Chapter 4 - THE OLD FIRE

The next morning, Emma went to the Moretti offices because someone had found her father’s hospital room before sunrise.

Vincent and Isabella met her in a riverfront conference room.

“Thomas’s eyes,” she said.

“My father says the Langfords have been looking for him.”

Vincent’s expression changed.

“What exactly did he say?”

Emma told them.

The cut bolts.

The flowers.

Victoria’s name.

Isabella gripped the head of her cane.

Vincent looked at his mother.

“You knew?”

“Not about the warehouse.”

“About Thomas.”

Isabella nodded.

Twenty-three years earlier, Thomas worked maintenance at the Lakeshore Moretti. During a charity dinner, a fire trapped Isabella in a service corridor after security missed her. Thomas went back.

“He carried me through the kitchen,” Isabella said. “Burned both hands doing it.”

“Why did he leave?”

Isabella’s eyes darkened.

“Because the fire was not electrical.”

Vincent sat forward.

“What?”

She looked at him.

“Your father knew.”

According to Isabella, investigators privately found evidence that a fuel line had been tampered with.

The gala that night involved a real-estate vote.

Langford Development stood to lose millions if Carlo won.

Emma whispered, “Victoria’s family.”

Isabella nodded.

“Thomas saw a man leaving the service corridor before the fire.”

“Who?”

“He never identified him publicly.”

“Why?”

“Because someone threatened his pregnant wife.”

Emma’s mother had been pregnant with Emma then.

Her skin prickled.

Vincent asked, “Why was none of this in the report?”

Isabella looked ashamed.

“Carlo buried it.”

Vincent stood.

“My father covered an attempt on your life?”

“He believed exposing it would start a war.”

Emma’s phone rang.

Hospital.

She answered.

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A nurse spoke quickly.

Thomas Carter had disappeared from his room.