Chapter 5 - THE GIRL KANE WANTED
Claire stared at her uncle.
“For me?”
Peter nodded.
“You were nineteen.”
“Why would Victor Kane want a nineteen-year-old college student?”
“He didn’t.”
Peter walked toward the window.
“He wanted what Daniel had placed in your name.”
Roman’s gaze sharpened.
“What?”
“A company.”
Claire almost laughed.
“I didn’t own a company.”
“Yes, you did.”
Peter opened a cabinet and removed a small wooden box.
No hidden lawyer.
No dramatic paperwork.
Just an old family box Claire remembered seeing at Christmas gatherings.
Inside were photographs, receipts, and a faded port identification badge belonging to Daniel.
Peter placed the badge on the table.
“Your father formed Mercer Coastal Holdings when you were seventeen.”
Claire frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Roman took the badge.
“Why?”
Peter looked at him.
“Because Daniel discovered Kane was laundering money through port property. He quietly purchased one warehouse Kane needed for his route.”
“In Claire’s name,” Roman said.
“Yes.”
Claire touched her forehead.
“So Kane tried to kill my father because of a warehouse?”
“No.”
Peter looked miserable.
“He needed access beneath it.”
The room became silent.
Serena spoke first.
“What was under the warehouse?”
Peter looked at her.
“Nothing originally.”
Then at Roman.
“Daniel put something there.”
Roman understood before Claire did.
“The records.”
Peter nodded.
“Copies. Names. Payments. Every official Kane bought during his first years in Miami.”
Claire felt sick.
“And my bracelet?”
“Kane wanted proof that I could reach you.”
“You could.”
“Yes.”
Peter’s shame deepened.
“I had gambling debts. Years ago. Kane bought them.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“You told me you stopped.”
“I did. Too late.”
Claire’s stomach tightened painfully.
Roman noticed.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“Claire.”
She glared.
He did not argue.
He simply moved the nearest chair behind her.
She sat.
Peter continued.
“Kane ordered me to find the warehouse title. Daniel realized someone inside the family was searching his files.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
“Did you warn Kane the night Dad disappeared?”
Peter looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
Evelyn slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Peter accepted it without moving.
“You killed my husband.”
“No.”
“You warned the man who murdered him.”
“I thought Kane was going to threaten him.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“You knew exactly what Kane was.”
Peter finally raised his voice.
“I was trying to save Claire!”
Claire stood.
“Stop using me to make what you did sound noble.”
Peter fell silent.
Her son kicked again.
Claire pressed her palm over the movement.
“What happened that night?”
Peter answered quietly.
Daniel arranged to move Luca out of Florida.
Luca had stolen part of Kane’s ledger key.
Daniel brought him to an abandoned marina where Raffaele Rinaldi’s men were supposed to collect them.
Peter warned Kane.
But when Kane arrived, Daniel already knew he had been betrayed.
A fight followed.
Luca escaped briefly.
Daniel did not.
“Where did Luca go?” Serena whispered.
Peter looked at her.
“To Roman.”
Roman’s face darkened.
Serena turned.
“You said he reached you.”
“Yes.”
“What happened after?”
Roman did not answer.
Claire recognized the look.
Another locked door.
“Roman.”
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of his wedding ring.
“Luca gave me the watch.”
“And then?”
“He asked me for a car.”
“You were twenty-two,” Serena said. “You could have helped him.”
“I tried.”
Serena’s voice broke.
“What happened?”
Roman looked at Peter.
“Tell her.”
Peter frowned.
“I wasn’t there.”
“But you know.”
Peter slowly shook his head.
“No.”
Roman’s voice became very quiet.
“Kane wasn’t the last person to see Luca alive.”
Serena stared.
“Who was?”
Roman looked at her.
“My father.”
Everything shifted again.
Roman explained.
Raffaele Rinaldi found Luca before Kane did.
He believed the boy’s stolen ledger could destroy half the organization.
Raffaele took Luca into custody.
“My father wanted the ledger.”
Serena’s face hardened.
“And Luca wouldn’t give it to him.”
“No.”
“So your father killed him.”
Roman shook his head.
“I believed that for years.”
“You believed?”
“Until three weeks ago.”
Claire felt something click into place.
“That’s why Serena returned.”
Roman nodded.
“She found evidence Luca survived that night.”
Serena pulled the silver rosary from her neck.
“My brother wore this.”
Claire frowned.
“You said he gave it to you before he disappeared.”
“He did.”
Serena turned the cross over.
“Then three months ago, this arrived inside an envelope at my apartment.”
Claire stared.
“The same rosary?”
“Yes.”
Roman took it.
“The hinge had been repaired.”
Serena nodded.
“Someone had kept it.”
Peter looked genuinely frightened.
“Kane?”
“No,” Serena said. “The envelope came from a nursing home in Fort Myers.”
Claire blinked.
“For whom?”
“A man named Luis Calder.”
Roman explained that Luis had worked security for Raffaele fourteen years earlier.
He died two days before Serena reached the nursing home.
Before dying, he left one sentence with a nurse.
The boy was taken north.
Serena whispered, “Luca might have survived.”
Claire looked at Roman.
“Then why does Kane think Serena hates you?”
“Because she does,” Serena said.
Roman did not react.
Serena wiped her eyes.
“I hated Roman long before this plan. I thought his family killed Luca.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know.”
Peter suddenly stood.
“If Luca survived, Kane will know where they took him.”
Roman turned.
“Why?”
“Because Kane spent years looking.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“You know where?”
Peter shook his head.
“No. But I know who helped him search.”
“Who?”
Peter looked toward Evelyn.
Her mother went pale.
Claire followed his gaze.
“Mom?”
Evelyn whispered, “I thought he was dead.”
“Who?”
Evelyn stood slowly.
“There was one person Daniel trusted more than me.”
Roman frowned.
“Who?”
Evelyn walked toward the family photographs.
She removed one showing Daniel, Evelyn, Claire, and a priest standing outside a church.
Father Michael Avery.
Claire remembered him from childhood.
He had baptized her.
He had officiated Daniel’s memorial.
Evelyn touched the photograph.
“Michael helped Daniel hide the records.”
Roman took out his phone.
Evelyn shook her head.
“He won’t answer.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he disappeared last month.”
Claire felt another contraction of fear, not labor.
Serena stared at the priest’s photograph.
Then she reached into Peter’s wooden box and picked up Daniel’s old port badge.
“What?”
Serena turned it around.
Taped to the back was a recent transit ticket.
Fort Myers to Miami.
Dated four days earlier.
Someone had written two words across it.
HE’S HOME.
Serena’s fingers began trembling.
Claire whispered, “Luca?”
Before anyone could answer, Roman looked through Peter’s window toward the parking lot.
A man stood across the street.
Thin.
Dark-haired.
A scar along his jaw.
Serena followed Roman’s gaze.
The color vanished from her face.
The man looked directly at Serena.
Then lifted two fingers to his heart.
A gesture Claire did not understand.
Serena did.
May you like
Her knees buckled.
“Luca.”
