Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO STOOD BESIDE EVERY FUNERAL
Lorenzo noticed the door lock.
A quiet metallic click.
He looked at Adrian Vale.
Adrian smiled faintly.
“You’ve always been observant.”
Lorenzo moved between Adrian and Lucas’s hospital room.
They were inside a private consultation suite adjoining the pediatric intensive care unit.
Adrian had arrived twenty minutes earlier carrying trust documents Lorenzo had requested.
He was fifty-eight, silver-haired, immaculate, and so deeply embedded in the Duca family that Lorenzo could barely remember life without him.
Adrian had negotiated Lorenzo’s first legitimate property acquisition.
He had protected the estate during federal investigations.
He had arranged Alessia’s funeral.
He had rewritten Lucas’s trust after her death.
“Open the door,” Lorenzo said.
Adrian placed his briefcase on the table.
“You’re angry.”
“Open it.”
“You have every right to be.”
Lorenzo stepped forward.
Adrian lifted one hand.
“Before you break my neck, you should know that if I don’t leave this hospital in the next twenty minutes, information goes to three federal agencies.”
Lorenzo stopped.
“There he is,” Adrian said softly. “The man everyone is afraid of.”
“What do you want?”
“Nothing I haven’t wanted for years.”
“Lucas dead?”
Adrian’s expression barely shifted.
“I never hated your son.”
“You poisoned him.”
“No.”
“You paid Simon Hale.”
“I financed research.”
“You’re a lawyer. Try lying better.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“I warned Simon repeatedly not to become careless.”
The admission hung between them.
Lorenzo’s hands curled into fists.
“Three years.”
“Yes.”
“My son has been in pain for three years.”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo crossed the room.
Adrian pulled a small device from his pocket.
“Stop.”
His thumb hovered over a button.
“Dead-man switch?”
“Insurance.”
Lorenzo stopped.
Adrian sighed.
“You think this began with Lucas. It didn’t.”
“Alessia.”
For the first time, Adrian looked surprised.
Lorenzo knew he had hit the truth.
“She found you.”
“She found accounting records she wasn’t supposed to see.”
“What records?”
“Payments. Politicians. Judges. Shipping contracts. People who publicly despised your family while privately accepting your money.”
“That doesn’t explain murder.”
“Alessia wanted to hand everything to prosecutors.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You killed my wife because she wanted out.”
“I didn’t kill her.”
“You had her car sabotaged.”
Adrian said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Lorenzo’s voice became almost gentle.
“You stood beside me at her funeral.”
“I did.”
“You carried my son when he cried.”
“Yes.”
“You told me the accident wasn’t my fault.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“It wasn’t.”
Lorenzo laughed once.
There was nothing humorous in it.
“What did Alessia leave for Lucas?”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“A legal trigger.”
“What kind?”
“At age seven, certain sealed records transfer automatically from a protected trust account into Lucas’s ownership. If he dies before seven, the transfer is delayed while the estate is reviewed by family trustees.”
“Giving you time to destroy them.”
“Yes.”
“Why not kill him quickly?”
Adrian looked offended.
“Because children dying suddenly attract attention.”
Lorenzo’s face went blank.
“Slow illness creates grief. Confusion. Expensive experts with conflicting opinions.”
“You made doctors watch him die.”
“I made sure they never looked in the correct direction.”
The room seemed to shrink around Lorenzo.
Every instinct told him to destroy the man standing in front of him.
But Lucas was alive.
Emma was missing.
And Adrian still believed he controlled the room.
That meant Lorenzo needed him talking.
“Why the pillows?”
“Simon’s idea.”
“The drink?”
“Effective.”
“Vivian?”
“We underestimated her conscience.”
Adrian glanced at his watch.
“She won’t matter much longer.”
Lorenzo heard footsteps outside.
Then Daniel’s voice.
“Lorenzo!”
Adrian moved toward the door.
Lorenzo was faster.
He hit Adrian’s wrist.
The device flew across the floor.
Adrian swung.
Lorenzo drove him against the table.
The door burst open.
Daniel entered with two security men.
“Alive,” Daniel said.
