Chapter 8 - The Price of Saving a Child
Maeve crossed the room before anyone could stop her.
“Danny!”
Her brother woke as she pulled him into her arms.
For several seconds, she could do nothing but hold him.
She pressed her face into his hair.
He smelled like soap and pancakes.
Alive.
Warm.
Real.
“I missed you,” he whispered.
Maeve sobbed.
“I missed you too.”
Behind them, Gabriel stepped toward Isabella.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Isabella raised both hands.
“I'm not armed.”
Detective Vasquez entered moments later, having been alerted by hospital security.
She separated Isabella from Danny and began asking questions.
Maeve kept her brother close.
“Why did you take him?” she demanded.
Isabella's expression was exhausted.
“Because Warren sent Corbin Pike to your apartment.”
“You could have called the police.”
“I tried.”
“Then why didn't you bring Danny home?”
“Because I thought Warren had someone watching the police response. I was wrong to keep him from you.”
Maeve stared at her.
“You terrified us.”
“I know.”
“An apology doesn't erase that.”
“No,” Isabella said. “It doesn't.”
Vasquez escorted Isabella to a separate room for questioning.
Danny remained with Maeve.
A hospital social worker brought him juice and crackers.
When he finally fell asleep again, Maeve sat beside Emmett.
Neither spoke for a while.
Then Emmett said, “You should hate my family.”
Maeve looked at him.
“I hate what they've done.”
“There's a difference?”
“Yes.”
He studied her.
She continued.
“You didn't choose what Warren did. But you did choose to ignore things you should have questioned.”
Emmett nodded.
“I know.”
“And if you survive this, you don't get to pretend being powerful makes you innocent.”
His eyes met hers.
“I won't.”
Across the hall, Isabella began telling Vasquez everything.
She had been fourteen when Brendan Sullivan pulled her from the burning warehouse.
She had been hiding there after following Warren, whom she'd overheard arranging a suspicious cargo transfer.
She'd witnessed him shoot a dockworker who threatened to report the operation.
Warren had ordered the warehouse burned to destroy the evidence.
Brendan arrived with the responding firefighters.
He found Isabella trapped in an office.
He carried her outside.
Then returned for another worker.
The roof collapsed before he came back.
Maeve listened to the recorded statement later with tears streaming down her face.
Her father had died saving strangers.
Not because he was reckless.
Not because he had made a mistake.
Because he refused to abandon someone.
Isabella continued.
Years later, she discovered that Eleanor Castellano had kept evidence against Warren.
Before Eleanor could bring it to federal authorities, she suffered a sudden medical crisis.
Ashford treated her.
She died.
Isabella believed her mother had been murdered.
When she confronted Warren, he threatened her.
She fled.
He arranged a false trail suggesting she had drowned.
For seven years, Isabella had lived under another name, gathering evidence while fearing that returning would endanger Emmett.
Then she learned of his accident.
And his deteriorating health.
She began contacting old associates.
One of them was Arthur Bell.
The insurance investigator who later died following a medication error.
Maeve felt sick.
The pattern was unmistakable.
Anyone who approached the truth suffered.
Brendan.
Eleanor.
Arthur.
Emmett.
And now Maeve's family.
But Isabella had brought something else.
A second ledger.
This one documented transactions made after Brendan's death.
Including payments to a company called North Harbor Medical Consulting.
Mercer traced the company to Ashford.
Then discovered another payment.
One issued two weeks before Emmett's accident.
The description was short.
Vehicle service.
Gabriel stared at the record.
“That's it.”
Emmett looked up.
“What?”
“The mechanic who inspected your car after the crash. His name was Paul Denning. He disappeared before anyone could question him.”
Mercer searched the ledger.
There was another entry.
A payment to Denning.
Then a transfer to an offshore account.
Emmett's face went cold.
“Warren paid him.”
Vasquez cautioned them.
“The records are significant, but we still need corroboration.”
She was right.
Financial transactions alone would not prove attempted murder.
They needed witnesses.
Physical evidence.
A chain of custody.
And someone willing to testify.
Then the hospital telephone rang.
A nurse answered.
Listened.
And turned pale.
“Mr. Castellano?”
Emmett looked up.
“Yes?”
“There's a man downstairs asking to speak with you.”
“Who?”
“He says his name is Paul Denning.”
Gabriel immediately reached for his phone.
But the nurse wasn't finished.
“He says Warren Castellano sent him.”
Emmett's expression hardened.
“And what does he want?”
The nurse swallowed.
“He says he's carrying a message.”
“What message?”
She looked at Maeve.
May you like
Then back at Emmett.
“He says if you don't sign over control of the family businesses by midnight, Warren will make sure the Sullivan family never sees another sunrise.”
