Chapter 4 - THE PRICE OF HER MOTHER’S SECRET
Roman answered before Lena could stop him.
“Derek.”
Silence.
Then a laugh came through the speaker.
“Should've known she'd run straight into your arms.”
Lena clenched the blanket.
“Let me talk to Maya.”
“Lena?”
Maya's frightened voice came faintly through the phone.
“Oh my God, Lena, don't come here—”
A sound cut her off.
Lena surged forward.
“Maya!”
Roman placed one steady hand near her shoulder without touching.
Derek returned.
“She's alive.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I don't want Maya. I want what your mother left you.”
“I don't know what you're talking about!”
“You have the phone.”
Lena stared at the device.
“It's just a phone.”
Derek laughed.
“Ask Roman why your mother would save the number of a man she hadn't spoken to in over a decade.”
Roman said nothing.
Derek continued.
“Five p.m. You'll get instructions.”
The call disconnected.
Lena immediately turned on Roman.
“What isn't he telling me?”
Roman's face tightened.
“Your mother's last call was to me.”
The room became silent.
“You said you didn't know where she went.”
“I didn't.”
“You said you hadn't heard from her.”
“I said I hadn't known who you were.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Roman looked toward Mercer.
The prosecutor appeared almost interested in the confrontation.
Lena's anger rose.
“What did my mother say?”
Roman hesitated.
“Three words.”
“What words?”
“Protect my daughter.”
Lena stopped.
Roman continued.
“I tried finding you. Your mother had changed your names. Records had been altered. Then a federal investigation hit my family, my father was killed, and everything collapsed within days.”
“And eventually you stopped looking.”
Roman did not defend himself.
“Yes.”
Lena's eyes burned.
“So my mother trusted you, and you lost me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more than an excuse would have.
Mercer stepped in.
“If we want Maya alive, we need to understand what's on the device.”
Lena pulled the phone closer.
“Do it.”
Roman looked at her.
“You're sure?”
“No. But I'm not letting Maya die because of something my mother hid.”
Roman contacted a cybersecurity specialist named Nico.
Within an hour, Nico arrived carrying two laptops and enough equipment to transform the hospital table into a small technical station.
He connected Lena's phone.
“There's an encrypted partition,” he said after several minutes.
Roman leaned over his shoulder.
“Can you open it?”
“With time.”
“We don't have time.”
Nico looked at Lena.
“Biometric access may work.”
“My fingerprint?”
“Maybe.”
She pressed her thumb against the sensor.
Nothing.
“Face?”
Nothing.
Nico frowned.
“Voiceprint.”
Lena stared.
“My mother's voice?”
“Potentially.”
Roman looked at the old photograph.
“Do you have recordings?”
Lena swallowed.
“One.”
A voicemail she had never deleted.
Her mother had left it the night before the car accident that killed her.
Lena had listened to it hundreds of times.
She found the audio.
Her mother's voice filled the room.
“Hi, sweetheart. Just reminding you that the blue sweater is in the dryer. I love you. Call me tomorrow.”
Nico played it into his system.
The encrypted partition opened.
Folders appeared.
Hundreds of documents.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Audio files.
Mercer's face changed.
“My God.”
Roman said nothing.
Nico clicked a spreadsheet.
Transfers totaling more than eighty million dollars appeared.
All connected to one name.
Creed Holdings.
Thomas Creed.
Lena's family attorney.
Roman leaned closer.
“He wasn't stealing from my father.”
Mercer frowned.
“What?”
“He was laundering for someone.”
Another folder contained surveillance photographs.
Judges.
Police commissioners.
Business executives.
Politicians.
And Roman's father.
Lena felt sick.
“What was my mother involved in?”
Roman opened one final file.
A video.
Amelia Hart appeared on-screen.
Lena stopped breathing.
Her mother looked exhausted.
Afraid.
But alive.
“If Lena is seeing this, then I failed to keep her away from this world.”
Lena covered her mouth.
Roman turned up the volume.
“Thomas Creed is not working alone. The man behind him has spent years building influence through both law enforcement and organized crime. He arranged murders, bribed officials, and stole from the DeLuca family because he wanted their territory without carrying their name.”
Amelia looked directly into the camera.
“I copied everything.”
A pause.
“If Roman survived, tell him the betrayal came from someone his father trusted more than anyone.”
Roman froze.
Amelia spoke the name.
“Victor Salerno.”
Nico slowly looked toward Roman.
Lena knew immediately something was wrong.
“Who is Victor?”
Roman's voice came quiet.
“My godfather.”
Mercer's face had gone pale.
Lena looked at him.
“You know him too?”
Mercer didn't answer quickly enough.
Roman noticed.
His eyes narrowed.
“How well do you know Salerno, Calvin?”
Mercer reached beneath his jacket.
Roman moved first.
But Mercer wasn't drawing a weapon.
He pulled out his phone.
On the screen was a text message.
They opened the files. Proceed.
Mercer looked genuinely stunned.
“I didn't send this.”
Roman grabbed the phone.
The message appeared to come from Mercer's number.
Nico swore.
“Someone cloned his device.”
Then the hospital fire alarm began screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Nurses shouted from the corridor.
Roman immediately looked toward the door.
“This isn't a fire.”
Smoke suddenly poured beneath the hallway entrance.
Nico closed the laptop.
“Someone knows we're here.”
Roman turned to Lena.
“We're leaving.”
“What about the files?”
“They come with us.”
“What about Maya?”
Roman met her eyes.
“We get her back.”
The overhead lights died.
Emergency lighting flickered on.
Then gunshots echoed from somewhere near the elevators.
Lena flinched.
Roman moved between her and the doorway.
Mercer stepped closer.
“They found us fast.”
Roman's expression turned grim.
“No.”
He looked at Lena.
“They didn't find us.”
Another shot sounded.
Closer.
Roman lowered his voice.
“Someone told them exactly where we were.”
May you like
Before anyone could respond, the hospital room door handle began slowly turning from the other side.
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