Chapter 4 - The Sister Who Came Back From the Dead
There was only one problem with Gabriel's identification.
Isabella Castellano had been declared dead seven years earlier.
Maeve stared at him.
“That's impossible.”
Gabriel didn't answer immediately.
He took the photograph from the officer and studied it beneath the apartment's harsh kitchen light.
His expression darkened.
“It's her.”
“You said she was dead.”
“I said everyone believed she was dead.”
Maeve felt anger rise through her terror.
“My brother is missing. I don't care about your family's secrets. I want him back.”
Gabriel turned toward the officer.
“We need the building's security footage, every camera within three blocks, and the vehicle information.”
The officer nodded.
“Detectives are already working on it.”
Maeve grabbed Gabriel's sleeve.
“Tell me what you know.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then said, “Seven years ago, Isabella disappeared after accusing Warren of stealing from the Castellano family.”
“What happened?”
“Her car was found near the harbor.”
“Was there a body?”
“No.”
“Then why did everyone think she was dead?”
“Because Warren told them she was.”
Maeve stared.
The implications were horrifying.
Warren had controlled the family's finances after Isabella disappeared.
Then Emmett's accident had placed him in control of the businesses.
Now Emmett was nearly dead.
And Danny had vanished with a woman who should not have existed.
Gabriel's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Maeve.
“Emmett wants us back at the hospital.”
“No.”
“Maeve—”
“My brother is out there.”
“He has information.”
She froze.
“What information?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Isabella just called him.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Maeve entered Emmett's hospital room.
He was sitting upright, pale but alert.
His phone lay on the bed.
“Where is Danny?” she demanded.
Emmett held her gaze.
“Alive.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Isabella let me speak to him.”
Maeve's knees weakened.
“You spoke to him?”
“He said he was safe. He sounded frightened, but unharmed.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
She stepped closer.
“Then call her back.”
“She used a blocked number.”
Maeve pressed both hands against her face.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then Emmett said, “She told me something else.”
Maeve lowered her hands.
“What?”
“She said Warren arranged my accident.”
The room went silent.
Emmett looked toward the window.
“For eight months, I've blamed myself for driving too fast in the rain.”
He swallowed.
“But Isabella said my brakes were tampered with.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“We should have investigated.”
“We did,” Emmett said. “Warren hired the investigator.”
Maeve closed her eyes.
Everything connected.
The accident.
The medication.
The isolation.
The false prognosis.
The family gathering downstairs.
Warren hadn't merely taken advantage of Emmett's disability.
He had allegedly engineered it.
“Why would Isabella take Danny?” Maeve asked.
Emmett looked troubled.
“She claims she was trying to protect him.”
“From what?”
“She said Warren knew you had discovered the medication problem. Someone was already coming for your brother.”
Maeve shook her head.
“Then why not call the police?”
“Because she believes Warren has someone inside the investigation.”
Maeve stared at him.
“Do you believe her?”
“I don't know.”
That answer frightened her more than a lie would have.
Emmett Castellano was accustomed to knowing whom to trust.
Now he couldn't trust his physician, his uncle, or even the sister he had mourned for seven years.
Mercer entered carrying a laptop.
“I found something.”
He placed it on the table.
“The accident report. The original one.”
Emmett frowned.
“What do you mean, original?”
“The copy in your family records was altered.”
Mercer opened two documents.
The first described a single-vehicle accident caused by wet pavement and excessive speed.
The second contained an additional paragraph.
Evidence of possible mechanical interference. Further examination recommended.
Emmett's face hardened.
“Who removed that paragraph?”
Mercer hesitated.
“The amended report was submitted through an outside consultant.”
“Name.”
“Graham Voss.”
Gabriel swore quietly.
Maeve looked between them.
“Who is Graham Voss?”
Emmett answered.
“My uncle's private investigator.”
Mercer clicked another file.
“And he's also the man who paid the medical expert retained in Maeve's disciplinary case.”
Maeve stopped breathing.
“What?”
Mercer turned the laptop toward her.
There was a payment record.
A consulting invoice.
And a name.
Dr. Vernon Ashford.
Maeve stared.
The man who had destroyed her career was connected to the man poisoning Emmett.
And both were connected to Warren.
“No,” she whispered.
Mercer looked grim.
“Maeve, we need to talk about the patient who died at your hospital.”
“Arthur Bell?”
“Yes.”
He opened another document.
“Arthur Bell worked for a maritime insurance company. Three weeks before his death, he filed an internal report concerning suspicious claims involving Castellano shipping assets.”
Emmett leaned forward.
“What claims?”
“Warehouse fires. Cargo losses. Fraudulent insurance payouts.”
Maeve's heart hammered.
Her father had died in a warehouse fire.
A Castellano-controlled warehouse.
She remembered the black smoke rising over the harbor.
The firefighters carrying Brendan Sullivan's helmet toward her mother.
The folded flag at his funeral.
The terrible silence afterward.
She looked at Emmett.
“My father died at one of your warehouses.”
Emmett went still.
“What was his name?”
“Brendan Sullivan.”
His expression changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“Brendan Sullivan,” he repeated.
Maeve stepped backward.
“You know that name.”
Emmett's voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at Mercer.
Then Gabriel.
Finally, he faced Maeve.
“Because your father saved my life once.”
Maeve stared at him.
May you like
Emmett continued.
“And the night he died, he was supposed to meet me.”
