Chapter 13 - The Saint in the Hallway.
Hunter read the words PHASE COMPLETE until they stopped looking like English.
She could not accept that Lily’s death might have been part of someone else’s plan.
Tommy had been drunk.
Tommy had been angry.
Tommy had pushed her.
Those facts belonged to her memory.
But the money suggested someone had been feeding his worst impulses from a distance.
Lorenzo sent Gabriel back to question him.
Hunter insisted on going.
“No.”
Lorenzo’s answer was immediate.
“That man took my daughter from me.”
“And if he says something to hurt you—”
“He already did the worst thing he could do.”
Lorenzo looked at her for a long moment.
Then he stepped aside.
Tommy was no longer smirking when Hunter entered the basement security room.
He looked exhausted.
When he saw her, shame flickered across his face and vanished.
Hunter sat across from him.
“Who paid you?”
Tommy stared at the table.
“I never met the real guy.”
“You accepted money.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To keep track of you.”
Hunter’s nails dug into her palms.
“Why?”
“They said you might be useful.”
“Useful for what?”
“I didn’t know.”
Hunter stood.
Tommy flinched.
She did not touch him.
That mattered to her.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You gave them my medical appointment dates.”
His silence answered.
“You told them when Lily was due.”
Tommy’s eyes filled with panic.
“I did not know they wanted anything to happen to the baby.”
Hunter’s voice became very quiet.
“Neither did I.”
Tommy looked away.
“After the stairs, they paid my whole debt.”
Lorenzo stepped forward.
“Who contacted you afterward?”
Tommy swallowed.
“A doctor.”
Hunter turned toward Halloran, who stood near the door.
The doctor’s face went pale.
“What doctor?” Lorenzo asked.
Tommy looked straight at Halloran.
“Him.”
Everyone stopped moving.
Halloran took one step backward.
“That is absurd.”
Tommy leaned forward.
“You met me in the parking garage at St. Gabriel’s.”
Halloran shook his head.
“I have never seen you before in my life.”
Tommy laughed bitterly.
“You gave me an envelope.”
Hunter’s stomach twisted.
Lorenzo turned toward Halloran.
The doctor raised both hands.
“I was treating your son every day.”
“You think I would poison him and then stand in this house waiting to be discovered?”
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“I have seen men do stupider things for less money.”
Halloran looked at Hunter.
“There is a security camera in that hospital garage.”
“Pull the footage.”
Gabriel was already typing.
Minutes later, he found archived video from the date Tommy named.
The image was grainy but clear enough.
Tommy stood beside a concrete pillar.
A man in a white coat approached him.
Hunter leaned closer.
It looked like Halloran.
Same height.
Same hair.
Same walk.
Then the man turned toward the camera.
Halloran whispered, “That is my brother.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You have a brother?”
Halloran’s voice broke.
“Had.”
He looked at the screen.
“Vincent Caruso told me he died seven years ago.”
Hunter watched the doctor struggle to keep his composure.
Halloran admitted that Andrew had vanished after their father refused to keep paying his debts.
A year later, Vincent had called with news of the boating accident and offered to handle the funeral because there was supposedly little left to recover.
Halloran had believed him because grief often accepts the first complete story it is given.
May you like
Lorenzo understood that sentence too well.
He had accepted the Moretti explanation for Sophia’s death for exactly the same reason.
