, his cheeks, his forehead.
“I'm here, baby. I'm right here.”
Eli pulled back.
“Are we moving again?”
The question struck harder than anything Caroline had done.
Since Hannah's husband, Michael, had died, they'd moved three times.
Every move meant another school, another unfamiliar bedroom, another promise that things would eventually get better.
“No,” Hannah whispered. “Not tonight.”
Luca stood quietly in the doorway.
He had been raised among dangerous men.
He had watched enemies beg for mercy.
But the sight of a little boy asking whether he had to leave his home made something inside him tighten.
Mrs. Parker approached Hannah.
“The woman showed me a photograph. She said your husband's family had been looking for Eli.”
Hannah frowned.
“What photograph?”
Mrs. Parker handed her a folded picture.
It showed Michael Collins standing beside Daniel Moretti.
The two men were smiling in front of a fishing boat.
Daniel's arm rested across Michael's shoulders.
Hannah stared.
She had never seen the photograph before.
“My husband knew your brother?”
Luca stepped closer.
He recognized the boat immediately.
It had belonged to Daniel.
But something else caught his attention.
Michael was wearing a navy jacket with a small silver anchor embroidered above the pocket.
Luca remembered that jacket.
Daniel had given it to someone shortly before his death.
Someone he had called his closest friend.
“Your husband's name was Michael Collins?” Luca asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he do before you met?”
“He worked in marine electronics. Security systems, navigation equipment, things like that.”
Luca remembered Daniel spending months developing a private shipping-security network.
Then Daniel had died in a car accident.
The project disappeared.
“So your husband worked for Daniel.”
Hannah shook her head.
“Michael told me he worked for a company called Harbor Point Technologies.”
Luca's face hardened.
Harbor Point Technologies had been one of Daniel's businesses.
A company that supposedly closed five years earlier.
Before Luca could respond, Eli tugged on Hannah's sleeve.
“Mommy, can I show Mr. Luca something?”
Hannah wiped her cheeks.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“My watch.”
He ran into his bedroom and returned carrying a small wooden box decorated with painted sailboats.
Inside lay a child's blue wristwatch.
The rubber strap was cracked.
Its face had stopped at 4:17.
“My daddy gave me this,” Eli said proudly.
Hannah nodded.
“That's right. You keep it because it was Daddy's special present.”
Luca knelt.
“Can I see it?”
Eli hesitated.
“You won't keep it?”
“No. I promise.”
The boy handed it over.
Luca turned it carefully.
On the back were four engraved letters.
D.M.
Underneath them was a date.
June 14.
Five years earlier.
Luca felt the blood drain from his face.
June 14 was the day Daniel died.
“Where did your father get this?” he asked.
Eli shrugged.
“He said somebody important gave it to him.”
Hannah looked confused.
“Michael gave that watch to Eli for his fourth birthday. He said he'd kept it safe for years.”
Luca examined the cracked strap.
It was an old GPS emergency locator developed by Daniel's company.
Only a handful had been made.
Daniel had worn one himself.
Luca remembered teasing his brother about the ridiculous blue strap.
But this watch was different.
Its serial number had been scratched away.
“Eli,” Luca said gently, “did your dad ever tell you about Daniel?”
The little boy nodded.
“Uncle Danny.”
Hannah stared at him.
“What?”
“Daddy said Uncle Danny liked boats.”
Hannah looked toward Luca.
“Michael never told me that.”
Eli seemed puzzled by their expressions.
Then he pointed at Luca.
“You look like the man in my picture.”
“What picture?” Hannah whispered.
Eli opened the wooden box again.
Beneath the watch was a folded drawing.
Three stick figures stood beside a blue boat.
One figure was labeled DADDY.
Another was labeled ME.
The third figure had brown hair and a crooked smile.
Above it, in a child's uneven handwriting, were two words.
UNCLE DANNY.
Hannah felt the room tilt.
Daniel Moretti had died years before Eli could remember him.
“How do you know what he looked like?” she asked.
“Daddy showed me.”
Luca looked at the photograph again.
Then at the watch.
Something didn't fit.
Eli was six years old.
Daniel died five years earlier.
The boy would have been barely one.
Yet Michael had apparently spent years teaching him about Daniel.
Outside, Caroline was still arguing with Marco.
Luca stood.
“Hannah, I need to tell you something.”
Before he could continue, Eli reached into his pocket.
“Mommy, the lady told me to give her this.”
He held out a small silver key.
Hannah stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Daddy put it inside my teddy bear. He said if anybody asked about Uncle Danny, I should give it to you.”
Luca recognized the engraving immediately.
A tiny anchor.
Daniel's personal symbol.
His brother had used the same design on the door of his private workshop.
But the workshop had been destroyed in a fire after Daniel's funeral.
Hannah closed Eli's fingers around the key.
“Why didn't you tell me, sweetheart?”
“Daddy said grown-ups might get scared.”
Luca stared at the little boy.
Then he looked at Hannah.
“Your husband didn't just know my brother.”
He swallowed.
“He was protecting something Daniel left behind.”
Hannah tightened her hold on Eli.
“What?”
Luca turned the photograph over.
On the back, in Daniel's unmistakable handwriting, were seven words.
May you like
IF MICHAEL FAILS, PROTECT MY SON.
And beneath them was Eli's full name.
