Chapter 4 - The Empty Garden
Two nights later, Enzo found an old surveillance recording from a service station near the bridge.
Isabelle’s car had never simply plunged into the river.
A white medical transport van had stopped her first.
Two men removed Isabelle.
A third drove her empty car toward the bridge and pushed it over.
Damian watched the footage twice.
“She survived.”
“Three years ago,” Enzo warned.
“She survived that night.”
For Damian, that was enough.
The ownership trail behind the medical van led to the same shell network Victor had used.
One property stood out.
An isolated concrete building on wooded land ninety miles southwest of Chicago.
Victor’s company had purchased it three months before Isabelle disappeared.
Damian had Enzo watch it from a distance.
Then Victor visited Greystone on Thursday afternoon.
As he had every Thursday for twenty years.
He drank tea.
He discussed business.
He smiled like a trusted uncle.
Damian wanted to break his neck across the table.
Instead he poured Victor another cup.
“You look tired,” Victor said.
“Haven’t been sleeping.”
“You never did.”
Victor smiled.
Then Lily entered the hallway.
Her hair was damp from a bath.
She was not wearing her headband.
Victor saw the white streak.
His face changed for less than two seconds.
But Damian saw everything.
Shock.
Recognition.
Calculation.
Victor crouched.
“What’s your name, little one?”
“Lily.”
Victor smiled.
“What unusual hair you have.”
“Me and Mister match.”
Damian’s blood turned cold.
Victor looked at him.
“Do you?”
Then he left.
When the front doors closed, Damian turned to Enzo.
“He knows.”
They prepared to move against Victor the next morning.
Victor moved first.
On Saturday afternoon, Damian received information about a rival shipment outside the city.
The information was real enough to force him to investigate personally.
Twenty minutes after Damian’s car left Greystone, the estate’s rear cameras went dark.
Elena was beside the koi pond with Lily.
Mr. Bun lay in Lily’s lap.
Three men came over the garden wall.
Elena saw them.
She grabbed Lily and turned her own body between the child and the attackers.
One man struck Elena from behind.
She fell.
Lily screamed.
“Mister!”
The men carried her over the wall.
Her headband landed on the stone path.
Mr. Bun dropped beside it.
Damian returned less than an hour later.
The moment he saw the open garden gate, he ran.
He found Elena unconscious but alive.
Then he saw Lily’s headband.
He picked up the stuffed rabbit.
His hands began shaking.
Enzo came toward him.
“Sir—”
“Where is she?”
“We’re tracking the vehicle.”
“Where?”
“We believe Victor took her to the wooded property.”
Damian looked at the little rabbit in his hand.
Something inside him became terribly calm.
“Call the federal task force.”
Enzo stared at him.
For years, federal investigators had tried unsuccessfully to dismantle parts of Damian’s organization.
“Sir?”
“Call them.”
“You understand what that could mean.”
“Yes.”
“They’ll want everything.”
“Give them everything.”
Enzo studied his face.
May you like
Damian looked toward the infirmary where Elena lay injured.
“I’m finished protecting an empire that cost me my wife and daughter.”
