Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN WAITING OUTSIDE LUCIA’S SCHOOL
Z
My first instinct was not rational.
It was maternal.
Burn the entire world down.
Adrien’s was similar.
The difference was that he actually knew people capable of doing it.
“No.”
Matteo blocked the boathouse door.
“You cannot rush into the school.”
“Move.”
“Adrien.”
“My daughter is there.”
“She isn’t.”
I froze.
Matteo looked at me.
“Vanessa had Lucia removed thirty minutes ago.”
I grabbed my phone.
No signal inside the boathouse.
Adrien looked ready to kill him.
“You arranged something involving my child without telling me?”
“I called Vanessa because I knew this would be your reaction.”
“What reaction?”
“This.”
Matteo gestured toward him.
“Storming in before we know who the contact is.”
Adrien moved closer.
“And if you were wrong?”
“I wasn’t.”
Luca stepped between them.
“Enough.”
That was brave.
Or stupid.
Possibly both.
Outside, my phone finally connected.
Vanessa called immediately.
“Lucia is safe.”
“Where?”
“With Rachel and Maria at the alternate apartment.”
My knees weakened.
“Did she see anything?”
“No. We told her there was a plumbing problem at school.”
Adrien stood beside me.
“Who is inside?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Matteo answered from behind us.
“A woman named Claire Haddon.”
Vanessa went quiet.
“How do you know?”
“She worked for Daniel fifteen years ago. Then disappeared.”
I looked at Matteo.
“She’s at my daughter’s school?”
“Under a different name.”
“What name?”
Matteo handed me his phone.
A faculty webpage appeared.
MRS. CLAIRE HARTLEY — DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT.
I knew her.
She had shaken my hand at the spring fundraiser.
She once gave Lucia a sticker after Lucia cried because another child stepped on a caterpillar.
My stomach turned.
Adrien stared at the photograph.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“What does she want?”
Matteo looked exhausted.
“I don’t know.”
We returned to New York before dawn.
Lucia was asleep when I reached her.
I stood beside the bed for nearly five minutes watching her breathe.
Adrien remained in the doorway.
Years earlier, danger would have made him issue orders until the entire building shook.
Tonight he simply watched our daughter.
Then he looked at me.
“We take her out of school.”
“Yes.”
“No argument?”
“Not this time.”
He nodded.
I sat beside Lucia.
“She loves that school.”
“We’ll find another.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Adrien knew.
Every threat stole something small.
A school.
A friendship.
A sense that ordinary places were safe.
He sat beside me.
“We stop this.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That answer would once have frightened me.
Now it made me trust him more.
The next morning, Vanessa researched Claire Haddon.
There was almost nothing.
No tax history under that name after 2011.
No current driver’s license.
No property.
No marriage record.
Then Rachel found a photograph in an old medical charity newsletter.
Claire Haddon standing beside Daniel Voss.
And Salvatore.
All three twenty years younger.
“What was she?” I asked.
Matteo answered.
“Courier.”
“For money?”
“Information.”
He looked at Adrien.
“Your father trusted her.”
Adrien frowned.
“I never met her.”
“You did.”
Matteo opened an old family photograph.
Christmas.
Adrien was maybe nineteen.
Matteo seventeen.
Antonio sat near a fireplace.
Behind them, serving wine, stood Claire.
Adrien stared.
“That was Catherine.”
“Her middle name.”
Silence.
“She was in our house.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Matteo.
“So why infiltrate Lucia’s school?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe surveillance.”
“Or access,” Vanessa said.
“To Lucia?”
“To Elena.”
Everyone looked at me.
Vanessa turned her laptop.
“Claire approved every donor meeting you attended at the school.”
I remembered three charity lunches.
Two auctions.
A literacy fundraiser.
I had never thought twice about who arranged the seating chart.
Vanessa continued.
“She placed you beside Richard Hale twice.”
The banker from Black Harbor.
Adrien’s eyes hardened.
“He was trying to recruit her?”
“No,” I said.
I remembered the conversations.
Hale asking about Moretti Holdings.
About Adrien’s schedule.
About whether we planned to move.
About whether Lucia would eventually attend school in Europe.
“He was collecting information.”
Matteo nodded.
“Claire fed him access.”
Adrien stood.
“We bring her in.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she can lead us to the rest.”
Adrien clearly hated that answer.
I understood why.
Then my phone rang.
The school.
I answered cautiously.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
It was the headmistress.
“Yes.”
“We’re terribly sorry about the plumbing issue yesterday.”
I looked at Vanessa.
She frowned.
The headmistress continued.
“Lucia left her rabbit in her cubby.”
Lucia’s stuffed rabbit.
Mr. Buttons.
She slept with him every night.
I glanced toward her bedroom.
She had been too tired to notice.
“We can send someone.”
“No need. Mrs. Hartley offered to bring it herself.”
My blood went cold.
A knock sounded downstairs.
Everyone froze.
The headmistress continued speaking.
“She should be there now.”
Another knock.
Adrien moved instantly.
Luca drew his weapon.
Matteo went toward the rear corridor.
Vanessa opened the camera feed.
Claire Hartley stood outside our building.
She held Lucia’s rabbit.
And nothing else.
Adrien looked at me.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I know her.”
“That’s the problem.”
“I’m going downstairs.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he nodded once.
Growth.
Messy growth.
We entered the lobby together.
Claire stood behind the locked outer doors.
When she saw us, she smiled sadly.
Then she held up the rabbit.
“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
Adrien stayed three feet ahead of me.
“You’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised him.
Claire looked toward Matteo.
Her face changed.
“You finally came home.”
Matteo said nothing.
She turned back to me.
“Mrs. Moretti, your daughter was never the target.”
I stared.
“Then why were you at her school?”
“To keep her alive.”
Silence.
Adrien’s hand lowered slightly.
Claire continued.
“Richard Hale placed me there.”
“Hale is Black Harbor.”
“Yes.”
“So are you.”
“I was.”
Adrien laughed without humor.
“You expect us to believe you changed?”
“No.”
She pressed Lucia’s rabbit against the glass.
“I expect you to believe Daniel Voss changed.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“You knew Daniel was going to send the package.”
“Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
Claire looked directly at Adrien.
“Richard Hale.”
Vanessa spoke through the earpiece.
“Ask for proof.”
I did.
Claire’s face tightened.
“I have it.”
“Where?”
“Not here.”
Adrien’s patience thinned.
“Then tell us.”
Claire looked around the street.
Cars.
Pedestrians.
A delivery truck.
Then her eyes stopped.
Her face went pale.
“Down!”
The lobby window exploded.
Adrien dragged me behind a marble column.
Matteo pulled Claire through the security door.
A second shot hit glass.
Luca shouted directions.
Security moved.
Then silence.
Claire lay on the lobby floor.
Blood spread across her coat.
I crawled toward her.
Adrien tried to stop me.
“She’s hit.”
Claire’s eyes found mine.
Her hand gripped my wrist.
“Locker…”
“What locker?”
“Grand Central.”
Blood touched her lips.
“Three… one… seven.”
Vanessa shouted through my earpiece.
“Keep her conscious.”
Claire shook her head.
“No time.”
She looked at Adrien.
“Your father knew.”
Adrien froze.
“Knew what?”
Claire’s breathing became shallow.
Her eyes moved toward Matteo.
Then back to Adrien.
“Antonio knew Matteo survived.”
Matteo went completely still.
Adrien stared at him.
“What?”
May you like
Claire whispered the final words before her eyes closed.
“He chose not to tell you.”
