Chapter 3 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE NURSING SCHOOL
Hannah refused to leave the hospital with Damen.
She refused the private driver.
She refused the security detail.
She refused everything.
“I don't need protection.”
Damen stared at her.
“Someone has been following you.”
“I'll call the police.”
“I already did.”
Hannah blinked.
“What?”
“Two detectives are reviewing the photographs.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because police protection isn't enough.”
“You think you're better than the police?”
“No.”
He paused.
“I know how people like Victor Kane think.”
Hannah crossed her arms.
“People like you.”
Damen's expression didn't change.
“People like me.”
For the first time, Hannah noticed something in his eyes.
Regret.
She didn't know why.
But she believed it.
That afternoon, Hannah returned home under police escort.
Her apartment was small.
Two rooms.
An old kitchen.
A narrow balcony.
Books stacked everywhere.
Damen stood at the doorway.
“This place has been searched.”
Hannah looked around.
“By who?”
“Someone looking for something.”
“What?”
“We don't know.”
She walked to her bedroom.
Her desk drawers were open.
Her nursing textbooks were scattered across the floor.
She froze.
Then she noticed something.
A small wooden box.
It had been sitting on her desk for years.
Inside was a collection of childhood objects.
A red ribbon.
A marble.
A broken bracelet.
And a tiny brass key.
Hannah picked up the key.
Damen stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
“When?”
“I don't remember.”
Damen stepped closer.
“Turn it over.”
Hannah did.
There were three tiny letters engraved on the back.
E.B.H.
Emma Brooks Hannah.
Damen's face went pale.
“This may be what Kane wants.”
Hannah looked at him.
“How?”
“I don't know.”
A noise came from the hallway.
Damen immediately raised a hand.
“Stay here.”
He moved silently toward the door.
Hannah watched him disappear.
Seconds later, she heard a voice.
“Police.”
Two detectives entered.
One was Detective Laura Bennett.
The other was an older man named Daniel Ross.
They examined the apartment.
“No one here,” Ross said.
Bennett looked at the broken lock.
“He was searching for something.”
Hannah held up the key.
“This?”
Both detectives stared.
Ross's expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother.”
He looked at Damen.
Then back at Hannah.
“You need to give that to us.”
“No.”
Ross frowned.
“Miss Brooks—”
“No.”
Damen stepped forward.
“She keeps it.”
Ross looked irritated.
“This is police evidence.”
Damen's eyes narrowed.
“And you don't get to take it without explaining why.”
Ross stiffened.
“You're interfering with an investigation.”
“Then investigate.”
A long silence.
Finally, Detective Bennett spoke.
“Mr. Ross.”
He looked at her.
She whispered something.
His expression changed.
He stepped back.
“Fine.”
He left.
Bennett remained.
“I want you to know something,” she said.
Hannah nodded.
“Someone inside law enforcement may be compromised.”
Hannah stared.
“You're saying there's a mole?”
“We believe so.”
Damen's face became cold.
“How high?”
“We don't know.”
Bennett looked at the key.
“But someone has been deleting records connected to the Brooks family.”
Hannah swallowed.
“Which records?”
“Adoption records.”
Her knees weakened.
Damen caught her elbow.
Bennett continued.
“Emma wasn't simply adopted.”
“What does that mean?”
“She was placed with your family under a sealed protection order.”
“Protection from whom?”
“Victor Kane.”
Hannah looked at Damen.
“Then why would my mother hide her?”
“Because your mother was terrified.”
Bennett handed Hannah an old photocopy.
At the bottom was a signature.
Hannah recognized it immediately.
Her mother's.
But underneath it was another signature.
Sophia Moretti.
Damen froze.
His sister's name.
Hannah looked at him.
“Your sister knew my family.”
“Yes.”
Bennett nodded.
“She helped your mother.”
Damen's breathing changed.
“What exactly did Sophia do?”
“She discovered that Victor Kane had been using the Moretti organization to move illegal funds.”
Damen stared at her.
“My sister knew?”
“She was trying to expose him.”
Hannah looked at the old document.
“Then she didn't die because of the Moretti family.”
Bennett shook her head.
“No.”
“She died because she was helping us.”
Damen closed his eyes.
Nine years.
Nine years of believing Sophia had betrayed him.
Nine years of blaming himself for ignoring her.
Now the truth was beginning to emerge.
Sophia had never betrayed him.
She had been trying to protect Hannah.
And suddenly Damen understood something else.
The bruises on Hannah's wrist weren't random.
Someone had already gotten close enough to her.
Someone was testing how much she knew.
He looked at her.
“Where were you last Tuesday?”
Hannah frowned.
“At the clinic.”
“After work?”
“I went home.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Bennett suddenly looked at her.
“Did you stop anywhere?”
Hannah thought.
Then her face changed.
“I went to the old nursing school.”
“Why?”
“I found something in my mother's things.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
She reached into her bag.
Damen took it.
The envelope was yellow with age.
His eyes widened.
The handwriting belonged to Sophia.
He opened it.
Only one sentence was written inside.
If anything happens to me, the girl must never learn what is inside Room 214.
Hannah whispered:
“Room 214?”
Damen looked at her.
“Your nursing school.”
She nodded.
“But Room 214 was closed before I enrolled.”
May you like
Damen folded the letter.
“Then we're going there tonight.”