Chapter 6 - LILY’S LAST RED RIBBON
Every part of me wanted to run through that door.
Vincent stopped me with one arm.
“Think.”
“My daughter is inside.”
“So is my son.”
Cassandra’s voice came through the thin wooden wall.
“I know you’re there, Vincent.”
He looked toward Marco.
Marco pointed at the eastern side of the building.
Police tactical officers were moving around the perimeter.
Vincent stepped forward.
“I’m here.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
She laughed.
“I didn’t think so.”
The river struck the dock beneath the building.
Wind pushed rain sideways.
Through the window I could see Lily crouched beside Enzo.
Her lips moved.
She was singing.
The same nonsense lullaby she sang to her stuffed rabbit.
Enzo had stopped screaming.
He was watching her.
Even terrified, my three-year-old was still trying to comfort him.
Cassandra came closer to the window.
“You ruined everything, Sofia.”
I found my voice.
“You poisoned a baby.”
“I controlled a situation.”
Vincent’s face became stone.
“That is my son.”
“And my sister’s fortune.”
There it was.
Not love.
Not grief.
Fortune.
Cassandra opened the door but stayed behind the frame.
Gun still raised.
“Do you have the file?”
Vincent said nothing.
“Bianca’s file.”
So she knew.
“Your sister was afraid of you,” he said.
Cassandra smiled.
“My sister was dramatic.”
“She recorded you.”
“She recorded everyone.”
“She knew about Norah.”
The smile weakened.
“She guessed.”
“She knew about the stolen money.”
Silence.
Vincent continued.
“Thirty-two million dollars.”
Cassandra’s face changed.
I realized he had guessed the amount from the documents.
Judging by her reaction, he was close.
“My father stole my life first.”
Her voice suddenly carried years of rage.
“Bianca received the company. Bianca received the properties. Bianca received the votes. I received an allowance and instructions to be grateful.”
“So you stole from her?”
“I took what should have been mine.”
“And when she found out?”
Cassandra’s grip tightened around the gun.
“The accident was not supposed to happen that way.”
Vincent stopped breathing.
Neither did I.
Cassandra realized what she had said.
Too late.
Marco’s phone was recording.
Police were recording.
Everything was recording.
Vincent’s voice went frighteningly soft.
“What did you do to Bianca?”
Cassandra looked toward the river.
“She was going to expose me.”
“What did you do?”
“I only wanted her tired.”
The words came faster.
Defensive.
Desperate.
“She had a board meeting. She was going to give the records to the trustees. Norah got medication from her brother. Bianca was supposed to sleep through the meeting.”
“She was driving.”
“She wasn’t supposed to drive!”
Vincent’s face broke.
“She was eight months pregnant.”
“I didn’t know she would leave!”
“You drugged my wife.”
Cassandra screamed, “She took everything!”
Enzo started crying.
Lily stood.
“Stop yelling at the baby!”
Even Cassandra looked startled.
My daughter put both hands on her hips.
“Babies don’t like yelling.”
Under any other circumstances, I might have laughed.
Instead I almost sobbed.
Cassandra pointed the gun toward the floor.
“Sit down.”
Lily did not.
“Lily,” I called.
Her head snapped toward the door.
“Mommy!”
“I’m right here.”
“I left my bunnies.”
“I found them.”
“And the red bows?”
“All of them.”
Her face brightened for one beautiful second.
“I did good?”
“You did perfect.”
Cassandra grabbed her shoulder.
My entire body moved.
Vincent held me.
“Don’t touch her!” I screamed.
Cassandra dragged Lily backward.
“Bring me Bianca’s file.”
Vincent raised both hands.
“You can have it.”
Marco looked at him.
Vincent ignored him.
“You can have every page.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“You want the originals?”
“Yes.”
“They’re in my car.”
“Bring them.”
“You release Lily first.”
“No.”
“Then we have nothing to discuss.”
Cassandra lifted the gun.
I felt Vincent tense.
“What about Enzo?” he asked.
“He comes with me.”
“You will never get across the border.”
“I have passports.”
“You think the police aren’t watching every airport?”
“I am not flying.”
Her eyes flicked toward the river.
Boat.
Of course.
Behind the boathouse was a private dock.
