Chapter 2 - The Man Outside the Bathroom Door
Liam knocked again.
“Emma?”
I shoved the pregnancy test beneath a folded towel so quickly that the plastic stick struck the porcelain sink.
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been throwing up for three mornings.”
“I work at a diner. That’s basically an occupational hazard.”
Silence.
Liam Carter had known me since I was twelve years old. He knew the difference between my sarcastic voice and my frightened one.
Unfortunately, I had just used the frightened one.
The door opened two inches before the chain caught.
“Elizabeth.”
My entire body went still.
Liam only used my real name when something was seriously wrong.
“Don’t.”
“Then open the door.”
I closed my eyes.
For almost four years, I had been Emma Reed.
Emma had a Social Security number arranged through channels I preferred not to think about, a modest checking account, two diner uniforms, nursing-school textbooks purchased secondhand, and no connection whatsoever to Elizabeth Bellamy.
Elizabeth Bellamy was supposed to have disappeared.
I unhooked the chain.
Liam entered, took one look at my face, then at the towel beside the sink.
He didn’t ask permission.
He lifted it.
The pregnancy test lay beneath.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then Liam sat on the edge of the bathtub.
“Oh, hell.”
“Excellent medical assessment.”
“Is it his?”
I stared at him.
“You know it is.”
Liam dragged both hands through his hair.
“The Vitali guy?”
“Please lower your voice.”
“We live above a laundromat.”
“The washing machines don’t need to know.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I know.”
That was when my voice broke.
Liam’s anger vanished instantly.
He crossed the tiny bathroom and crouched in front of me.
“What are you going to do?”
I looked down at my stomach.
Nothing had changed.
That seemed impossible.
Somewhere inside me, something smaller than a blueberry had just divided my entire life into before and after.
“I’m keeping the baby.”
Liam nodded immediately.
“Okay.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Okay,” he repeated.
Tears burned my eyes.
Then his expression changed.
“What about Alessandro?”
“He can’t know.”
“Emma.”
“He can’t.”
“You’re talking about hiding a child from one of the most connected men in Chicago.”
“I’m talking about keeping my child alive.”
Liam stared at me.
There were things even he didn’t know.
He knew my parents had died.
He knew I had changed my name.
He knew we had left Wisconsin overnight four years earlier and that I had begged him never to ask why.
He did not know that my father had been forensic accountant Jonathan Bellamy.
Or that before dying in what police called a highway accident, my father had spent eight months investigating a network of shell companies.
Companies connected to powerful families.
Including the Vitalis.
My phone rang in the kitchen.
Liam and I both froze.
Nobody called me before seven.
He reached the kitchen first.
Then stopped.
“What?”
He held up the phone.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice came through, calm and unmistakable.
“Good morning, Emma.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Alessandro.
I looked at Liam.
His face drained of color.
“How did you get this number?”
“That’s an interesting first question.”
“What do you want?”
“To know why you disappeared.”
“I didn’t disappear.”
“Six weeks without answering the number I gave you qualifies.”
“You gave me your assistant’s number.”
“I gave you a number that reaches me.”
I hated that I remembered.
I hated more that I had almost called it twelve times.
“I’ve been busy.”
“So have I.”
“Then we agree.”
“No.”
His voice changed slightly.
Alessandro never needed to raise it.
“I’ve been busy looking for you.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
A pause.
Then, unexpectedly:
“Because I wanted breakfast.”
I almost laughed.
“That’s your explanation?”
“No. It’s the least embarrassing version.”
Something warm and dangerous moved through my chest.
I crushed it immediately.
“We had one night.”
“We had six hours and forty-three minutes.”
“You timed it?”
“I remember things that matter.”
Liam silently mouthed, Hang up.
I should have.
Instead I whispered, “Alessandro…”
“Have dinner with me.”
“No.”
“Lunch.”
“No.”
“Coffee.”
“No.”
“Five minutes in a public lobby surrounded by enough security cameras to make you comfortable.”
I closed my eyes.
“You’re not accustomed to hearing no.”
“I hear it frequently.”
“I doubt that.”
“I simply don’t obey it frequently.”
Despite everything, a tiny laugh escaped me.
Alessandro went silent.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You laughed.”
“Forget it.”
“I’ve been trying for six weeks.”
The tenderness in his voice frightened me far more than his power ever had.
I hung up.
Liam stared at me.
“You’re in trouble.”
“You think?”
“No.”
He looked toward the phone.
“I mean emotional trouble.”
I picked up a dish towel and threw it at him.
My phone buzzed.
One message.
I will not call again. If you want me, you know where I am. — A
I stared at those words far too long.
Then someone knocked downstairs.
Three slow knocks.
The laundromat owner shouted that a package had arrived.
Liam went down.
He returned carrying a small white box.
“No sender.”
Inside was no gift.
No flowers.
No note.
Only a photograph.
My blood turned cold.
It showed me leaving the Obsidian Hotel six weeks earlier.
Alessandro stood several feet behind me.
Someone had drawn a red circle around my face.
On the back were six words.
ELIZABETH BELLAMY SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD.
Liam read them over my shoulder.
For the first time that morning, he said nothing.
I touched my stomach.
And suddenly the question was no longer whether Alessandro Vitali should know he had a child.
May you like
It was whether he was the danger coming for us.
Or the only man powerful enough to stop it.
