Chapter 3 - My Brother's Son
I found Tessa before sunset.
Not because she wanted to be found.
Because four years inside my house had taught me what she considered safe.
Quiet neighborhoods.
No doorman.
No cameras in the lobby.
A bus line nearby.
She had rented a small apartment in Somerville under the name Theresa Cole.
Brendan remained in the car while I went upstairs alone.
Tessa opened the door three inches.
Then she saw me.
Every bit of color left her face.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Vincent.”
Her eyes moved toward the staircase.
She was calculating an escape route.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
“I know.”
That answer stopped me.
She opened the door.
The apartment was almost empty.
Two suitcases sat beside the couch.
They were leaving.
Then a boy appeared in the hallway.
Eight years old.
Dark hair.
Gray-green eyes.
Nicholas’s eyes.
The world became strangely quiet.
“Mom?”
Tessa moved immediately between us.
“It’s okay, Eli.”
He looked at me curiously.
“Who is he?”
Nobody answered.
I had faced armed men without feeling what I felt in that moment.
“He looks like Nicholas,” I whispered.
Tessa’s jaw tightened.
“You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”
Eli glanced between us.
“You knew my dad?”
I couldn’t speak.
Tessa told him to finish packing.
When he disappeared into the bedroom, she closed her eyes.
“Nicholas believed keeping Eli away from the Morettis was the only way to keep him alive.”
“Then why work in my house?”
“Because four years ago, I received an envelope.”
Inside had been a photograph of seven-year-old Tessa pushing Eli’s stroller outside a grocery store.
Written across the back:
If you want the boy to live, take the position at 81 Beacon Hill.
My address.
“You thought I sent it?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“I realized whoever sent me there wanted me close to you.”
“Why?”
“I never found out.”
Then she reached inside her handbag and placed a black card on the table.
“I found this under my bedroom door three nights ago. That’s why I resigned.”
The message contained five words:
You stayed too long, Tessa.
I turned the card over.
A silver emblem had been pressed into the corner.
May you like
Brendan’s security insignia.
An emblem used only by people authorized to enter my mansion.
