Chapter 7 – The Last Witness
A stunned silence settled over the ballroom.
Marco lowered his radio slowly, as if hoping he had misheard.
Alessandro was the first to speak.
“Alive?”
A burst of static answered before the officer’s voice returned.
“Barely. EMS is on the scene. One gunshot to the chest. He’s asking for you… and for a woman named Claire Carter.”
I frowned.
“Claire Carter?”
Marco looked at me.
“That was your maiden name.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“He knows my name?”
Twenty-five minutes later, Alessandro’s convoy pulled into the emergency entrance of St. Vincent Medical Center. Rain washed across the windshield as security guards cleared a path through the crowd of reporters who had somehow already learned that something extraordinary had happened at the Moretti estate.
Richard Hale was under armed guard.
A doctor met them outside the intensive care unit.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” she said. “If you have questions, ask them now.”
Inside the room, Richard looked nothing like the powerful attorney described in Marco’s files.
His expensive suit had been cut away.
His face was gray.
His breathing came through an oxygen mask.
When he saw me, his eyes widened with something that looked disturbingly like guilt.
“You…” he whispered.
“You remember me?”
“I’ve never met you,” I answered.
“Oh… but I knew your husband.”
The words hit like a punch.
Alessandro stepped beside the bed.
“Who shot you?”
Richard ignored him.
Instead, he looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
His trembling hand reached toward the bedside table.
Marco immediately searched the drawer.
Inside was a small flash drive sealed in a plastic evidence bag.
Richard nodded weakly.
“Everything… is there.”
“What does ‘everything’ mean?” Alessandro asked.
“The construction company…”
He coughed violently.
“The fake pregnancy…”
Another painful breath.
“And… Daniel.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“My husband didn’t deserve to die.”
“No.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“He died… because he refused to stay silent.”
The room became still.
“What happened?” I asked.
Richard struggled to speak.
“The crane… wasn’t faulty.”
“It was…”
His chest tightened.
“Sabotaged.”
I covered my mouth.
“No…”
“He found proof.”
Richard’s voice grew weaker.
“He was going to testify Monday morning.”
“The same Monday mentioned in the note,” Alessandro said quietly.
Richard nodded.
“They couldn’t allow it.”
My knees nearly buckled.
For three years I had mourned an accident.
Now I was standing beside the man who admitted it had been murder.
Richard suddenly grabbed Alessandro’s wrist with surprising strength.
“It wasn’t… just business.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s… another reason.”
“What reason?”
Richard looked at me one last time.
His eyes filled with regret.
“Emma…”
My heart stopped.
“What about my daughter?”
His lips trembled.
“She’s…”
The heart monitor emitted one long, piercing tone.
Doctors rushed forward.
“Nurse!”
“Start compressions!”
“Clear!”
The room erupted into controlled chaos.
Marco gently pulled me backward.
I never heard the rest of Richard’s sentence.
Only one word echoed inside my mind.
Emma.
Hours later, after the doctors pronounced Richard Hale dead, Marco plugged the recovered flash drive into an encrypted laptop.
The screen loaded.
A single video file appeared.
May you like
Its title made every person in the room freeze.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, GIVE THIS TO CLAIRE CARTER.
