Chapter 5
Samuel’s recording was twelve minutes.
I listened without interrupting.
He had been making night rounds.
At 1:17 a.m., he saw Bianca leave Elena’s recovery room.
Bianca was not authorized there.
At 1:22, Marco entered through the service elevator.
At 1:29, alarms began.
Samuel reached Elena before doctors did.
She was conscious.
Weak.
Terrified.
And she said one sentence:
“They found out I know.”
I stopped the recorder.
Hannah looked at me.
“Know what?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
The recording resumed.
Samuel said Elena grabbed his sleeve.
Asked him to protect the triplets if anything happened to her.
Then Bianca returned.
With Marco.
They ordered Samuel out.
He refused.
Marco threatened his daughter.
Hannah.
Samuel left the room because he believed leaving would protect her.
Hannah covered her mouth.
Marco stared at the wall.
The recording continued.
Twenty minutes later, Elena was declared dead.
Samuel did not believe it.
He followed the body transfer.
The gurney did not go to the morgue.
It went to a private loading bay.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Hannah whispered.
Marco closed his eyes.
Samuel’s voice continued:
“She moved her hand.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“They said she was dead, but Elena Bellandi moved her hand.”
I replayed it.
Again.
Marco finally snapped:
“Turn it off.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“He was confused.”
Hannah shouted:
“My father followed her.”
Marco laughed cruelly.
“And look where that got him.”
Silence.
Hannah’s face collapsed.
Marco realized.
Too late.
I stepped closer.
“Where did Samuel go?”
“No idea.”
“You know.”
“He should have minded his own business.”
Hannah started crying.
Marco continued, because cruel men often mistake pain for weakness.
“Your father had a daughter to think about. Instead he chased somebody else’s wife.”
I hit him.
Once.
Not rage.
Correction.
He fell against the stone wall.
I crouched.
“Finish that sentence.”
He spat blood.
“Go to hell.”
I stood.
Hannah picked up the recorder.
Samuel’s final words:
“I followed the van to Saint Alden Road. If I don’t come home, Hannah, I’m sorry.”
Saint Alden Road.
I knew it.
Old Wainwright property.
Bianca’s family.
May you like
And suddenly the woman I planned to marry was connected not only to my wife’s death—
but to what happened after.
