Chapter 4 - WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT DARK
The darkness lasted less than three seconds.
It felt like three years.
The instant the room went black, I wrapped both arms around my daughter and screamed.
Not from weakness.
Not from panic.
From instinct.
“Do not touch her!”
A body moved beside the bed.
Then Luca’s voice cut through the darkness.
“Emma, it is me.”
Emergency lights flashed red along the floor.
Marco appeared in the doorway with a weapon in his hand.
Detective Harris swore.
Alvarez drew hers.
Every machine in the hallway began beeping at once.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“Backup power should engage automatically,” the nurse said.
As though answering her, the ceiling lights flickered back on.
My daughter wailed against my chest.
I held her so tightly the nurse touched my arm.
“Not too tight.”
I forced myself to loosen my grip.
Luca was already on his phone.
“Lock every elevator.”
Marco spoke into an earpiece.
“No movement from maternity. Stairwells?”
A voice answered that I could not hear.
His expression hardened.
“South stairwell alarm triggered.”
Detective Harris looked furious.
“You do not issue orders during a police investigation.”
Luca turned.
“Then issue them faster.”
For one second, I thought Harris might actually punch him.
Instead, Alvarez stepped between them.
“Later.”
She pointed toward the nurse.
“Can anyone get onto this floor through the stairwell?”
“Not without a badge.”
“Can the doors be forced?”
“Yes.”
Alvarez looked at Harris.
“I’m checking it.”
“I am coming.”
“No. Stay with Ms. Lawson.”
Harris hated the suggestion.
He hated it more when Alvarez was already gone.
Marco followed her.
I looked at Luca.
“You stay.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you wanted me outside.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Reason?”
“You are the only person here everyone else seems afraid of.”
That almost produced a smile.
“Practical.”
“Do not enjoy it.”
“I would not dare.”
The nurse checked my daughter’s identification band again.
Then checked mine.
Then locked the bassinet wheels.
It was absurd.
Tiny precautions against something I could not see.
My phone buzzed.
I nearly dropped it.
Unknown number.
Harris moved closer.
“Do not touch it.”
“It is my phone.”
“Could be evidence.”
I looked at the screen.
One text.
The power failure was a warning.
Another appeared.
Moretti cannot protect you from what his family started.
I held it toward Harris.
Luca read over his shoulder.
His face changed.
“Do you recognize the phrasing?” Harris asked.
“No.”
Another message.
Ask Luca what was stolen before the money.
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
He did not answer.
“Luca.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“There was something before the financial theft.”
“What?”
“A file.”
“What kind of file?”
“My father kept records.”
“Of what?”
A humorless smile.
“Things men like my father believed might someday be useful.”
Harris stared at him.
“You are describing blackmail material.”
“I am describing insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“Politicians. Contractors. Judges. Executives.”
“And criminals?”
“Especially criminals.”
I felt colder by the second.
“Your family collected secrets.”
“Yes.”
“And someone stole them.”
“One archive.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
A year before Matteo’s death.
“What was in it?”
“We never knew exactly.”
“How can you not know?”
“My father encrypted his records. He died before telling us what had been compromised.”
“Convenient.”
“It was not.”
Something in Luca’s voice made me stop.
“How did he die?”
“Shot.”
The bluntness left no room for questions.
I looked at my daughter.
“What does any of this have to do with me?”
“That is what I have spent six years trying to understand.”
I stared at him.
“You think the crash, Derek, the stolen funds, Brittany’s mother, this missing doctor, and your father’s files are connected.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds insane.”
“It does.”
“And yet you believe it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He stepped closer.
“Because my brother’s last investigation began with a name.”
“Whose?”
He looked directly at me.
“Yours.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“No.”
“Not because you had done anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Matteo wrote one sentence in his notebook.”
“What sentence?”
Luca’s voice dropped.
“Emma Lawson does not know what she has.”
I could not breathe.
“I had nothing.”
“Maybe you did without knowing.”
“I was a twenty-two-year-old college student living with two roommates and surviving on instant noodles.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
His expression tightened.
“Sorry.”
“No, you are not.”
“No.”
I almost hated him for making me want to laugh in the middle of terror.
Harris interrupted.
“What belongings did you have with you the night of the crash?”
I thought.
“My purse.”
“Phone?”
“Yes.”
“Laptop?”
“No.”
“Flash drive?”
“I do not know.”
“Did Matteo give you anything?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I had known him for maybe two hours.”
My mind raced backward.
Charity ballroom.
