Chapter 16 - THE RED DOOR
I returned to Ohio under federal protection.
Maya did not.
That was the hardest decision I had made since leaving Derek.
She stayed in Rome with Gabriella, who moved temporarily into a protected apartment arranged through the authorities.
Not Alessandro.
Authorities.
I insisted.
If I was going to rebuild my life, I could not replace one powerful man deciding everything with another.
Alessandro understood.
He remained in Rome with Luca.
Before I boarded, he handed me Sofia's original flash drive.
“Bellini has a forensic copy.”
“What is this for?”
“Courage.”
I almost smiled.
“I have enough of that.”
“I noticed.”
Maya cried when I left.
“Don't go.”
I held her.
“I have to help Grandma and Grandpa.”
“Daddy is bad.”
“Yes.”
It was the first time I had said it that plainly.
“Is he going to hurt you?”
“I’m going to be with police.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
She touched my face.
“Come back.”
“I will do everything I can.”
I no longer made impossible promises.
The red-door house belonged to a shell company linked to Bennett & Cole.
Federal agents surrounded it before dawn.
My parents were found inside.
Alive.
Shaken.
My father's nose was broken.
My mother's wrists were bruised.
Derek was not there.
Neither was Warren.
Neither was Ryan.
But Noah was.
The five-year-old boy was asleep upstairs.
When agents carried him outside, he woke crying for Margaret.
Derek's mother.
She was nowhere to be found.
Inside the basement, investigators discovered files.
Hundreds of them.
Adoption records.
Medical transfers.
Payments.
Photographs.
My photograph.
From childhood.
School.
Nursing graduation.
Wedding.
Pregnancy.
Maya's birth.
My entire life documented by strangers.
I sat on the basement floor and stared.
An FBI agent named Reynolds crouched beside me.
“Claire.”
“They watched everything.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“We're working on that.”
I pointed at a photograph from my college graduation.
Derek stood in the background.
I had not met him yet.
“He was there.”
Reynolds stared.
The date was four years before our official meeting.
My stomach turned.
Derek's pursuit of me had started long before St. Agnes.
“Find him.”
“We will.”
“No.”
I looked at Reynolds.
“You don't understand.”
“He knows me.”
“He knows what I will do.”
“He knows I came back.”
Reynolds' expression tightened.
“What do you think he'll do?”
I looked at the walls.
“Something I won't expect.”
My phone rang.
Rome.
Alessandro.
I answered.
“Is Maya okay?”
Silence.
My heart stopped.
“Alessandro.”
“Maya is safe.”
I exhaled.
“Then what?”
“Luca is gone.”
The room disappeared.
“What?”
“Someone took him from the pediatric clinic.”
“How?”
“False police credentials.”
“Enzo followed.”
“Where?”
“Claire.”
His voice broke.
For the first time, Alessandro Moretti sounded terrified.
“They left something behind.”
“What?”
“A plane ticket.”
My blood ran cold.
“To where?”
“Cleveland.”
Luca was being brought to Ohio.
The two criminal worlds were collapsing into one.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Then I looked at the files around me.
One binder was labeled PATERNITY.
I opened it.
Inside were DNA reports.
Anna Vitale.
Lorenzo Moretti.
Not a match.
Relief mixed with confusion.
Then another name appeared.
Anna Vitale.
Warren Bennett.
Probability of paternity: 99.8%.
I stopped breathing.
“Alessandro.”
“What?”
“I know who my biological father is.”
Silence.
“Who?”
I stared at the name.
“Warren.”
Derek's father.
Which meant Derek had married his own half-sister.
The horror hit so hard I almost vomited.
But the report date changed everything.
Warren had known.
Derek might not have.
I turned the page.
There was a handwritten note.
DEREK NOT INFORMED.
My vision blurred.
All those years.
The Bennetts knew.
They let the marriage happen anyway because controlling me mattered more.
Then another note.
Child from union could consolidate claim if required.
I screamed.
Maya.
They had considered my daughter part of some sick inheritance strategy.
Reynolds took the file.
His face hardened.
“We need to move you.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
“Derek wants me.”
“If Luca is coming here, it's because they are assembling everyone connected to the bloodline.”
“Which makes you a target.”
“It makes me bait whether I like it or not.”
Reynolds stared at me.
May you like
I closed the file.
“But this time we're going to choose where the trap closes.”
