Chapter 3 - The Warning About Luca and the Man Who Had Been Following Me
I looked at Luca through the office glass.
He was standing beside the elevator.
Calm.
Patient.
As though no one had just accused him.
Dante asked Mara to arrange independent transportation.
I agreed only after she showed me the driver's identification.
At the hospital, my aunt June lay beneath a thin blanket.
She looked older than her years.
When she saw me, she started crying.
“I'm sorry, Millie.”
I sat beside her.
“Why did you leave?”
“I thought they found us.”
“Who?”
She looked toward the door.
“Your mother's employers.”
“Dante?”
“No. The people he trusted.”
June described a ledger.
Money transferred from a children's clinic.
False invoices.
Patients who never existed.
My mother had copied the records.
Then the fire happened.
“Luca knew,” June whispered.
I felt cold.
“Did he start the fire?”
“I don't know.”
That answer mattered.
I was tired of people turning suspicions into facts.
June reached beneath her pillow.
She gave me a key with a blue plastic tag.
“Your mother rented a locker.”
“Where?”
“The old bus terminal.”
Outside the room, I heard shoes stop.
A man's shadow crossed the frosted glass.
I stood and pressed the call button.
The door opened.
Luca was standing there.
He looked at the key in my hand.
May you like
Then he said something I will never forget.
“Evelyn was supposed to destroy that.”
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