Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM 417
Lorenzo didn't tell Chloe about the photograph immediately.
He showed it to Dr. Moretti, the hospital security supervisor, and the attorney Matteo had contacted.
Within minutes, the hospital restricted access to Chloe's floor.
Visitors were checked against an approved list.
Security reviewed camera footage.
And Chloe was moved to a different room under an alias.
When Lorenzo finally explained what had happened, she stared at him in disbelief.
“He found me?”
“We don't know who took the picture.”
“But Aaron knows people here.”
“Yes.”
She pulled the blanket around herself.
“Then nowhere is safe.”
Lorenzo sat in the chair across from her.
“I won't promise you something I can't guarantee.”
Chloe looked up.
“What can you promise?”
“That we won't ignore the threat.”
She studied him.
It was an unfamiliar kind of reassurance.
Aaron had always promised complete protection.
Then used that promise as an excuse to control her.
Lorenzo made no such claim.
A hospital advocate named Dana Price arrived that afternoon.
She explained emergency protective orders, confidential shelters, and options for reporting abuse outside Aaron's immediate chain of command.
Chloe agreed to speak with an investigator from the state attorney general's office.
But she insisted Sarah remain nearby.
“I don't want to be alone with another stranger asking questions,” she said.
Dana nodded.
“That's reasonable.”
For the first time in years, Chloe's preferences were treated as something that mattered.
Meanwhile, Matteo examined the hospital's surveillance footage with security personnel.
At 9:42 a.m., a woman wearing a nurse's jacket entered the hallway.
She carried a clipboard and kept her face lowered.
At 9:47, she left.
No nurse matching her description had been assigned to Chloe's room.
Matteo enlarged the image.
A silver bracelet glinted on the woman's wrist.
He recognized it.
Not because the bracelet was expensive.
Because it carried a distinctive blue stone shaped like a teardrop.
He had seen the same bracelet in a photograph on Gabriel Marchesi's desk.
The woman was Elena Voss.
Gabriel's personal assistant.
Matteo called Lorenzo.
“We have a problem.”
Lorenzo stepped into the corridor.
“Tell me.”
“Elena Voss was in the hospital.”
“Are you certain?”
“Almost.”
“Find out why.”
Matteo hesitated.
“Boss, Gabriel's been asking about you all morning.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
His younger brother had always been reckless.
But betrayal was different.
Gabriel had grown up in the same house.
They had eaten at the same table.
They had buried their father together.
And after Sofia disappeared, Lorenzo had spent years trying to keep their remaining family intact.
Now Gabriel might be conspiring with a corrupt detective to murder him.
“Don't confront him,” Lorenzo said.
“Understood.”
“And Matteo?”
“Yes?”
“Find out whether Elena had anything to do with Sofia.”
The silence on the other end lasted several seconds.
Then Matteo answered.
“I'll look.”
That evening, Chloe met the investigator.
Her name was Special Agent Naomi Carter.
She worked with a joint state-federal corruption task force.
Carter listened without interrupting as Chloe described Aaron's behavior.
The isolation.
The threats.
The way he controlled her phone and money.
The physical assaults.
Then Chloe told her about the recording.
Carter leaned forward.
“Do you still have access to it?”
“I hid the device in my coat.”
“Does Aaron know?”
“I don't think so.”
Carter wrote something down.
“We'll discuss lawful ways to recover it.”
Chloe swallowed.
“Will you arrest him?”
“I can't promise an outcome. But we can investigate.”
Chloe looked at her hands.
“What if he says I'm lying?”
“Then we examine the evidence.”
The answer was ordinary.
Almost boring.
And somehow, that made Chloe want to cry.
After Carter left, Chloe asked Sarah to sit beside her.
“Do you think I'm making a mistake?”
Sarah looked shocked.
“By telling the truth?”
“By involving Lorenzo.”
Sarah hesitated.
“He's dangerous, Chloe.”
“I know.”
“But he didn't have to help you.”
“No.”
Sarah squeezed her hand.
“Just don't confuse being rescued with being loved.”
Chloe looked at her.
Sarah continued gently.
“You've spent two years with a man who made every decision for you. Don't trade one kind of control for another.”
Chloe nodded.
She knew Sarah was right.
But when Lorenzo entered later carrying a bag of soup from a restaurant across the street, she felt something she hadn't expected.
Relief.
He stopped at the doorway.
“Am I interrupting?”
Sarah stood.
“No. I was just leaving.”
After Sarah disappeared into the hallway, Lorenzo placed the soup on the table.
“Chicken noodle.”
Chloe smiled faintly.
“Do you always bring food to women you've just met?”
“Only the ones who refuse hospital gelatin.”
She laughed.
The sound surprised them both.
Lorenzo pulled up a chair.
“Matteo found something.”
Chloe stiffened.
“About Aaron?”
“About the woman who photographed you.”
He showed her a still image from the security camera.
Chloe stared.
Her smile disappeared.
“I know her.”
Lorenzo leaned forward.
“Who is she?”
Chloe's voice became a whisper.
“She came to Aaron's apartment last month.”
“What did she want?”
“I don't know. They argued in his office.”
“About what?”
Chloe closed her eyes.
She remembered the woman's angry voice.
You promised the girl would never be found.
Her eyes opened.
“Lorenzo.”
He waited.
“I think she knows what happened to your sister.”
Lorenzo went still.
Chloe reached toward him.
But before she could speak, her phone lit up.
A message from Aaron.
I KNOW WHAT YOU TOOK.
May you like
Then another.
AND I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO SOFIA MARCHESI.
