Chapter 5 - The Envelope
Elena found the envelope beneath her apartment door at 7:12 a.m.
No stamp.
No name.
Inside were fifty hundred-dollar bills.
Five thousand dollars.
And a note.
YOUR DAUGHTER WAS CONFUSED. SAY SO PUBLICLY AND KEEP THIS.
Elena stared at the money for a long time.
Then she photographed everything without touching it again.
Her hands shook as she called Marcello.
He answered immediately.
“Are you safe?”
The question came so fast that she froze.
“How did you know?”
“I received something too.”
“What?”
“A photo of you and Lily leaving your building.”
Elena’s face went numb.
She walked to the window and pulled the curtain shut.
“You said call the police.”
“I’m calling them.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“If police show up here with lights and uniforms, whoever did this will know I called.”
“They already know where you live.”
“That is exactly why I get a say.”
Marcello was silent.
She continued.
“I’ll go to a precinct myself.”
“I’ll send security.”
“No.”
“Why are you fighting me?”
“Because every solution you have involves people who work for you.”
The words landed.
Marcello lowered his voice.
“All right. You choose the precinct. I’ll have my attorney meet you there, not security.”
“I don’t want your attorney.”
“Then yours.”
“I serve canapés for twenty-two dollars an hour. What attorney?”
He said nothing.
Elena regretted the bitterness, but not enough to apologize.
An hour later she sat inside the 19th Precinct with Lily coloring on scrap paper beside her.
A detective named Nina Patel photographed the cash and note.
Marcello arrived alone.
No entourage.
No tuxedo.
Just a charcoal sweater, dark coat, and the exhausted expression of a man discovering that wealth did not prevent fear.
Detective Patel listened to the story without drama.
“Do you have reason to believe Ms. Avery herself sent this?”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“Mr. DeLuca?”
“No.”
“Any other threats?”
Marcello showed her the photograph.
Patel studied it.
“Who knows Ms. Morales was at your event?”
“Hundreds of people.”
“Who knows her address?”
Marcello thought.
“Human resources for the hotel contractor.”
Elena frowned.
“My employer.”
“Anyone else?”
“I filled out a visitor incident form when Lily wandered upstairs.”
Ben had insisted on it.
The form included her address.
Marcello’s expression darkened.
“Who accessed that form?”
Detective Patel caught the shift.
“Don’t investigate that yourself. Preserve the logs.”
Marcello nodded.
For once, Elena appreciated someone telling him what not to do.
Outside the precinct, Marcello offered to move Elena and Lily to a hotel.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
“Five thousand dollars appeared under your door.”
“And your fiancée lives in a penthouse with private security. Should I assume she’s innocent because she has better locks?”
He almost smiled despite himself.
“You’re difficult.”
“I’m scared.”
That silenced him.
She looked down at Lily.
“I can’t let being scared turn me into someone who just hands decisions to the richest person in the room.”
Marcello nodded slowly.
“Fair.”
Elena studied him.
“You really believed Camille was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“You never went to a doctor with her?”
“She said the early appointments made her anxious. Then I had a three-week acquisition negotiation in Chicago. She sent ultrasound pictures.”
“Did they have her name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I trusted her.”
Elena looked away.
“That’s expensive.”
“You have no idea.”
She did not know then how literal those words were.
Marcello’s phone rang.
Marcus Chen.
He answered.
“What did you find?”
Marcus spoke for nearly a minute.
Marcello’s face hardened.
When the call ended, Elena asked, “What?”
“Aurora Family Services.”
“The foundation vendor?”
“How do you know about that?”
“You said the name at the precinct.”
He had not realized.
“Aurora paid a medical imaging company thirty-one thousand dollars last year.”
“So?”
“The imaging company closed two years ago.”
Elena frowned.
Marcello continued.
“Marcus found invoices for prenatal ultrasound services supposedly performed for the foundation’s low-income maternal-health program.”
“That sounds charitable.”
“Except none of the patients exist.”
Elena stared.
“And one of the ultrasound image file numbers matches the image Camille sent me.”
For the first time since the gala, Elena felt something colder than fear.
Someone had not simply pretended to be pregnant.
They had built paperwork around the lie.
Marcello looked down at Lily, who was drawing a pink woman with an enormous round stomach.
Beside the woman she had drawn a blue rectangle.
A bag.
And next to the bag was a man.
Around his neck Lily had colored a bright gray line.
Marcello stared at the picture.
Owen Mercer.
But Lily had drawn one more figure at the edge of the page.
A second man.
“Who’s that?” Marcello asked.
Lily tapped the figure.
“Other DeLuca.”
Marcello’s eyes lifted sharply.
There was only one person Lily could have heard someone call by that name.
May you like
His younger half-brother.
Julian.
