Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT CHASE LOST CONTROL
Blocking Chase did not make him disappear.
It made him louder.
Unknown numbers began calling.
Katarina ignored them.
Emails followed.
Then fake social-media accounts.
Nathan preserved everything.
Joanna turned it into a game.
“Account number twelve.”
Block.
“Thirteen.”
Block.
“Fourteen. He’s losing creativity.”
Katarina did not find it funny.
But sometimes she laughed anyway.
Three days passed.
Then police obtained a warrant relating to the corporate intrusion.
Investigators seized computers from Chase’s apartment office.
They found copies of Katarina’s credentials.
Photographs of employee badges.
Internal Servino documents.
And messages between Chase and Rafael.
The messages confirmed what Katarina feared.
Rafael had noticed her eighteen months earlier.
Not because of beauty.
Not because Vittorio supposedly looked at her differently.
Because Katarina had access.
Her administrative role allowed her to route vendor documents without being senior enough to attract attention.
Rafael instructed Chase to “get close.”
Chase did.
The relationship was not completely scripted.
That almost made it worse.
One message from Chase six months after meeting Katarina read:
She actually trusts me now. Don’t rush it.
Another:
She’s smarter than you said.
Rafael answered:
Then keep her distracted.
Katarina read those lines once.
Never again.
She sat inside the protected residence while Joanna quietly closed the laptop.
“I’m sorry.”
Katarina stared at the wall.
“He was paid.”
“Yes.”
“Rafael paid him to date me.”
“At first.”
Katarina’s voice sharpened.
“What does that mean?”
Joanna hesitated.
“Later messages suggest Chase stopped reporting everything.”
“Because he loved me?”
“I don’t know.”
Katarina laughed bitterly.
“That was stupid.”
“What?”
“The fact that part of me still wants that answer.”
Joanna sat beside her.
“You loved someone. Your brain doesn’t erase that because you found out he was awful.”
Katarina started crying.
Not because she missed Chase.
Because she missed the woman who had believed the beginning.
The restaurant.
His smile.
The first flowers.
The first weekend trip.
The way he listened when she talked about her mother.
Had any of it belonged to her?
Or had Rafael bought every memory?
That evening Vittorio came to the residence.
He stopped in the doorway.
“You can tell me to leave.”
Katarina looked exhausted.
“Do you rehearse that sentence now?”
“No.”
“You should. You say it often.”
He almost smiled.
Then saw her face.
“You read the messages.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Everyone is sorry.”
Vittorio sat across from her.
Not beside.
Katarina appreciated the distance.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Ask.”
“When did you first notice me?”
The question surprised him.
“At work?”
“Yes.”
Vittorio thought.
“Your first month.”
“Why?”
“You corrected Rafael.”
Katarina frowned.
“I did?”
“He said occupancy expenses were increasing because of payroll.”
“I remember.”
“You said the increase came from insurance, not labor.”
Katarina almost smiled.
“He hated that.”
“Yes.”
“So you noticed me because I argued about spreadsheets.”
“Essentially.”
“Not because…”
She stopped.
“Because what?”
Katarina felt ridiculous.
“Joanna joked once that you looked at me.”
Vittorio was silent.
Her embarrassment worsened.
“Forget it.”
“I did.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“I looked at you.”
Katarina’s heart shifted.
Vittorio continued before she could misunderstand.
“Not the way Chase accused you of.”
“When?”
“Many times.”
“Why?”
“Because you looked tired.”
That was not the answer she expected.
“You stayed late when everyone else left. You skipped lunches. You started wearing sleeves in warm weather.”
Katarina stared.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“Months.”
Anger rose.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Vittorio absorbed it.
“Because I didn’t know how to ask without frightening you.”
“So you did nothing?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
She stood.
“You saw.”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
“Yes.”
“My sister taught me not to push.”
“Your sister is not me.”
The sentence struck him.
Katarina’s eyes filled.
“I am so tired of men deciding what protects me.”
Vittorio stood but did not approach.
“You’re right.”
“Stop agreeing.”
“I can’t disagree when you’re right.”
She turned away.
“I could have needed someone.”
“I know.”
“You could have asked.”
“I should have.”
She cried angrily now.
