Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE WITH NO ADDRESS
I left Mercer Medical before sunrise.
Grace arranged the discharge quietly.
Luka’s security team used a service elevator beneath the hospital.
I hated needing protection.
But when I saw two black SUVs waiting outside the maternity entrance, I stopped arguing.
One belonged to Ethan.
The other didn’t have plates.
Luka saw it too.
“We’re not using the main road.”
Twenty minutes later, Emma and I were in the back of a dark SUV traveling through the rain.
Luka sat across from us.
He never took his eyes off the vehicles behind us.
“Are you a criminal?”
I asked.
One corner of his mouth moved.
“That’s usually not the first question people ask while I’m helping them escape unidentified surveillance.”
“It’s my first.”
He looked at Emma.
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of.”
“But I’m not the person your husband wants you to believe I am.”
“And what does he want me to believe?”
“That Moretti means dangerous.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
His honesty surprised me.
“But dangerous doesn’t always mean dangerous to you.”
We eventually reached an iron gate hidden behind thick rows of trees.
Beyond it stood an old stone house.
Not a mansion.
Not a palace.
A fortress disguised as a family home.
Inside, an elderly woman named Rosa took Emma from my exhausted arms.
I nearly refused.
Then Emma yawned against her shoulder.
Rosa smiled.
“I raised Luka.”
“He survived.”
“That should count for something.”
It was the first time I had laughed since giving birth.
Only for a second.
Luka led me into a study.
A metal box sat on the desk.
He used the brass key marked 17.
Inside was a cassette recorder.
A sealed envelope.
And a photograph of me at sixteen.
My legs weakened.
On the back of the photograph, my father had written two words.
FOR CLAIRE.
Luka pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then I heard the voice I had spent nine years trying not to remember.
“Claire.”
I covered my mouth.
“If you are listening to this, then I failed to return before M-17 resurfaced.”
Tears burned my eyes.
My father continued.
“Do not trust anyone connected to the Mercer family.”
“Especially anyone who becomes close to you without a reason.”
I stopped breathing.
Ethan had met me six months after my father vanished.
My father’s voice became quieter.
“If a Mercer enters your life, assume it was intentional.”
I looked at Luka.
He was already watching me.
Then my father said the sentence that destroyed the last piece of my marriage.
May you like
“If Ethan Mercer has found you, he was sent.”
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