A small cabin cruiser rocked in the rain.
She had planned an escape.
Maybe Canada eventually.
Maybe somewhere else.
Norah appeared behind her.
For the first time, I saw panic.
Real panic.
“This wasn’t the deal.”
Cassandra turned.
“Be quiet.”
“You said we were taking the children until he signed.”
“I said be quiet.”
Norah looked at Enzo.
“You said no one would get hurt.”
Vincent caught it.
“Norah.”
Her eyes moved toward him.
“You can still stop this.”
Cassandra laughed.
“She poisoned your maid.”
Norah flinched.
Vincent said, “And Cassandra poisoned my wife.”
“That wasn’t me.”
Cassandra turned the gun toward her.
“Norah.”
The nanny stared at it.
Fear became decision.
“She gave me the medication for Sofia,” Norah shouted. “She told me it would only make her sleep!”
“Shut up!”
“She made me alter the feeding logs!”
Cassandra fired.
The sound split the boathouse.
I screamed.
Norah fell behind a workbench.
Police moved.
Everything happened at once.
Glass shattered.
Vincent pushed me behind the wall.
Marco rushed the side entrance.
Cassandra grabbed Enzo’s carrier.
Lily bit her hand.
Cassandra shrieked.
The gun fell.
Lily ran.
I broke from Vincent.
“Lily!”
She came through the door into my arms.
I dropped to my knees.
She hit me so hard we both almost fell.
“Mommy!”
“I’ve got you.”
Inside, officers shouted.
Vincent disappeared through the doorway.
Another crash.
Then Enzo cried.
Thirty seconds later Vincent emerged carrying his son.
Rain covered both of them.
Enzo buried his face against his father’s chest.
Cassandra was dragged out in handcuffs.
Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
She looked at me.
At Lily.
At Vincent.
Then she smiled.
“You think this changes anything?”
Vincent stared at her.
“It changes everything.”
“No.”
Her smile widened.
“The custody hearing is tomorrow.”
Samuel stepped from behind a police vehicle.
“Your emergency order will be gone before midnight.”
“Maybe.”
Cassandra looked at me.
“But ask Sofia what happens when they find out who her husband worked for.”
My heart stopped.
Vincent turned toward me.
Cassandra laughed.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you?”
I could not move.
My husband, Daniel Hale, had died two years earlier.
I had told the Moretti employment office he had worked in logistics.
That was true.
I had not told them which company.
Cassandra saw my face.
“There it is.”
Vincent looked at me.
“Sofia?”
I closed my eyes.
“Daniel worked for Vale Maritime.”
Marco stepped closer.
“In what capacity?”
“Internal accounting.”
Cassandra’s smile became almost triumphant.
Vincent understood before anyone spoke.
Bianca’s missing financial records.
The stolen millions.
Daniel had been an accountant.
“He knew,” Vincent whispered.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
But suddenly I remembered the locked storage box I had not opened since his funeral.
Daniel’s papers.
The insurance file.
A note he once made me promise never to throw away.
If anything ever happens to me, keep the blue ledger for Lily.
At the time, I had believed grief made everything sound more important than it was.
Now Cassandra was smiling at me in the rain.
“You really never opened it, did you?”
My blood turned cold.
She knew about the ledger.
Vincent stepped between us.
Cassandra called over his shoulder.
“Ask your dead husband why Bianca was on that road, Sofia.”
I could barely breathe.
“What are you talking about?”
Her eyes glittered.
“Bianca wasn’t driving to a board meeting when she crashed.”
The police pulled her toward the vehicle.
I followed.
“Where was she going?”
Cassandra laughed.
“To meet Daniel.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Vincent caught me.
Cassandra’s final words carried through the rain.
“They were going to expose us together.”
Us.
Not her.
Us.
Meaning someone else was involved.
And that night, after Lily was asleep and Enzo was safely back in his father’s arms, Vincent and I opened the blue metal box Daniel had left behind.
Inside was a ledger.
Three flash drives.
A photograph of Bianca.
And a sealed envelope addressed in my husband’s handwriting.
Not to me.
To Vincent Moretti.
May you like
The first sentence read:
If Bianca and I are both dead when you find this, the person you need to fear is already inside your organization.