“Not saved me. Asked.”
“Yes.”
Vittorio lowered his voice.
“I failed you there.”
The room went quiet.
Katarina expected an explanation.
He gave none.
That mattered.
She sat again.
Eventually she whispered, “I don’t know what I want from anyone.”
“You don’t need to.”
“I don’t want another man telling me he knows what’s best.”
“I won’t.”
“You probably will.”
“Then tell me when I do.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
Vittorio’s phone rang.
Nathan.
His expression changed while listening.
“What?”
Katarina sat straighter.
Vittorio ended the call.
“Rafael contacted Chase.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“They traced him to Atlantic City.”
“Are police going?”
“Yes.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Vittorio looked toward the window.
“He told Chase to destroy the backup.”
“What backup?”
“We don’t know.”
Katarina did.
Her face changed.
“What?”
“Chase kept a safe.”
“Where?”
“Not our apartment.”
She remembered a storage facility in South Philadelphia.
Chase claimed it held furniture from his mother’s house.
He visited monthly.
Always alone.
Nathan obtained the location.
Police moved toward it.
They arrived too late.
The unit was burning.
Not the entire facility.
Only Chase’s storage room.
Fire crews stopped the blaze quickly, but documents and electronics inside were damaged.
One object survived.
A metal cash box.
Inside were photographs.
Bank records.
And a small digital recorder.
The device was damaged but readable.
The first recording contained Rafael.
The second contained Chase.
The third contained Katarina.
Her own voice.
Recorded secretly inside her apartment.
Dozens of conversations.
Arguments.
Phone calls.
Crying.
Katarina felt violated all over again.
Then Nathan found the final file.
Date: Saturday night.
The night Chase injured her ankle.
His voice.
Give me the password.
Katarina:
No.
A crash.
Then Chase again.
Rafael says if the audit starts Monday, we’re finished.
Katarina crying.
I don’t know anything about your company.
Chase:
You know enough.
Another sound.
Then:
If Servino asks, you signed everything. Understand?
Katarina stared at Nathan.
“That proves he framed me.”
“Yes.”
“It proves he hurt me.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, they had his own voice.
Evidence independent of bruises.
Independent of credibility.
Independent of whether anyone believed Katarina’s memory.
She cried when she heard it.
Not from fear.
Relief.
Then Nathan played one final thirty-second clip.
Chase was on the phone with Rafael.
She’s getting harder to control.
Rafael replied:
Then scare her. Don’t damage the face. She still has to go to work.
The room went silent.
Vittorio stood near the doorway.
His face changed in a way Katarina had never seen.
Cold disappeared.
Something darker replaced it.
He turned to leave.
Katarina stood.
“Where are you going?”
“To make a call.”
“To whom?”
“Someone who can find Rafael before police do.”
Her stomach dropped.
“No.”
Vittorio looked back.
Katarina understood exactly what kind of world his family belonged to.
She crossed the room.
“No.”
“He ordered that.”
“I heard him.”
“He told Chase how to hurt you.”
“I know.”
Vittorio’s jaw tightened.
Katarina stepped closer.
“You told me your sister died because everyone made bad choices around her.”
He froze.
“If you care about me, don’t make me the reason you become worse.”
Silence.
The phone remained in Vittorio’s hand.
Katarina continued.
“I want Rafael arrested.”
“He may walk.”
“Then we build a better case.”
“He hurt you.”
“Chase hurt me.”
“Rafael ordered it.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“And I want to sit in court and watch both of them hear my name without owning it.”
Vittorio looked at her for a long time.
Then he placed the phone on the table.
“Okay.”
Katarina breathed out.
Twenty minutes later, police arrested Rafael DeLuca at a private marina outside Atlantic City.
He had $180,000 in cash.
Two passports.
And a ticket for a charter flight leaving before midnight.
When officers searched his bag, they found something else.
A photograph of Vittorio’s sister.
Fourteen years old.
Taken before her death.
On the back was handwriting.
Servino always had one weakness. Women he couldn’t save.
Vittorio stared at the photograph.
Katarina saw his face.
“This isn’t only about money.”
“No.”
“What is it?”
Vittorio looked at his cousin’s handwriting.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Rafael knew the man who killed my sister.”
