Chapter 7 - The Midnight Driver|
I ran downstairs with the white card still in my hand.
Rosa followed me through the entrance hall.
Two security officers stood beside the front doors.
Beyond the iron gates, headlights illuminated the wet driveway.
A black van waited beneath the security lamps.
The driver remained behind the wheel.
"Has anyone let him inside?" I asked.
The head of security, Victor Salerno, shook his head.
"No."
"Good."
He looked surprised by the force of my answer.
I showed him the card.
"Whoever hired that driver gave Mrs. Russo an address for a facility that doesn't appear to exist."
Victor frowned.
"Then we have a problem."
I pointed toward the gate.
"Does he have the original authorization?"
"He gave us a copy."
"Please don't let him take her."
Victor looked directly at me.
"Nobody is leaving with Mrs. Russo without her consent."
I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders.
Together, we went to the security office.
Victor had already called the local police after noticing that the driver's paperwork didn't match the household's instructions.
A patrol car was on its way.
The driver had been told to remain outside the property.
He could leave if he wished.
But the officers wanted to speak with him about the suspicious document.
I looked at the copy Victor had received.
It bore the name of a physician called Dr. Harold Fenwick.
Beneath it was a medical statement describing Evelyn as disoriented and unable to make decisions.
I knew the description was false.
Only an hour earlier, Evelyn had remembered exactly what Luca told her and why she signed the papers.
Then I noticed something else.
Near the bottom was a witness declaration.
It claimed that two household employees had observed Evelyn refusing care because of confusion.
The names were printed beneath the statement.
Rosa Delgado.
Anna Mitchell.
My stomach dropped.
"That's my name."
Victor looked at the document.
"What?"
"That's my name."
He leaned closer.
I pointed at the signature.
"I never signed this."
Rosa covered her mouth.
"Neither did I."
For several seconds, we simply stared at the page.
Someone had forged not only Matteo's signature but ours as well.
And whoever prepared the document had counted on us being too frightened to challenge it.
My hands started shaking.
I had never been questioned by police.
I had never been accused of anything more serious than breaking a crystal glass.
Now my name appeared on paperwork intended to remove an elderly woman from her home against her wishes.
"Victor, please make a copy for me."
He nodded.
"Of course."
Then my phone rang.
Matteo.
"Anna, is everything okay?"
I explained about the van.
I told him about the false medical authorization.
And I told him about the forged signatures.
He went completely silent.
Finally, he said, "I've got Nadia with me."
"Is she safe?"
"Yes."
Relief rushed through me.
"Thank goodness."
He continued.
"We're at a police station."
I hesitated.
"Why?"
"Because Nadia has something on her phone that I think the police need to see."
"What?"
"Messages from someone claiming to work for Elliot Hayes."
I looked again at the authorization.
Matteo lowered his voice.
"The messages threatened her unless Luca completed the property transaction."
My heart pounded.
"Did the sender identify himself?"
"Not directly."
He paused.
"But the phone number was registered to a company connected to Hayes Development."
I thought of Scarlett's father sitting at the dinner table.
His expensive suit.
His polished smile.
His insistence that everything was simply business.
"Matteo, I think they were going to make your mother disappear."
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, "Tell me why."
I explained the fake residence.
The disconnected phone.
The bus ticket.
The van arriving at midnight.
And the document stating that Evelyn couldn't refuse transportation.
By the time I finished, my voice was trembling.
"I don't know what they intended to do, but none of this makes sense."
Matteo's reply was quiet.
"It makes sense if they needed Mom somewhere nobody could reach her before Monday."
I looked toward the staircase.
Evelyn was upstairs, trusting us to keep her safe.
"Please come home soon," I whispered.
"I will."
He paused.
"And Anna?"
"Yes?"
"Don't let anybody convince you that telling the truth was a mistake."
The call ended.
Twenty minutes later, police officers arrived.
The driver cooperated.
He explained that a transportation agency had assigned him the trip.
He believed he was collecting an elderly woman for a scheduled medical transfer.
He had never personally met Scarlett, Elliot, or Luca.
The agency's instructions listed a destination outside Chicago, not the supposed care center on Evelyn's card.
The officers took copies of the paperwork and began tracing the booking.
Before leaving, one officer asked to speak with Evelyn directly.
I accompanied him upstairs.
Evelyn answered his questions clearly.
She gave her full name.
She described the mansion.
She explained who had told her to move and why she was afraid.
Then the officer asked whether she wanted to leave that night.
Evelyn looked at me.
She straightened her husband's coat.
And for the first time since dinner, her voice did not tremble.
"No, Officer."
She lifted her chin.
"This is my home, and I want to stay."
The officer nodded and recorded her answer.
After he left, Evelyn reached for my hand.
"Anna, will I get you into trouble?"
I sat beside her.
"Mrs. Russo, somebody already put my name on a document I never signed."
Her eyes widened.
"What?"
I showed her the copy.
She stared at it for a long time.
Then she began to cry.
"Oh, sweetheart."
I swallowed.
"It's okay."
She shook her head.
"No."
Her voice became unexpectedly firm.
"It is not okay for people to destroy a young woman's future just because they think she's too poor to defend herself."
I had no answer.
May you like
Because in fourteen months of working at that mansion, nobody had ever defended me quite like that.
And I was beginning to understand that Evelyn Russo possessed a strength Scarlett had never bothered to see.
