Chapter 15 - THE LAST HOSTAGE
Antonio Moretti was being held inside an abandoned rehabilitation center outside Harrisburg.
He managed to make the call from an old office phone.
Then the line died.
Police were notified immediately.
This wasn't a private conspiracy anymore.
Federal investigators had entered the case after the server fire and evidence tampering.
Noah handed over the location.
Luka wanted to go.
I understood.
I also understood that rage could make people careless.
"Let them get him."
Luka looked at me.
"If it were your father?"
I glanced toward Thomas.
"I'd want to run through the front door too."
"Exactly."
"But Grace needs you alive."
That stopped him.
He looked toward the room where our daughter slept.
His shoulders lowered.
Two hours later, authorities entered the facility.
Antonio was found alive.
Weak.
Confused.
But alive.
So was Selena.
She surrendered without resistance.
Evelyn was not there.
Neither was Caleb.
Selena asked for a lawyer.
Then asked to speak to me.
Everyone advised against it.
I went anyway.
Through reinforced glass, the woman who had slept with my husband looked almost unrecognizable.
No makeup.
No expensive clothes.
No confidence.
"Why me?"
I asked.
She looked at the table.
"Because Mason chose you."
"That's not an answer."
"He loved you."
I almost laughed.
Selena continued.
"He wouldn't leave you when I asked."
The truth emerged slowly.
Selena had approached Mason intending to control him.
She knew his paternity secret.
She knew his infertility.
She knew the trust requirements.
She offered a solution.
A donor.
Altered documents.
A child.
In return, she wanted access to Bennett Capital.
Then she fell in love with him.
Or convinced herself she had.
When I became pregnant, jealousy poisoned the arrangement.
"You hated me."
I said.
She nodded.
"I hated that he wanted your baby and my plan."
I stared at her.
"So you became his mistress."
"He came to me."
"Convenient."
Her eyes hardened.
"You think Luka is different?"
"Don't."
"You think he's here because he loves you?"
"I said don't."
Selena leaned closer to the glass.
"Luka's father left him something."
"A controlling interest in a medical technology company tied to St. Catherine."
"If Luka proves M-17 harmed him, he could own half the network after litigation."
I didn't react.
She smiled faintly.
"You didn't know."
I left without answering.
But doubt followed me home.
That evening, I confronted Luka.
He didn't deny it.
"Antonio created a company years ago."
"And you never told me?"
"It wasn't relevant."
"It became relevant the second your name appeared in M-17."
He looked hurt.
"So you think I'm using Grace?"
"I don't know what to think anymore."
He stepped back.
"I have never asked for custody."
"I have never asked you for money."
"I haven't even asked you to put my name on her legal birth certificate."
His voice remained quiet.
"Because every choice was taken from you."
"I wasn't going to take another."
I knew he was right.
But fear was louder than logic.
"Maybe you should go."
The words hurt the second I said them.
Luka nodded once.
Then left.
That night, I barely slept.
At 4:13 in the morning, my father knocked on my bedroom door.
He held an old cassette recorder.
"I think you need to hear this."
The tape had been recorded seventeen years earlier.
Antonio's voice came through the static.
"If anything happens to us, Luka must never trust Harrison Bennett."
Then my father's voice answered.
"Harrison isn't the one I'm afraid of."
Antonio asked.
"Who is?"
May you like
My father replied.
"Caleb Cross."