Stacking empty champagne glasses.
Matt appearing beside me.
“You look like you are planning a murder.”
I had laughed.
“I’m planning to murder whoever scheduled a statistics exam at eight tomorrow morning.”
He had grinned.
Then—
I froze.
“What?”
Luca noticed instantly.
“He gave me something.”
Harris stepped closer.
“What?”
“His coat.”
Luca frowned.
“Matteo’s coat?”
“It started raining. I was freezing while we waited for the valet. He gave me his coat.”
“What happened to it?”
“I was wearing it in the car.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“After the crash, the paramedics cut some of my clothes away.”
“Did the coat go to the hospital?”
“I think so.”
“Do you still have it?”
“No.”
I searched my memory.
A cardboard belongings box beside my hospital bed.
Jeans.
One shoe.
Broken phone.
Bloodstained fabric.
And—
“My roommate picked everything up.”
“Name?”
“Kayla Brooks.”
“Where is she?”
“Seattle now.”
“Call her.”
I grabbed my phone.
Harris stopped me.
“Speaker.”
I searched contacts.
Kayla answered on the fifth ring.
“Emma?”
Hearing an ordinary friendly voice nearly broke me.
“Hey.”
“Why are you calling? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping? How is the baby?”
My eyes filled.
“She’s beautiful.”
“Oh my God, send pictures.”
“I will. Kayla, I need to ask you something weird.”
“Okay.”
“Remember my car accident in college?”
Silence.
“Of course.”
“Do you remember picking up my belongings?”
“Yeah.”
“Was there a man’s coat?”
Another silence.
Then:
“The black wool one?”
Luca went completely still.
“Yes.”
“I remember.”
“What happened to it?”
“You kept it.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I have never seen it since.”
Kayla sounded confused.
“Emma, you absolutely kept it. I tried to throw it away because there was blood on the sleeve, and you freaked out.”
My skin prickled.
“Where did I put it?”
“When we moved out after graduation, you packed it in that cedar trunk your grandmother gave you.”
I closed my eyes.
The trunk.
I had forgotten about it.
It had moved with me twice.
Then Derek and I moved in together.
“Where is the trunk now?” Harris asked.
Kayla heard him.
“Who is that?”
“Police.”
“Emma, what happened?”
“I will explain later. Where did the trunk go?”
“You had it when you moved into Derek’s condo.”
My blood ran cold.
I looked at Luca.
He already understood.
Derek had access to it.
“Did Derek ever ask about the coat?” Luca asked.
Kayla paused.
“Who is that?”
“Long story.”
“Apparently.”
“Kayla.”
“Okay. Yes.”
The room went silent.
“When?”
“Maybe two years ago.”
I gripped the phone.
“What did he say?”
“He found some old men’s coat while you guys were moving. He joked that you still had an ex-boyfriend’s clothes.”
I remembered.
Derek had teased me.
I had told him I did not know whose coat it was.
I had completely forgotten the accident connection.
“What happened next?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“Emma, it was two years ago.”
“Please.”
She went quiet.
Then inhaled.
“He asked me about the accident.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“What did you tell him?”
“That some guy named Matt was driving.”
“Did you know his last name?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
“I told Derek the guy died.”
I closed my eyes.
“And the coat?”
“I never saw it again.”
Neither had I.
The lights flickered.
My daughter startled.
Then Marco reappeared at the door.
“South stairwell is clear.”
“Alarm malfunction?” Harris asked.
“No.”
Marco held up a small black device.
“This was attached to the emergency sensor.”
“What is it?”
“Remote trigger.”
Someone had intentionally caused the alarm.
Alvarez came behind him.
“No intruder found.”
“Then why trigger the stairwell?”
Harris asked the question.
I knew the answer before anyone spoke.
“To make security move.”
Luca turned toward the nursery.
His face went white.
“Where is the charge nurse?”
Nobody answered.
The nurse beside my bed opened the door.
The station outside was chaos.
But one chair was empty.
The charge nurse who had been auditing my daughter’s chart was gone.
On the desk where she had been sitting was a single folded piece of paper.
Marco retrieved it with gloved fingers.
He opened it.
Three words were written in black ink.
CHECK THE COAT.
My heart slammed.
Then my phone rang.
Kayla was still connected.
“Emma?”
“Yes?”
Her voice had changed.
“I just remembered something else.”
“What?”
“When Derek asked about that coat…”
She hesitated.
“He did not ask who Matt was.”
May you like
My stomach dropped.
“He already knew.”
