Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE BURNED CLINIC
The fire department arrived too late to save the clinic.
Kira followed the ambulance to the hospital and refused to leave the waiting room.
Kira stayed awake until dawn.
Later that evening, Lorenzo found Kira on the balcony.
Kira looked at the city below. Somewhere out there was a man who had spent years turning fear into a weapon. She tightened her fingers around Lorenzo's. She had spent years believing courage meant feeling nothing. Now she understood it meant feeling everything and choosing to stay anyway.
"You should be inside."
"I needed air."
He stood beside her.
"You don't have to be brave every minute."
She looked at him.
"I don't know how to stop."
"Neither do I."
She smiled.
"Maybe we're both terrible at resting."
"Probably."
He offered his hand.
She took it.
Below them, Chicago glittered beneath the rain.
For one quiet minute, neither thought about the Crown.
Then Kira noticed a car parked across the street.
Its headlights were off.
Lorenzo saw it too.
The moment he moved toward the window, the car disappeared.
He whispered, "They found us."
When she finally slept, she dreamed about being eight years old.
Her mother was packing boxes.
Someone was shouting outside.
Kira had asked where they were going.
Her mother had smiled and said, "Somewhere safe."
Now she understood that there had never been a safe place.
Only places where the danger hadn't found them yet.
Lorenzo sat beside her when she woke.
"You were talking."
"What did I say?"
"My name."
She stared at him.
"That's embarrassing."
"I didn't mind."
He handed her a folder.
"We found your mother's old apartment."
"What?"
"She kept a storage unit."
Kira opened the folder.
Inside was a photograph of the unit.
The number was circled.
"How did you find it?"
"She used your birthday as the emergency contact."
Kira felt tears sting.
"She remembered everything."
"Parents usually do."
"Not everyone."
He knew what she meant.
Her father.
The search began that afternoon.
Inside the storage unit were boxes of childhood drawings, old clothes, school papers, and one locked suitcase.
Kira recognized it.
Her mother had owned it for years.
The key was taped beneath the handle.
Inside was a red notebook.
The first page contained one sentence.
IF KIRA EVER MEETS LORENZO, GIVE HIM THIS.
Kira handed it to him.
He opened it.
The pages contained names.
Dates.
Payments.
And a final entry.
LORENZO DID NOT BETRAY US.
Kira looked at him.
He closed the notebook.
For the first time, his eyes were wet.
Lorenzo sat across from her.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Finally she asked, "What was my mother to you?"
He looked at the floor.
"A friend."
"Only a friend?"
"No."
Kira waited.
"We were in love."
The admission landed quietly.
She wasn't angry.
She was almost relieved.
Her mother had deserved someone who loved her before the fear began.
"Did she love you?"
"Yes."
"Then why did she leave?"
"Because she thought staying would get you killed."
Kira nodded.
"That's exactly what she would do."
Lorenzo's gaze softened.
"You know her well."
"I had to."
Ethan walked into the waiting room carrying two coffees.
"Doctor says she'll be okay."
Kira exhaled.
Lorenzo stood.
"Good."
Ethan handed Kira a cup.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The security cameras."
He showed Lorenzo a still image.
A man leaving Isabella's room.
His face was partially hidden.
Lorenzo enlarged it.
His expression changed.
"I know him."
"Who?"
"One of my father's former drivers."
"Could he be Adrian's man?"
"Maybe."
Kira looked at the image.
"What's that in his hand?"
A small silver object.
Lorenzo zoomed in.
A key.
The same shape as the one in Kira's pocket.
Her fingers closed around it.
"Someone knows we have it."
Lorenzo nodded.
"Which means we need to move."
"Where?"
"Somewhere nobody knows."
Kira looked at him.
"Do you have such a place?"
He smiled without humor.
"I built my life around having one."
They moved Isabella to a secure private residence.
That night, Kira couldn't sleep.
She walked downstairs and found Lorenzo sitting alone in the kitchen.
"Do you ever sleep?"
"Sometimes."
"That's not an answer."
"Neither was yours."
She smiled.
He poured her coffee.
She sat beside him.
For a while, they listened to the rain.
Then Kira said, "When I hugged you, I thought you were Ethan."
"I remember."
"I was so embarrassed."
"I wasn't."
"Why?"
"Because for three seconds, someone looked at me like I was safe."
She stared at him.
He looked away.
"My life isn't usually like that."
Kira reached for his hand.
"Maybe it can be."
He looked down at their fingers.
Neither pulled away.
Then a gunshot cracked outside.
Lorenzo stood instantly.
The room went dark.
Security shouted from the hallway.
Kira heard glass break.
Lorenzo pushed her behind him.
