Chapter 8
Police moved us that night.
Dad protested.
Lily complained about missing school.
I didn’t argue.
We were taken to a secure apartment owned by the Moretti Foundation.
Vincent wanted us at his estate.
I refused.
“Why?”
“Because your house is the first place Richard expects.”
“You think this apartment isn’t connected to me?”
“It’s less obvious.”
He stared at me.
“You enjoy disagreeing with me.”
“More every day.”
He smiled despite the situation.
Investigators arrested Charles Benton before sunrise.
He talked almost immediately.
Money changed his loyalty faster than fear had.
Richard had paid him to manipulate seating assignments at the gala.
Isabella’s aide had been sent to the wrong entrance.
Security had been told Isabella requested privacy.
Victoria was supposed to provoke her.
Richard wanted witnesses to see Isabella become confused or emotional.
Then Daniel’s statement about her mental condition would support a competency challenge.
If Isabella’s voting shares could be controlled, Richard believed Daniel could be pressured into supporting the harbor project.
But Isabella didn’t react the way they expected.
I did.
I stepped between them.
The video showed Victoria as the aggressor.
Their entire strategy collapsed.
So Richard tried to discredit me.
When that failed, he escalated.
The police finally understood the whole picture.
There was just one problem.
Richard was still missing.
Federal agents froze his accounts.
Airports were notified.
His passport was flagged.
Yet he remained invisible.
Victoria agreed to cooperate in exchange for consideration on fraud-related charges.
When I heard that, anger surged through me.
“She helped him.”
Vincent nodded.
“She did.”
“She terrorized your mother.”
“Yes.”
“And now she gets a deal?”
“She isn’t avoiding consequences.”
“It sounds like she is.”
Isabella spoke from behind me.
“Justice and revenge are not the same thing.”
I turned.
She had come to the apartment without telling Vincent.
Naturally.
“You should have security.”
“I have six people downstairs.”
Vincent sighed.
“She has eight.”
Isabella ignored him.
She looked at me.
“I hated Victoria for what she did.”
“So did I.”
“I still dislike her immensely.”
That made me smile.
“But if her testimony puts Richard in prison, I can accept that.”
I wasn’t as generous yet.
Then Dad walked into the room.
He looked stronger.
For the first time since surgery, color had returned to his face.
“Who wants coffee?”
“You’re supposed to rest,” I said.
“I walked twelve feet.”
“You were kidnapped four days ago.”
“Emma.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Dad smiled.
“Breathe.”
I hated when he was right.
That afternoon, Lily received an email.
She screamed.
I thought something had happened.
Then she ran into the room crying.
“I got the scholarship.”
“What scholarship?”
“The nursing school one.”
She shoved her laptop toward me.
Full tuition.
Not from Vincent.
Not from Isabella.
A scholarship committee had reviewed her original application months earlier.
She had never told me because she assumed she wouldn’t win.
I hugged her so hard she complained.
Dad cried.
I cried.
Even Vincent looked suspiciously emotional.
For the first time, one huge weight disappeared from my shoulders without me having to fight it.
That mattered more than I expected.
Later, Vincent found me alone near the window.
“One less thing to carry.”
I smiled.
“One.”
He nodded toward Dad.
“His medical assistance application was approved too.”
I looked at him sharply.
“Did you interfere?”
“No.”
“Swear.”
“On my mother.”
Isabella shouted from the other room, “Do not involve me in your promises.”
I laughed.
Vincent did too.
Then his phone rang.
Everything changed again.
Richard had contacted Victoria.
He wanted a meeting.
He believed she still had access to one account investigators hadn’t frozen.
Federal agents wanted her to cooperate with a controlled operation.
Victoria agreed.
The meeting was set for an underground parking garage downtown.
I had no reason to go.
This time, I listened.
I stayed away.
That decision may have saved my life.
Because while agents watched Victoria meet Richard, another man entered our secure apartment building.
Security stopped him downstairs.
He carried a forged maintenance badge.
Inside his bag was duct tape, restraints, and a handgun.
He had a photograph of me.
Richard had arranged two operations at once.
The meeting was a distraction.
I was the real target.
Vincent went silent when he heard.
Then he stood.
“Where is Richard?”
“He escaped the garage,” Agent Reynolds said through the phone. “He anticipated surveillance.”
I felt sick.
“How?”
“He abandoned his vehicle and used a service tunnel.”
Vincent cursed.
Isabella reached for my hand.
I didn’t realize I was shaking until she held it.
Agent Reynolds continued.
“But the man we arrested gave us something.”
“What?”
“A location.”
Richard had a private hangar outside the city.
Federal agents raced there.
We waited.
Again.
I was beginning to hate waiting more than fear itself.
Thirty minutes later, Reynolds called.
The hangar was empty.
A small jet sat untouched.
Richard had never planned to fly.
But agents found computers.
Cash.
False identification.
And one wall covered with photographs.
Vincent.
Daniel.
Isabella.
Victoria.
Me.
Dad.
Lily.
Our entire lives had become pieces in a desperate man’s plan.
Then investigators found a map.
One place was circled.
Moretti Memorial Hospital.
Vincent stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
“What?” I asked.
“The hospital expansion ceremony.”
“When?”
His face drained.
“Tomorrow.”
The mayor would be there.
Donors.
Press.
Isabella was scheduled to speak.
So was Vincent.
Richard wasn’t trying to escape.
May you like
He was planning one final public disaster.
And this time, hundreds of people could be caught inside it.
