Chapter 4
The next morning, Hannah demanded to leave.
She stood in the guest suite with Ellie’s backpack over one shoulder and fear all over her face.
“I appreciate what you did,” she said. “But we can’t stay here.”
“You’re safer here.”
Her laugh was bitter.
“No one is safer near men like you.”
I deserved that.
Still, I blocked the doorway.
“Someone threatened your daughter to force Vincent to poison me.”
Her face went white.
“What?”
I handed her Vincent’s note.
She read it once.
Then again.
Ellie played on the carpet with Rosie, humming to herself.
Hannah’s knees weakened.
I caught her arm before she fell.
She pulled away.
“Don’t.”
I stepped back.
“I won’t touch you again without permission.”
That surprised her.
Maybe it surprised me too.
She looked down at Ellie.
“Why would anyone know about her?”
I placed David’s photo on the table.
Hannah stopped breathing.
“Where did you get that?”
“My security file.”
“That’s David.”
“With Vincent.”
She touched the picture with shaking fingers.
“David told me he found something strange at work before he died. Missing materials. Fake invoices. Names he recognized from newspapers.”
“Did he say which names?”
She looked at me.
“Moretti.”
The word landed between us.
I did not flinch.
I had spent years making that name heavy enough to break other men.
Now it was breaking a widow in my guest room.
“Hannah,” I said, “if my family was involved in your husband’s death, I’ll find out.”
“And then what?”
“Then I’ll make it right.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You can’t make dead right.”
No.
I couldn’t.
Before I could answer, Ellie coughed.
Once.
Then again.
Hannah spun.
“Ellie?”
Ellie’s cheeks flushed.
Her little hands went to her throat.
My blood froze.
Dr. Greene had delivered new EpiPens an hour earlier.
Hannah grabbed one.
Ellie wheezed.
“Mommy…”
Hannah injected her with practiced terror.
I shouted for Dr. Greene.
Tony burst in with two guards.
Hannah held Ellie, rocking her.
“What did she touch?” I demanded.
Nobody answered.
Then I saw Rosie.
The stuffed rabbit lay near the breakfast tray.
A smear of peanut butter marked one ear.
I looked at the guards.
“Who brought that tray?”
Tony’s face went deadly.
“Kitchen runner.”
May you like
“Find him.”
But the runner was already gone.
