Chapter 2 - THE NAME IN THE BOX
Kira did not sleep.
Lorenzo took them to a private conference room above one of his hotels.
Kira spent the night at the hotel because Lorenzo refused to let them return to the apartment.
She sat beside the window while Ethan slept on the sofa.
At three in the morning, Lorenzo appeared with a blanket.
"You should sleep."
"So should you."
"I've never been good at following advice."
"Apparently."
He handed her the blanket.
She noticed a scar along his wrist.
"What happened?"
"Long story."
"Then tell me."
He leaned against the wall.
"When I was twenty-four, I trusted someone because he called himself family."
"Walter?"
"No. Someone else."
Kira waited.
"That person sold my location to the Crown."
"Why are you telling me?"
"Because you deserve to know why I don't trust easily."
She looked at him.
"I don't trust easily either."
"I noticed."
A quiet understanding settled between them.
Then Ethan woke.
"Kira?"
"I'm here."
He held up the metal box.
"There's another compartment."
They opened it.
A tiny memory card was taped beneath the lining.
Lorenzo stared.
"That's what they were looking for."
Kira asked, "What's on it?"
"Maybe the reason your mother disappeared."
They transferred the files to a secure computer.
The first video showed Isabella.
She looked frightened.
Behind her stood a younger Lorenzo.
And beside him was a man Kira had never seen.
Isabella spoke into the camera.
"If you find this, the person standing beside Lorenzo is the one you must fear."
The image froze.
Kira looked at Lorenzo.
"Who is that?"
He stared at the screen.
"I don't know."
Then the man turned toward the camera.
His face became visible.
Lorenzo went pale.
"That's Adrian."
Kira expected marble, armed guards, and the cold efficiency she had heard about in rumors.
Instead, he gave Ethan coffee and asked Kira whether she wanted tea.
She almost laughed.
"What?"
"You don't look like a Mafia boss."
"I don't know what a Mafia boss is supposed to look like."
"Less polite."
"That's because you're still confusing politeness with safety."
Kira stared at him.
He wasn't wrong.
Walter had always been polite.
The thought made her stomach turn.
A woman named Sofia Crane entered carrying a folder.
She was in her fifties, wore a navy suit, and had the calm expression of someone who had spent decades dealing with men who believed intimidation was a substitute for intelligence.
"I found Margaret Bell," Sofia said.
Kira stood.
"Where?"
"She left Chicago six years ago."
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Sofia placed a photograph on the table.
A small town in Michigan.
A diner.
Margaret sitting behind the counter.
Kira recognized her immediately.
"She knew my mother."
"She did."
"Then we go."
Lorenzo nodded.
The next morning, they drove north.
The trip gave Kira time to ask questions she had been afraid to ask.
"Did you love my mother?"
Lorenzo kept his eyes on the road.
"Yes."
Kira looked out the window.
The answer hurt in a strange way.
Not because she was jealous.
Because it proved her mother had once had a life beyond survival.
"What kind of love?"
"The kind that makes people reckless."
"That sounds dangerous."
"It was."
He told her that he and Isabella had planned to leave Chicago together after discovering the Crown's operation.
They had intended to expose the corruption and start over.
But Lorenzo's father died before they could.
Then Isabella disappeared.
Kira listened.
"Why didn't you search harder?"
"I did."
"For how long?"
"Until Walter gave me evidence that she had died."
"And you believed him?"
"I was twenty-four and grieving."
She nodded slowly.
"I understand."
At the diner, Margaret recognized Kira before she reached the counter.
Her face went white.
"Oh, God."
Kira swallowed.
"You know me."
"I know your mother."
"She's alive."
Margaret's hand flew to her mouth.
"Then they failed."
"Who?"
Margaret looked at Lorenzo.
"Not here."
They moved to a storage room.
Margaret locked the door.
"Your mother gave me something before she disappeared."
"What?"
"A copy of the original ledger."
Kira stared.
"Where is it?"
Margaret shook her head.
"I don't have it."
"Then who does?"
She looked at Ethan.
"Your brother."
Ethan frowned.
"Me?"
"Your mother trusted you because she knew you would never understand what you were carrying."
Kira's heart raced.
Margaret reached into a cabinet and removed an old bakery receipt.
She turned it over.
A series of numbers had been written on the back.
"It's a code."
"To what?"
"The account where the evidence was stored."
Lorenzo took the paper.
His expression changed.
"This account was closed eleven years ago."
Margaret nodded.
"Exactly."
Kira stared.
"Then why does it matter?"
"Because someone reopened it last week."
She sat at the kitchen table until sunrise, staring at the photograph.
Their mother looked younger in it.
Not happy exactly.
But peaceful.
That was what unsettled Kira most.
Their mother had spent the final years of her life exhausted and frightened. She had worked two jobs, hidden overdue notices in drawers, and checked the locks three times every night.
