Chapter 5 - THE MAN IN THE HOSPITAL
The words on the note blurred as rain hit the paper.
Don't trust Frank Russo.
I looked up. Frank was leaning against the stone pillar, his face pale in the headlights of Nico's SUV. He looked like a tired old man, loyal and broken.
But my father's warning screamed in my head.
I quickly shoved the note deep into my pocket before Nico could see it. I clutched the deed and the bank statement to my chest.
"I need to go home," I said, my voice shaking. "I need to see my mother."
Nico nodded. "I'll drive you. It isn't safe for you to take the bus tonight."
"I'll take her," Frank offered quickly, stepping forward.
My heart spiked. "No!" I blurted out.
Both men looked at me, surprised by my sharpness.
"I mean... your knee is bothering you, Mr. Russo," I lied smoothly. "You should rest."
Nico opened the passenger door for me. "Get in, Lily. Frank, lock down the house. Nobody enters until morning."
As Nico drove me through the rainy Chicago streets, the silence in the car was heavy. The two million dollars in my lap felt like a bomb waiting to go off.
"You're angry," Nico finally said, keeping his eyes on the road.
"I've spent seven months serving champagne to Victoria, worrying if I could afford my brother's textbooks," I said. "While you held onto a fortune that belonged to my family."
"Your father made the rules, Lily," Nico said gently. "He knew Victoria's mother, Helen, was ruthless. If Helen found out you had this money, she would have found a way to take it. She's been looking for it for fifteen years."
"Then why did Victoria try to get Frank fired tonight?" I asked. "If this is all about the money, why frame the driver over earrings?"
Nico gripped the steering wheel. "Because Frank has the combination to my father's old safe. The safe where I kept your envelope."
A reversal clicked in my mind.
Victoria didn't want Frank gone because she hated him. She wanted him gone so her brother Richard could install his own security team and crack the safe.
They were looking for my father's money.
"Pull over," I said suddenly.
"Lily, we aren't at your house yet."
"Pull over, Nico. Now."
He stopped the SUV near a streetlamp. I pulled the wet note from my pocket and held it up.
"My father wrote this," I said. "He told me not to trust Frank. Why?"
Nico stared at the note. His face went completely blank.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded.
"It was in the envelope."
Nico snatched the note from my hand. He studied it, his breathing shallow.
"This wasn't in the envelope when I sealed it," Nico said.
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"I checked the contents this morning," Nico said, his voice tight. "That note wasn't there."
Someone had opened the safe. Someone had put the note inside to frame Frank.
And only two people had the combination. Nico. And Frank.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out.
It was my brother, Leo.
"Leo? It's late, is Mom okay?"
"Lily," Leo's voice was shaking. "I'm at Chicago General Hospital. Mom had a heart attack."
"What? I'm coming right now."
"No, wait," Leo said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Lily, there's a woman here. She says she paid the hospital bill. She says she's an old friend of our dad."
"What's her name, Leo?"
"Helen Hayes," Leo said. Victoria's mother.
Nico slammed the SUV into gear. "Hold on."
We tore through the streets, arriving at the hospital in ten minutes. I sprinted through the sliding doors, Nico right behind me.
Leo was sitting in the waiting room, looking terrified.
"Where is she?" I demanded.
"In the ICU. She's stable," Leo said, hugging me. Then he pointed to a private waiting room. "That woman is in there."
Nico and I walked to the door. I pushed it open.
Helen Hayes was in her sixties, wearing a perfect cashmere coat, sipping a cup of hospital coffee.
"Lily, darling," Helen smiled warmly. "I'm so glad you're here. We have so much to discuss."
Nico stepped in front of me. "Stay away from her family, Helen."
Helen ignored him. She looked at my pocket.
"Did you find your father's note, Lily?" she asked sweetly.
"You put it in the safe," Nico realized. "How?"
Helen smiled. "I didn't. Frank Russo did."
"Frank is loyal to my family," Nico snarled.
"Frank is loyal to his wife," Helen corrected smoothly. "His wife who needed an expensive surgery last month. A surgery I paid for."
She reached into her purse and pulled out a small, silver key.
"Frank gave me the combination, Nico. And in exchange, I gave him this."
She tossed the key on the table.
May you like
It was the key to Nico's mother's cemetery crypt.
"Go check your mother's grave, Nico," Helen whispered. "You might be surprised to find who is actually buried there."
