Chapter 9 – THE BLACK ENVELOPE

“Who was that?” I asked, stepping toward the doorway.

Luca frowned, following my gaze. “Who?”

“A man in a trench coat. He was just standing there.”

Luca’s demeanor instantly shifted back to the hardened boss I’d seen in the ballroom. He stepped out into the hallway, looking both ways, but the corridor was empty.

Except for one thing.

Resting on a small medical cart near our door was a black envelope.

Luca picked it up. His jaw tightened as he looked at the front.

“What is it?” Richard asked, stepping out of the room to join us.

Luca handed the envelope to Richard.

It had only two words written on it, in elegant silver ink:

For Richard.

Richard’s hands began to shake again. He tore the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of thick, dark paper.

I watched his eyes scan the words.

All the peace and relief that had filled him during the wedding ceremony vanished, replaced by sheer terror.

“Dad?” Caroline called from her hospital bed. “What’s wrong?”

Richard looked at Luca.

“It’s from Vance’s brother.”

Luca froze. “Elias Vance? He’s been out of Chicago for ten years.”

“He’s back,” Richard swallowed hard. “And he says the debt wasn’t Lorraine’s.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “You said Lorraine forged the signature. She admitted she was paying the debt to hide her embezzlement.”

Richard looked at the letter, his eyes wide.

“Lorraine was paying it. But she didn’t forge Arthur’s signature to create the debt.”

He looked toward the room, where Patricia was holding little Leo.

“Arthur went to Vance himself. He borrowed the money.”

Luca snatched the letter from Richard’s hand.

“If Arthur borrowed it,” Luca said, reading the text, “then why was Lorraine paying it off?”

Richard lowered his head.

“Because Arthur didn’t borrow it for himself.”

He looked at me.

“He borrowed it for Sarah. He borrowed it for your mother.”

The hallway spun.

I grabbed the doorframe to keep from falling.

“No,” I said. “My mother didn’t even know Arthur Ellis.”

“She knew him,” Richard said softly. “Arthur was my best friend before he was my salesman. He knew Lorraine was going to destroy Sarah. He needed a massive amount of cash to help Sarah disappear, to get her out of Chicago safely before Lorraine could take you away.”

I felt sick.

The man Patricia had mourned for twenty-eight years… the man who supposedly died of a heart attack from the stress of a fake debt…

He had died protecting my mother. Protecting me.

“Elias Vance is calling the debt due,” Luca said, his voice grim as he read the bottom of the letter. “All of it. Two million dollars, with interest. By midnight tomorrow.”

“Or what?” Richard asked, terrified.

Luca looked up, his eyes meeting mine.

“Or he takes it out on the collateral Arthur put up.”

“What collateral?” I asked.

Luca flipped the page over.

Attached to the back was a copy of the original loan document.

Underneath Arthur Ellis’s signature was a line specifying the collateral.

It wasn’t a house. It wasn’t a watch.

It was a name.

Sarah Miller.

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