Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
Sebastian did not react at first.
That was worse.
Megan had seen him angry.
Suspicious.
Protective.
She had never seen him look empty.
Evelyn remained beside the kitchen table.
“Sebastian…”
“Don’t call me that.”
She stopped.
He stared at her.
“My mother is alive?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“The last time I knew for certain was eleven months ago.”
Vanessa grabbed the edge of the table.
“You told me she died in 2015.”
“I told you what she ordered me to tell you.”
Vanessa laughed, but tears spilled down her face.
“Of course.”
Sebastian looked at everyone in the room.
Daniel.
Vanessa.
Evelyn.
Three people who had shaped his life.
Three people who had lied to him for years.
“Where?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t.”
“I don’t.”
“You received letters from Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“You spoke to my mother.”
“Sometimes.”
“How?”
“Through mail drops. People we trusted.”
“And no address?”
“No.”
Sebastian picked up Antonio’s watch.
He turned it slowly between his fingers.
“My mother watched me bury her.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“She believed staying dead would protect you.”
“From who?”
“That was the question Antonio died trying to answer.”
Megan sat again because her knee was throbbing.
Lily was safe at the estate.
That should have been enough for one night.
Instead, Megan had learned her father had lived most of her life as a ghost and Sebastian’s mother might still be doing the same.
Daniel leaned over the microfilm.
“We need to read this.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“You’re not included in ‘we.’”
Daniel nodded.
“Fair.”
Vanessa rubbed both hands over her face.
“There’s a reader at the old Rinaldi records office.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“How would you know?”
“Because Isabella used it.”
That office occupied the top floor of an old warehouse near the Chicago River.
Rinaldi Holdings had abandoned it years earlier.
The sign remained.
RINALDI IMPORT SERVICES.
Sebastian remembered visiting as a boy.
His father had bought him hot chocolate from a vending machine.
His mother had let him stamp expired invoices.
Normal memories.
Or what he had believed were normal memories.
The microfilm reader still worked after several attempts.
Megan stood behind Sebastian while Vanessa adjusted the reel.
Daniel remained near the door.
Evelyn had stayed with Lily.
The first images appeared.
Ledgers.
Dates.
Initials.
Payments.
Then names.
Families.
Megan understood quickly.
Isabella had moved people away from violence connected to the older Rinaldi organization.
Employees who wanted out.
Witnesses.
Widows.
Children.
She had created a hidden rescue network using company money.
Sebastian stared at page after page.
“My mother stole from the business to save people from the business.”
Vanessa nodded.
“She hated what your grandfather had built.”
“Why didn’t she go to police?”
“Some of the police were on the list.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
The film advanced.
Thomas Cole’s handwriting appeared beside several entries.
Megan touched the screen.
“My father.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“He helped Isabella design the accounting system.”
Then a new column appeared.
Red circles.
Not Isabella’s handwriting.
Daniel moved closer despite Sebastian’s warning.
“What is that?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“I’ve never seen those marks.”
Each red circle appeared beside a family Isabella had relocated.
Beside it was a date.
And another payment.
Sebastian frowned.
“Someone found them.”
Megan’s stomach turned.
“After Isabella moved them?”
“Yes.”
“Why pay again?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Because somebody sold the new addresses.”
They advanced the film.
Twenty-three families.
Nine had red marks.
Sebastian searched the names.
“What happened to the nine?”
Nobody answered.
They did not need to.
Then Megan saw one.
COLE, THOMAS.
A red circle.
Date: March 14, 2004.
The night Antonio died.
Megan whispered, “Dad was compromised.”
“Yes,” Vanessa said.
“That’s why he came back.”
A note appeared beside Thomas’s name.
SOURCE INSIDE I.R. NETWORK.
Sebastian leaned closer.
“Someone working for my mother.”
Daniel turned away.
Vanessa noticed.
“What?”
Daniel shook his head.
“You know who,” she said.
“I suspect.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward Megan.
“Evelyn.”
Megan’s chair scraped backward.
“No.”
“She knew locations.”
“She was Thomas’s wife.”
“She had access to the mail drops.”
Megan stood.
