Chapter 10 - THE FIRE ABOVE THEIR HEADS
The fire alarm screamed at 4:12 a.m.
This time it was real.
Smoke rolled through the wine cellar corridor.
Agents rushed Lily, Sarah, and the evidence toward the service exit.
Jack stayed behind with Rocco long enough to confirm the dining rooms were empty.
Lily hated leaving.
But she did.
Because Noah was waiting.
Because courage was not the same thing as refusing every safe choice.
Outside, flames climbed the Maragold Room’s east windows.
Victor had chosen the exact corridor where Jack was originally supposed to die.
Fire crews arrived.
Victor was caught trying to leave through the kitchen loading dock.
He was alive.
In handcuffs.
For the first time, Lily saw him without a clipboard.
Without power.
He looked smaller.
When officers walked him past her, he stopped.
“You ruined everything.”
Lily stared.
“No.”
“You should have kept your head down.”
“That was your mistake.”
His face twisted.
“What?”
“You thought keeping my head down meant I wasn’t looking.”
Victor said nothing.
Then Jack stepped beside her.
Not in front.
Beside.
Victor looked at him.
“She’s nobody.”
Jack’s expression did not change.
“Then you destroyed your life because nobody noticed a pen.”
Victor’s face went white.
He was taken away.
The fire damaged the east wing and kitchen.
The vault survived.
So did the records.
By sunrise, Marco Voss disappeared.
Enzo Rinaldi publicly denied involvement.
Then the federal recordings leaked into the investigation.
His denial became much harder to maintain.
Jack stood beside an ambulance while a medic examined smoke irritation in Lily’s throat.
“You should go home.”
“I currently own a burnt restaurant.”
“That is an unusually optimistic description.”
She smiled.
Then coughed.
Jack looked at her.
His gaze dropped when the medic lifted the back of Lily’s shirt slightly to check for burns.
A line of scar tissue became visible along her waist.
Lily immediately pulled the fabric down.
Shame arrived automatically.
Fast.
Old.
Jack looked away.
Not in disgust.
To give her privacy.
That almost hurt worse.
The medic left.
Silence stretched.
Lily said:
“You can ask.”
Jack shook his head.
“No.”
“You looked.”
“I looked because I thought you were injured.”
“They’re old.”
“I understood that.”
She folded her arms.
“Ethan hated them.”
Jack’s jaw tightened.
“So?”
The simple question startled her.
“So… they’re ugly.”
Jack looked at her then.
Directly.
Not at her waist.
Her face.
“Did he tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“Then he was cruel.”
“That doesn’t make him wrong.”
Jack was quiet.
Then:
“No.”
Her chest tightened.
He continued.
“It means his opinion was designed to hurt you. That makes it useless as evidence.”
Lily stared.
Nobody had ever put it that way.
Jack did not tell her to love the scars.
Did not call them beautiful because that would sound noble.
He simply refused to let Ethan’s cruelty become objective truth.
Then Rocco approached.
“We found Marco.”
Jack turned.
“Where?”
“Airport?”
“No.”
“Dock?”
Rocco shook his head.
“At Ethan Bennett’s apartment.”
Lily’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
Rocco’s expression became grim.
“Because Ethan had something Marco needed.”
“What?”
“A custody petition.”
Lily went cold.
Rocco handed her a copy.
Ethan had filed for emergency custody of Noah.
May you like
And attached to the petition was evidence claiming Lily worked for Jack Moretti.
The filing accused her of exposing her child to organized crime.
