Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD
Matteo didn't sleep.
He spent the next six hours turning the Falcone mansion upside down.
Security footage.
Phone records.
Bank accounts.
Every camera from the Drake to Navy Pier.
Nothing.
Clara had disappeared between 2:17 and 4:03 in the morning.
No camera showed her entering a vehicle.
No taxi picked her up.
No credit card had been used.
No phone signal existed after her battery died.
It was as if Chicago had swallowed her.
At seven-thirty, Thaddeus Russell entered the study.
“Boss.”
Matteo didn't look up.
“Talk.”
“The hotel cameras were accessed remotely.”
“By whom?”
“Someone used an old Falcone encryption key.”
Matteo's fingers stopped moving.
“Which key?”
Thaddeus hesitated.
“The original one.”
Matteo slowly raised his eyes.
“My father's.”
“Yes.”
The room became silent.
“Who has access?”
“Only you.”
“And?”
Thaddeus stared at him.
“Someone who had access before you changed the system.”
Matteo stood.
“That's impossible.”
“Maybe.”
Thaddeus placed a tablet on the desk.
A security recording appeared.
The footage showed Clara leaving the hotel parking garage.
Alone.
Rain pouring around her.
Then a black SUV appeared.
It stopped beside her.
A man stepped out.
Matteo leaned closer.
The man's face was hidden beneath an umbrella.
But Clara didn't run.
She walked toward him.
Matteo's stomach twisted.
“She knew him.”
Thaddeus nodded.
The video continued.
Clara entered the SUV.
The vehicle drove away.
Matteo slammed his fist onto the desk.
“Find that vehicle.”
“Already did.”
“And?”
“It disappeared three blocks later.”
“License plate?”
Clara's disappearance had lasted less than six hours.
Yet someone had planned it perfectly.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“Who would she trust?”
Thaddeus answered immediately.
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
“Peter?”
“No.”
“Your mother?”
Matteo's expression hardened.
“My mother hasn't spoken to Clara in months.”
“Then who?”
Matteo didn't answer.
Because one name had entered his mind.
A name he hated.
A name Clara had once mentioned years ago.
Adrian Vale.
The former Falcone attorney.
The man who had disappeared after accusing Matteo's father of ordering three murders.
Matteo grabbed his coat.
“Find him.”
Thaddeus frowned.
“We've been trying for years.”
“Try harder.”
“Why?”
Matteo looked at the screen.
Because Clara hadn't looked afraid when she entered the SUV.
She had looked relieved.
That meant whoever took her wasn't kidnapping her.
They were rescuing her.
Or pretending to.
Across town, Clara opened her eyes.
She was lying in a bedroom.
Warm.
Quiet.
Safe.
For a moment, she didn't know where she was.
Then she remembered the rain.
The Maybach.
Matteo's cold voice.
Walk.
She sat up.
A woman stood beside the window.
Older.
Elegant.
Silver hair.
Clara recognized her immediately.
Her breath caught.
“You're dead.”
The woman turned.
“No.”
Clara backed against the headboard.
“Mrs. Falcone…”
Matteo's mother smiled sadly.
“Call me Elena.”
Clara stared at her.
“But Matteo said you died.”
“He was told that.”
“Why?”
Elena walked toward the bed.
“Because your husband was never supposed to know I was alive.”
Clara's hands trembled.
“Where am I?”
“Somewhere Matteo will never find you.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
Elena's expression changed.
“Because you're in more danger than you realize.”
“From Matteo?”
“No.”
She placed a photograph on the bed.
Clara looked down.
It showed Matteo's father.
Alive.
Standing beside a younger Matteo.
And beside them was a third man.
Clara's blood ran cold.
She knew that face.
Everyone in Chicago knew it.
Adrian Vale.
But the photograph had been taken only two months ago.
Elena whispered,
“Your husband's father isn't dead.”
Clara stared at the photograph.
“Then who died six years ago?”
May you like
Elena's answer shattered everything.
“A man who looked exactly like him.”