Yet in this photograph, she was standing beside Lorenzo Moretti with one hand resting lightly against his shoulder.
Ethan sat across from Kira.
"He was different then," he said.
"You knew about this?"
"I found the box after Mom died."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was scared."
Kira looked at him.
"You were eleven."
"I was old enough to understand that people were looking for something."
"What something?"
Ethan shook his head.
"I don't know."
Kira opened the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
My children,
If you're reading this, then I failed to keep the past buried.
Trust each other.
Trust no one who tells you the Moretti family has forgotten us.
And if Lorenzo Moretti ever finds you, tell him one thing:
I kept my promise.
There was no signature.
Kira read it twice.
"What promise?"
Ethan rubbed his face.
"I don't know."
A knock sounded.
Both of them froze.
Three slow knocks.
Then silence.
Kira stood.
Ethan grabbed her wrist.
"Don't."
The knock came again.
A voice followed.
"Ms. Lawson? Building management."
Ethan whispered, "We don't have building management."
Kira's pulse jumped.
The voice changed.
"Kira?"
She recognized it.
Lorenzo.
Ethan stared at her.
"Why is he here?"
"I don't know."
Kira approached the door but didn't open it.
"Mr. Moretti?"
"Yes."
"How did you find my apartment?"
"I have people who know things."
"That isn't comforting."
A pause.
"No. It isn't."
She almost smiled despite herself.
Then his voice became serious.
"Someone photographed you yesterday."
"We know."
"Then you know I wasn't joking when I told you to stay away."
Kira looked at Ethan.
"Why?"
"Because the person who sent that photograph wasn't warning you."
"Then what were they doing?"
"Marking you."
The word made her stomach tighten.
Ethan moved toward the door.
Lorenzo continued.
"Open the door."
"No."
"Good."
Kira blinked.
"What?"
"I wanted to know whether you'd obey a man you barely know."
She stared at the door.
"You're impossible."
"I've been called worse."
A vehicle accelerated outside.
Lorenzo's tone changed instantly.
"Get away from the windows."
Ethan pulled Kira down.
A sharp crack echoed through the building.
Glass shattered in the apartment above them.
Kira screamed.
Lorenzo shouted from the hallway.
"Stay down!"
More cracks followed.
Then silence.
A minute later, footsteps rushed through the building.
The door opened only after Lorenzo's men announced themselves.
Kira saw him standing in the hallway with a gun lowered at his side.
His eyes found her immediately.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Ethan?"
"I'm fine."
Lorenzo looked at the broken window.
Then at the photograph on the table.
His jaw tightened.
"Where did you get that?"
Kira held up the picture.
"Someone left it."
He studied it.
"Who knew about your mother?"
"My brother and me."
"Anyone else?"
Kira hesitated.
"Our mother's old employer."
"Name?"
"Margaret Bell."
Lorenzo looked at Walter, who had arrived behind him.
"Find her."
Walter nodded.
Kira stepped forward.
"Why?"
Lorenzo looked directly at her.
"Because your mother didn't disappear from my life voluntarily."
Kira's breath caught.
"What are you saying?"
"I thought she was dead."
"You knew her?"
"Yes."
"How?"
He hesitated.
"She saved my life."
The room became still.
Kira stared.
"When?"
"Eleven years ago."
The number struck her.
The same year their mother had started acting afraid.
The same year she had stopped letting Kira walk home alone.
The same year she had burned old photographs in the kitchen sink.
"What happened?" Kira asked.
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
"Someone inside my family betrayed us."
Ethan looked at the metal box.
"Does it have anything to do with this?"
Lorenzo stepped closer.
His eyes fell on the key.
"Where did you get that?"
"Mom left it."
He went completely still.
"Give it to me."
Kira tightened her hand.
"No."
Lorenzo looked surprised.
"You don't trust me."
"Should I?"
"No."
At least he was honest.
Kira slipped the key into her pocket.
"Then tell me the truth."
Lorenzo's gaze held hers.
"Your mother was carrying evidence that could destroy the man who ordered my father's murder."
Ethan whispered, "Who?"
Lorenzo answered without blinking.
"Walter Pruitt."
Kira turned.
Walter was no longer in the room.
The door stood open.
He was gone.
Lorenzo's face changed.
"Lock the building down."
His men moved.
Kira felt the world tilt.
The silver-haired man who had stood beside Lorenzo at the graduation was the same man who might have been hunting their family for eleven years.
Then Ethan reached into the box again.
"There's one more thing."
He pulled out a small cassette tape.
Kira stared.
Their mother's handwriting was on the label.
FOR LORENZO.
Lorenzo took it.
His fingers shook.
That was the first time Kira saw fear in him.
May you like
Not fear for himself.
Fear of what the tape might prove.
