Chapter 6 - The Father Who Vanished
Scarlet did not sleep.
At four in the morning, Vincent found her sitting beside the penthouse windows, staring across Lake Michigan.
Milo was asleep in a guest room.
Scarlet held the mysterious payment sheet in both hands.
“My father was a surgeon.”
Vincent sat across from her.
“You never mentioned that.”
“There wasn’t much to mention.”
Samuel Hayes had been a respected trauma surgeon before his life collapsed.
After Scarlet’s mother became ill, medical bills consumed the family. Samuel started gambling.
Then borrowing.
Then lying.
“One morning,” Scarlet said, “I woke up and he was gone.”
“No note?”
“One.”
She swallowed.
“It said he was sorry.”
Vincent knew something about fathers who left damage behind.
His own had not disappeared.
He had simply raised Vincent to believe affection was weakness.
“What happened after that?”
“Mom died eight months later.”
“And Milo?”
“I became his legal guardian.”
At nineteen.
Vincent looked at her differently.
He had inherited an empire at twenty-seven and believed himself burdened.
Scarlet had inherited a child at nineteen.
Without money.
Without power.
Without anyone.
“You kept him alive.”
She looked at him.
“He kept me alive too.”
Marco entered carrying a tablet.
“We found Samuel Hayes.”
Scarlet stood so quickly her chair scraped the floor.
“Where?”
“Milwaukee.”
Vincent frowned.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Scarlet closed her eyes.
The relief lasted perhaps two seconds.
Then anger replaced it.
“Take me to him.”
They drove north after sunrise.
Samuel Hayes lived in a modest apartment above a pharmacy.
Scarlet climbed the stairs alone.
Vincent remained several steps behind.
She knocked.
A man in his late fifties opened the door.
His hair was gray.
His face looked older than his age.
He saw Scarlet.
The color disappeared from his skin.
“Scarlet.”
She slapped him.
Vincent decided it was becoming a recurring feature of emotional reunions around her.
Samuel did not defend himself.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You’re alive.”
“I know.”
“Milo cried for you.”
Samuel’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Scarlet pushed past him.
The apartment was almost empty.
Medical textbooks covered one wall.
On a table were photographs.
Scarlet.
Milo.
Their mother.
“You had pictures?”
Samuel shut the door.
“I never stopped watching.”
“That’s supposed to make this better?”
“No.”
“Why did Rizzo pay you?”
Samuel looked at Vincent for the first time.
Recognition was immediate.
“You brought Moretti here?”
Scarlet laughed without humor.
“So everyone knows him except me.”
Samuel’s fear deepened.
“You need to leave.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“Tell her.”
“I can’t.”
Scarlet grabbed the payment sheet.
“You abandoned us for seven years. You don’t get to protect me with silence anymore.”
Samuel sank into a chair.
Then he told them.
Years earlier, while drowning in gambling debt, Samuel borrowed money from people connected to Salvatore Rizzo.
When he could not repay it, Rizzo offered another arrangement.
Medical assistance.
No questions.
Gunshot wounds.
Knife wounds.
Men who could not enter ordinary hospitals.
Samuel refused at first.
Then Rizzo threatened Scarlet and Milo.
So Samuel disappeared voluntarily.
“If I stayed away,” he whispered, “he promised you would be untouched.”
Scarlet stared at him.
“You believed him?”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
Samuel lowered his head.
She was right.
Then Vincent asked the important question.
“Milo’s bills.”
Samuel looked at him.
“I paid them through Rizzo-controlled accounts.”
Scarlet’s anger faltered.
“What?”
“I couldn’t contact you. But I could keep him alive.”
“Why did Tony say I had insurance?”
Samuel frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Vincent understood.
Bellini had discovered the payments and exploited them.
He convinced Scarlet she was paying for insurance while Samuel secretly covered Milo’s care.
Tony pocketed her deductions.
Scarlet sat down.
For seven years she had believed herself abandoned.
The truth was not better.
But it was different.
Samuel reached for her.
She moved away.
“I’m not ready.”
His hand dropped.
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
Scarlet stood.
“But maybe someday you will.”
Outside, she made it halfway down the stairs before breaking.
Vincent caught her.
She pressed both fists against his chest.
“I hate him.”
“I know.”
“I love him.”
“I know.”
“I hate that too.”
Vincent wrapped his arms around her.
For once, Scarlet did not fight him.
She cried against the chest of a man half the city feared.
And Vincent held her as gently as though she were something breakable.
His phone vibrated.
Marco.
Vincent answered without releasing her.
“What?”
Marco’s voice was urgent.
“Bellini grabbed Milo.”
Vincent went completely still.
Scarlet felt it.
She stepped back.
“What happened?”
Vincent could not soften the truth.
“He has your brother.”
Scarlet’s face emptied.
Then Vincent’s phone received a photograph.
Milo sat inside Magnolia Bistro.
Bound to a chair.
Behind him stood Bellini.
A message appeared beneath the image.
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.
Then another.
BRING SCARLET.
Vincent stared at the screen.
Scarlet read it.
“No.”
Vincent looked at her.
She wiped her tears.
“No more protecting me by lying.”
“Scarlet—”
“He wants me?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m going.”
“Absolutely not.”
Her green eyes locked on his.
“You said you were experimenting with listening.”
“This experiment is over.”
Scarlet stepped closer.
“That is my little brother.”
May you like
Vincent knew there was no argument capable of stopping her.
And for the first time in his life, the man accustomed to controlling every outcome realized he had fallen in love with someone he could never control.