“You’ve lied for twenty-two years. You don’t get to accuse my mother because it’s convenient.”
Daniel held up one hand.
“I said suspect.”
Sebastian’s gaze remained on the screen.
“What evidence?”
“Antonio called me two weeks before his death. He said the leak was a woman close to Isabella.”
Vanessa stared.
“You never told me.”
“I thought it was you.”
Her face went still.
“That’s why you followed me.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you pushed Sebastian to propose?”
Sebastian turned.
“What?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Your uncle spent years encouraging our relationship because he thought if I became family, he could watch me.”
Daniel did not deny it.
Sebastian’s expression hardened further.
“So even my engagement was part of an investigation.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Not for me.”
He ignored her.
Megan advanced the microfilm.
The final frame appeared.
Not a ledger.
A photograph.
A close-up of a handwritten note.
Antonio’s handwriting.
If I am dead when this is found, the leak is not Evelyn, Vanessa, or Daniel. I was wrong about all three.
Everyone froze.
Daniel moved toward the screen.
Sebastian read the next line.
The person selling Isabella’s families has access to company security archives and medical records.
Vanessa whispered, “Medical.”
Daniel’s face drained.
“There was only one person with both.”
Sebastian turned.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Dr. Charles Mercer.”
Sebastian knew the name.
Everyone in the Rinaldi family did.
Mercer had been their private physician for almost thirty years.
He had signed Antonio’s death certificate.
He had signed Isabella’s death certificate.
And according to the petition filed yesterday—
Megan remembered.
“One of the physicians claiming Sebastian is neurologically impaired.”
Sebastian’s eyes went cold.
Vanessa whispered, “He’s still doing it.”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
Sebastian grabbed his wrist.
“No calls.”
“I was going to warn Evelyn.”
Megan’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because Mercer knows where she lives.”
Megan dialed her mother.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She called Mrs. Alvarez at the estate.
Mrs. Alvarez answered immediately.
“Lily’s fine.”
Megan nearly cried from relief.
“Is my mother there?”
“No. I thought she was with you.”
Megan turned toward Sebastian.
“She left.”
“When?”
Mrs. Alvarez checked.
“Maybe fifteen minutes ago.”
“Did she say where?”
“She asked for the driver.”
Megan’s stomach sank.
“Which driver?”
A pause.
Then Mrs. Alvarez said:
“She said Dr. Mercer sent him.”
Sebastian was already moving.
They raced back toward the estate.
Halfway there, Daniel’s phone rang.
Everyone stared at it.
Unknown number.
Daniel answered on speaker.
“Hello?”
No voice.
Only music.
Soft piano.
Sebastian’s face changed.
“What?”
He recognized it.
“My mother played that.”
The recording continued.
Then Evelyn’s voice came through.
Calm.
Too calm.
“Megan, honey, if you’re hearing this, don’t come looking for me.”
Megan gripped the seat.
“Mom.”
Evelyn continued.
“I’ve lied to you for most of your life, but not about the reason.”
A pause.
“I wanted you ordinary.”
Megan began crying.
“You deserved ordinary.”
The piano stopped.
Then a man’s voice replaced it.
Polished.
Measured.
Dr. Charles Mercer.
“Sebastian.”
Sebastian leaned toward the phone.
Mercer continued.
“You’ve spent your life believing violence was the dangerous inheritance in your family.”
A quiet breath.
“It wasn’t.”
Sebastian said nothing.
Mercer’s voice became almost gentle.
“Information was.”
Then another sound came through.
A woman coughing.
Evelyn.
Megan lunged toward the phone.
“What did you do to her?”
Mercer ignored her.
“Bring Antonio’s watch to the Rinaldi Medical Foundation tomorrow morning.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“And if I don’t?”
“Then Evelyn Cole becomes exactly what your mother was supposed to become in 1996.”
Sebastian’s face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Mercer gave a soft laugh.
“Dead on paper.”
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the phone.
Vanessa whispered, “He knows Isabella is alive.”
Sebastian looked at Antonio’s watch.
“No.”
May you like
He closed his fist around it.
“He knows where she is.”