Lorenzo had one hand around Adrian’s throat.
“What?”
“We need him alive.”
Lorenzo released him.
Adrian collapsed into a chair coughing.
Daniel picked up the device.
“Grace and Emma are safe.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes for half a second.
“Vivian?”
“In surgery.”
“Lucas?”
“Stable.”
Lorenzo looked at Adrian again.
“Simon?”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“We found him.”
“Where?”
“The greenhouse at Salvatore’s country property.”
Adrian laughed.
Everyone turned.
“You’re late.”
Daniel grabbed his coat.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian wiped blood from his lip.
“It means Simon Hale has been planning to disappear since Alessia found the first invoice.”
“Is he alive?”
“For now.”
Daniel looked at Lorenzo.
Twenty minutes later they were racing north through the rain.
Salvatore’s “flower house” was a glass greenhouse attached to an abandoned family property near Bedford.
Police had not been called.
Not yet.
Lorenzo wanted evidence before Adrian’s lawyers could erase it.
They arrived shortly before sunrise.
The greenhouse smelled of damp soil.
Daniel found Simon Hale sitting on the floor behind a potting bench.
His hands were zip-tied.
His face was bruised.
Salvatore stood ten feet away holding a pistol.
Lorenzo froze.
“Uncle.”
Salvatore lowered the weapon.
“You finally figured it out.”
Daniel moved between them.
Simon laughed weakly.
“Family reunion.”
Lorenzo looked at Salvatore.
“You knew Simon was involved.”
“I suspected.”
“So you kidnapped him?”
“I invited him.”
Simon spat blood onto the floor.
“He broke two of my ribs.”
Salvatore shrugged.
“He declined the invitation.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“You let my son suffer while you investigated in secret.”
Salvatore’s expression darkened.
“I spent a year trying to prove it.”
“You could have told me.”
“You were surrounded.”
“By Adrian.”
“By everyone.”
Salvatore handed Daniel a folder.
Inside were photographs, bank transfers, and copies of overseas pharmaceutical purchases.
Adrian’s name appeared throughout them.
Lorenzo looked at Simon.
“Why?”
Simon stared at the ground.
“Money.”
Lorenzo waited.
Simon laughed.
“What answer do you want? Adrian paid me more in one year than I made in five. He told me the boy would appear chronically ill. He said nobody would die.”
Lorenzo’s voice dropped.
“He is six.”
Simon looked away.
“He wasn’t supposed to get this bad.”
Salvatore raised the pistol again.
Lorenzo stopped him.
“No.”
Salvatore stared.
“Three years ago you would have shot him yourself.”
“Three years ago my son wasn’t upstairs fighting for his life because everyone around me solved problems with fear.”
Simon looked surprised.
So did Salvatore.
Lorenzo crouched in front of the pharmacist.
“You are going to tell Mara Quinn exactly what you gave my son, how much, and for how long.”
Simon shook his head.
“Adrian will kill me.”
“Adrian is in custody.”
Simon laughed again.
“No, he isn’t.”
Lorenzo straightened.
Daniel checked his phone.
No signal inside the greenhouse.
They ran outside.
Daniel’s phone connected.
Seven missed calls.
He called the hospital.
His face turned white.
“What happened?”
Lorenzo grabbed his shoulder.
Daniel slowly lowered the phone.
“Adrian escaped during a transfer between security floors.”
“How?”
“Someone in hospital security helped him.”
Lorenzo’s stomach dropped.
Daniel continued.
“He took a doctor hostage.”
“Lucas?”
“Still there.”
“Grace?”
“Still there.”
“Emma?”
A pause.
Lorenzo’s blood froze.
Daniel said, “Adrian didn’t take Emma.”
Lorenzo exhaled.
Then Daniel added:
“He took Mara.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
Simon Hale began laughing.
Not loudly.
Not happily.
Just hopelessly.
“You still don’t understand.”
Lorenzo turned.
Simon looked directly at him.
“Mara is the only person who can reverse what we gave Lucas.”
Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
Simon whispered:
“And Adrian knows exactly how many hours the boy has left.”
