Chapter 9 - THE CHILD IN THE WRONG CRIB

Marco had switched the babies twelve hours earlier.

The child left at the mansion belonged to one of his men.

A distraction.

Leo had been taken because Marco needed something Sophia had hidden.

Something only Hunter could access.

Her blood.

Inside Rebecca's old apartment was a biometric safe.

Hunter had never known it existed.

Marco did.

They reached Queens before dawn.

Rebecca's apartment had remained sealed since her death.

Hunter stood inside the bedroom where she'd grown up.

Everything felt smaller.

She touched the wall.

"I used to measure my height here."

Lorenzo stood quietly.

Hunter found the marks.

AGE 6.

AGE 8.

AGE 10.

Then another mark.

LILY.

Hunter frowned.

She hadn't written that.

Behind the wallpaper was a steel panel.

The safe.

Hunter pressed her thumb against the reader.

Nothing.

Then Halloran noticed the scanner.

"Not fingerprint."

"Blood."

Hunter stared.

A drop opened the lock.

Inside were documents.

Photographs.

And a ledger.

Lorenzo opened it.

Names.

Politicians.

Judges.

Police officers.

Businesses.

Payments.

Marco had spent twenty years building a criminal network inside Lorenzo's empire.

Sophia discovered it.

Rebecca had helped hide the evidence.

That was why Marco wanted them dead.

Then Lorenzo found one final document.

A life insurance trust.

Beneficiary:

LEONARDO ROSSI.

Secondary beneficiary:

HUNTER VANCE.

Hunter stared.

"Sophia put my name there before she ever met me."

Lorenzo looked at her.

"She wanted you to protect him."

Hunter looked down at Leo.

Then the lights went out.

Marco's voice came from the darkness.

"She always was sentimental."

A gun clicked.

Hunter froze.

Marco stepped forward.

"Give me the ledger."

Lorenzo moved in front of Hunter.

Marco smiled.

"Still playing hero?"

Lorenzo said nothing.

Marco pointed the gun toward Leo.

"The ledger."

Hunter whispered.

"Give it to him."

Lorenzo looked at her.

"Do it."

Lorenzo threw the ledger.

Marco caught it.

Then smiled.

"Thank you."

He raised the gun anyway.

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Hunter understood.

He had never planned to let them leave.