Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM CHARLESTON
Sarah was alive.
For eleven months, Lily believed her friend had chosen distance.
Stopped calling.
Moved on.
Now Sarah stood between Ethan and Victor because Marco had never truly let her go.
Jack immediately contacted law enforcement.
No private war.
No reckless exchange.
Lily noticed that.
The rumors described Jack Moretti as a man who solved problems with bodies.
The man in front of her called a federal task-force liaison.
“Why federal?” she asked.
“Because Marco’s dock agreement involves interstate shipments.”
“What shipments?”
Jack hesitated.
“Some legal.”
“And the others?”
“I’m trying to eliminate the others.”
She studied him.
“You’re dismantling your own organization?”
“Parts of it.”
“Why?”
“Because my father built a system where men like Marco became necessary.”
Jack’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t want necessity to become an excuse.”
Lily thought about Ethan.
About Victor.
About men who claimed they had no choice.
Maybe Jack understood more than she expected.
The plan was simple.
Lily would not go to the terminal.
A decoy vehicle would.
Police would move when Sarah was visually confirmed.
At 2:31 a.m., Jack’s phone rang.
Rocco.
“They have her.”
Lily closed her eyes.
“Sarah?”
“Safe.”
Relief hit.
“What about Ethan?”
“Arrested.”
“Victor?”
Rocco paused.
“Gone.”
Again.
Victor somehow escaped.
But Sarah could finally talk.
At the hospital, she refused to see Jack at first.
She asked for Lily.
When Lily entered, Sarah began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily sat beside the bed.
“You should be.”
Sarah laughed weakly.
“I deserve that.”
“What happened?”
Sarah told everything.
Two years earlier, Marco hired her at the Charleston house.
At first he was charming.
Generous.
Protective.
Then controlling.
He married her secretly.
Not from love.
Because Sarah’s father had once been an accountant for the Moretti family.
He had hidden documents Marco wanted.
“What documents?”
“Original dock ownership records.”
Jack went still outside the partially open door.
Sarah continued.
“Marco needed legal access through me.”
“Did you give it?”
“No.”
“That’s why he hurt you.”
Sarah nodded.
Lily took her hand.
“And Ethan?”
Sarah’s expression twisted.
“Marco contacted him after I escaped.”
“Why?”
“To learn about you.”
“Me?”
Sarah cried harder.
“I told Marco you notice everything.”
Lily frowned.
“I told him you’re the person who sees details other people miss.”
Sarah looked ashamed.
“When Victor needed a disposable witness for the Maragold agreement, Marco remembered you.”
Lily understood.
She had not been randomly assigned coffee.
She had been selected.
A woman with debt.
An abusive ex.
A child.
A friend tied to Marco.
Someone easy to frame.
Sarah squeezed Lily’s hand.
“But there’s something Marco didn’t know.”
“What?”
“My father’s documents weren’t in Charleston.”
“Where are they?”
Sarah looked toward Jack.
Then whispered:
“I gave them to Noah.”
Lily stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Not directly.”
Sarah swallowed.
“The robot.”
The cheap broken robot Ruth had bought at a thrift store six months earlier.
Sarah had placed something inside it before disappearing.
Not just a toy.
May you like
A hiding place.
And Noah had spent months unknowingly playing with evidence Marco would kill to recover.
