Chapter 4
I stopped pretending I could wait for Hannah to volunteer the truth.
My investigator called two days later, voice tight.
“Dominic, I found the resignation reason from Lenox Hill. It’s connected to a malpractice inquiry six years ago. A doctor there treated a pediatric patient with unexplained injuries. He reported it. Three weeks later, he was found dead in a parking garage. Ruled a robbery gone wrong.”
My stomach dropped.
“The doctor’s name.”
“Dr. Elliot Mercer.”
Hannah’s brother.
“The patient he reported,” I said slowly, already knowing the answer would gut me. “Whose case was it?”
“Registered under a false name at the time. But cross-referencing hospital logs and old surveillance… the child was brought in by an associate of Marco Castellano. Your rival. The injuries were consistent with punishment for a debt her father owed.”
I sat frozen.
“Dominic,” my investigator continued carefully, “Elliot Mercer reported abuse connected to Castellano’s network. He was killed for it. Hannah left medicine entirely after her brother’s death. She’s spent six years staying invisible.”
“Then why is she in my house?”
“That’s the part I can’t explain with facts. Only theory.”
I found her in the kitchen that night, drying dishes with the same careful precision she used with Claire’s steps.
“Your brother,” I said quietly. “Elliot Mercer.”
The plate slipped slightly in her hands before she caught it.
“How long have you known?”
“Since tonight.”
She set the dish towel down, her shoulders squared like someone bracing for impact.
“He reported what your rival’s people did to a child,” she said, voice steady but raw underneath. “Three weeks later, they killed him and called it a robbery. I spent six years watching that man’s network operate untouched while my brother’s murder gathered dust in a cold case file.”
“Hannah—”
“I didn’t come here for revenge, if that’s what you’re thinking. I came here because I saw the household listing, saw your daughter’s name attached to a rehabilitation need, and I told myself I could finally help a child instead of failing to save one.”
“You knew who I was.”
“Everyone in this city knows who you are, Mr. Reyes.”
“You knew what my world did to your brother.”
Her eyes finally met mine, fierce and unguarded for the first time since I’d met her.
“Yes. And I came anyway. Because Claire is not her father’s enemies. She’s a little girl who deserved someone in her corner who wasn’t keeping score.”
The silence between us stretched long and heavy.
“Marco Castellano’s son is the one targeting my family now,” I finally said. “The same network that killed your brother.”
Hannah’s jaw tightened.
“Then we have the same enemy, whether either of us wanted that or not.”
I looked at this woman who had walked willingly into the house of a man connected to her brother’s death, simply to help a child walk again.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“Because the moment you knew, you’d either push me out to protect me, or pull me deeper into your world to use me. I didn’t want either. I wanted to do my work and let Claire have her progress without becoming part of your war.”
“You’re already part of it, Hannah. The moment Vincent Castellano’s men started watching this house.”
She exhaled slowly, some of the anger draining into something closer to resolve.
“Then let’s make sure he regrets it.”