A bullet struck the wall where her head had been.
He looked at her.
"Now you understand."
Kira nodded.
"I do."
The fight outside lasted less than two minutes.
When it ended, Lorenzo returned carrying a black card.
The crown symbol was painted across it.
On the back was a single sentence.
ISABELLA WAS NEVER THE TARGET.
Flames climbed through the second floor as smoke rolled across the parking lot.
Lorenzo pulled Kira behind a concrete barrier.
"Stay here."
She ignored him.
"I saw a woman."
He turned.
"Where?"
"Second-floor window."
Lorenzo looked up.
A figure appeared behind the smoke.
A woman.
Dark hair.
Thin shoulders.
Kira screamed.
"Mom!"
She ran.
Lorenzo caught her around the waist before she reached the building.
"Let me go!"
"You'll die."
"That's my mother!"
"And if you rush in there, you'll make her death certain."
Kira fought him.
Then the window shattered.
A firefighter appeared with a woman in his arms.
Kira went completely still.
The woman lifted her head.
Their eyes met.
"Mom?"
Isabella's lips moved.
"Kira."
Then she collapsed.
Kira broke free and ran to her.
The next several minutes became chaos.
An ambulance.
Oxygen.
Paramedics.
Questions.
Lorenzo stood several feet away while Kira held her mother's hand.
Isabella's eyes opened again.
She looked past Kira.
Straight at Lorenzo.
"You shouldn't have come."
His jaw tightened.
"I've been looking for you for seven years."
"I know."
"Why didn't you contact me?"
"Because Walter wasn't the only traitor."
Lorenzo went still.
"Who else?"
Isabella looked toward Ethan.
"Your father's son."
Ethan froze.
Kira frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Isabella's breathing became shallow.
"Your father had another child."
Lorenzo's expression changed.
"My father?"
"Yes."
"Where is he?"
Isabella looked at Kira.
"I don't know."
A paramedic interrupted.
"She needs the hospital."
Lorenzo stepped aside.
Kira followed the stretcher.
At the hospital, Isabella was stabilized.
A doctor warned them that she had inhaled smoke and suffered a fractured wrist.
Kira sat beside her.
Lorenzo remained outside.
Ethan joined him.
"You care about my sister."
Lorenzo glanced over.
"That's a dangerous observation."
"I'm not stupid."
"No."
"She doesn't know what you're involved in."
"She knows enough."
"Does she?"
Lorenzo said nothing.
Ethan crossed his arms.
"If you're going to protect her, don't lie to her."
Lorenzo looked at him.
"You sound like your mother."
"People say that."
"She was brave."
Ethan nodded.
Then he asked the question Lorenzo didn't expect.
"Did my father really try to kill her?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he wanted what she had."
"What?"
Lorenzo's gaze moved to the hospital room.
"The ledger."
Isabella woke two hours later.
Kira sat beside her.
"Mom."
"I'm sorry."
Kira shook her head.
"Don't."
"I left because I thought I could protect you."
"You did."
"I missed everything."
"You kept us alive."
Isabella began crying.
Kira leaned forward and hugged her.
Lorenzo watched through the glass.
He had spent years imagining Isabella dead.
He had imagined her final moments.
He had blamed himself for not reaching her.
Now she was alive.
And somehow that made the past more dangerous.
A nurse entered the hallway.
She looked nervous.
"Mr. Moretti?"
"Yes."
"There was a man asking about the Lawson family."
"What man?"
"He showed me this."
She handed Lorenzo a business card.
There was no name.
Only a symbol.
A black crown.
Lorenzo's face hardened.
Kira noticed.
"What is it?"
He didn't answer.
Isabella did.
"The Crown."
Lorenzo turned toward her.
"You know them?"
"Yes."
"Who are they?"
Isabella swallowed.
"The organization that killed your father."
Lorenzo stared.
"I thought Walter ordered it."
"Walter carried out the order."
"Who gave it?"
Isabella looked at Kira.
Then at Ethan.
Then finally at Lorenzo.
"Someone who has been dead for eleven years."
Kira felt the room turn cold.
"Who?"
Isabella whispered one name.
"Adrian Moretti."
Lorenzo stepped back.
His father.
Dead eleven years.
Impossible.
Unless the death had been another lie.
A phone rang.
Lorenzo answered.
A man's voice spoke.
"Now you understand."
Lorenzo's blood ran cold.
"Who is this?"
"Your brother."
The call ended.
Kira stared at him.
"You have a brother?"
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Because his family had buried every child except him.
Or so he had believed.
Then the hospital lights went out.
May you like
Emergency alarms screamed.
And someone opened Isabella's room from the inside.
