Chapter 4 - The Debt Collector’s Lie
Clara stared at the note until the letters blurred.
Ask Lorenzo what happened to Brody.
Her ex-boyfriend had disappeared three months earlier.
At first, she thought he had run away from his gambling debts. Then his phone stopped working. His friends claimed they had not seen him. One of his creditors told Clara that Brody had “made a bad decision.”
She had assumed he was alive somewhere.
But now she was not sure.
She found Lorenzo in the library.
He stood beside the fireplace, speaking quietly into a phone. When he saw her face, he ended the call immediately.
“What happened?”
Clara held up the note.
“I need you to tell me the truth.”
Lorenzo read it.
His face went hard.
“Where did you get this?”
“Under my door.”
“Who has access to your room?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”
Lorenzo looked at the photograph.
Then at her.
“What do you want to know?”
“Brody.”
He went still.
“You know where he is.”
“I know who he owed money to.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Clara’s voice rose.
“I came here because I was desperate. I worked until I could barely stand. I thought my boyfriend had abandoned me. And now somebody is telling me you know what happened to him.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
“Brody owed money to Carlo DeLuca’s people.”
Clara felt the floor tilt beneath her.
“What?”
“He borrowed from them. Not once. Several times.”
“I knew he gambled. I didn’t know—”
“He used your name on some of the loans.”
The words hit her like a slap.
“He what?”
“He forged documents. He made it look as though you co-signed.”
Clara gripped the edge of a chair.
“That’s why they kept calling me.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“I found out after you came here.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to protect you.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“Is that what powerful men call it when they keep women in the dark?”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
She had hurt him.
But she was too angry to care.
“Where is Brody?” she demanded.
Lorenzo looked down.
“He is alive.”
“Where?”
“He is in protective custody.”
Clara stared at him.
“You put him there?”
“No. Carlo’s people were looking for him. Brody tried to sell information about you.”
Her anger stopped.
“About me?”
“He told them you were working in the Moretti estate. He told them you were pregnant. He told them you had access to my father.”
Clara pressed a hand over her stomach.
“Why would he do that?”
“Because he wanted his debt erased.”
The library went silent.
Lorenzo stepped closer, but not too close.
“Clara, I did not know you before this. I did not send anyone after Brody. But after I learned DeLuca’s people were watching you, I had Marcus move Brody somewhere secure before Carlo found him.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because he is Lily’s father.”
The answer broke something inside her.
Not because she forgave Brody.
But because Lorenzo had chosen to protect a man he clearly despised for the sake of an unborn child.
Before Clara could speak, the lights went out.
The entire mansion plunged into darkness.
A sharp alarm began to scream through the hallways.
Marcus’s voice thundered over the intercom.
“Security breach. Everyone stay in place.”
Lorenzo moved instantly.
He pulled Clara behind the marble fireplace and drew a gun from beneath his jacket.
Her eyes widened.
“Lorenzo—”
“Stay behind me.”
“I can’t breathe.”
“Look at me.”
The command was firm, but his eyes were steady.
Clara forced herself to meet his gaze.
“You are safe,” he said. “Do you understand?”
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Then another.
Lorenzo’s expression changed.
“My father.”
He ran toward the door.
Clara grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
He looked back.
“You said I was safe.”
“You are.”
“But Giovanni?”
Lorenzo’s jaw clenched.
Then he handed her a small radio.
“Lock yourself in the library. Marcus will come for you.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“Clara—”
“He’s alone upstairs.”
For one second, Lorenzo looked ready to argue.
Then he nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
They ran through the dark hallway together.
At Room 4B, they found the door open.
Giovanni’s wheelchair was gone.
The fireplace had been knocked over. The window stood wide open, letting snow blow across the floor.
On the wall, written in red paint, were four words:
A DEBT FOR A KINDNESS.
Lorenzo’s face became terrifyingly calm.
Marcus arrived moments later, breathing hard.
“Sir, we found one of the guards unconscious. The intruders used the service tunnel.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the old chapel near the south woods.”
Lorenzo looked toward Clara.
“They took my father because of you.”
Clara’s face turned white.
“No,” he said immediately. “That is not what I meant.”
But she had already heard it.
She looked at the empty space where Giovanni’s wheelchair had been.
“He helped me,” she whispered. “And now they took him.”
Lorenzo stepped forward.
“We are bringing him home.”
Clara looked up, tears in her eyes.
“You promise?”
Lorenzo held her gaze.
“Yes.”
Then he loaded his gun.
May you like
“And Carlo DeLuca will learn that there are some debts no man survives.”
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