Chapter 12 - WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
For three seconds, I couldn't move.
The message glowed on my phone.
Your husband tried to save these families.
Then another thought struck me.
Victor wasn't only threatening the people inside Harbor House.
He was threatening Michael's memory.
He wanted me to believe that trying to help others always ended in tragedy.
I refused to give him that victory.
I called Reyes again.
No answer.
I tried the coordination office.
An officer answered immediately.
“Mrs. Carter, we know about the outage. Emergency teams are on-site.”
“Are the families out?”
“Evacuations are underway.”
I forced myself to breathe.
“Please tell Agent Reyes about the message.”
“We'll forward it to the investigative team.”
I sent the message through the secure contact Reyes had provided.
Then I sat beside Lila and waited.
It was the longest forty minutes of my life.
The old Harbor House recreation wing had been built decades earlier.
The electrical system was unreliable.
Some corridors had no windows.
And the rear entrance connected to the boarded-up storage annex.
I remembered Michael complaining about the building's poor maintenance.
He'd wanted the trust to replace the damaged doors, repair the lighting, and improve accessibility.
Victor had approved the projects on paper.
The money had supposedly been spent.
But the repairs had never happened.
Now families were trying to escape through a building that had been neglected because someone stole the money intended to make it safe.
The cruelty of that realization made me physically ill.
At last, Reyes called.
“We're getting people out,” she said.
I closed my eyes.
“Thank God.”
“Most of the families are accounted for. Firefighters and officers are checking the remaining rooms.”
“Was there a fire?”
“Smoke was reported near an interior storage area. We're investigating the cause.”
I gripped my chair.
“Did Victor do this?”
“We haven't established that yet.”
Her voice became quieter.
“But we're treating it as suspicious.”
I looked toward Lila.
“Can I help with the family list?”
Reyes hesitated.
“From the coordination office, yes.”
I immediately spread the attendance information across the table.
Lila began calling the families we hadn't yet reached.
We checked names against the evacuation records as they came in.
Some people had already left.
Others were waiting outside with blankets around their shoulders.
A few children had become separated from their parents in the confusion but were quickly reunited.
Each confirmation felt like another breath.
Then we reached the Hill family.
Marcus.
Jennifer.
Their two children.
Three names were accounted for.
One was missing.
Their nine-year-old son, Daniel.
Lila covered her mouth.
“Oh, no.”
I called Reyes.
“Daniel Hill isn't on the evacuation list.”
“We're checking.”
“His mother says he went back for his little sister's sweater.”
There was silence.
Then Reyes said:
“Stay on the line.”
I heard her relay the information to the rescue teams.
For the next several minutes, I listened to muffled voices and radio calls.
My hands shook so badly that I could barely hold the phone.
I thought about Sophie.
About how she'd run after Bruno that terrible night because she was afraid of losing him.
Children didn't always understand danger.
Sometimes they only understood love.
And Daniel had gone back because he didn't want his sister to be cold.
Finally, Reyes returned.
“They found him.”
I nearly collapsed.
“Is he okay?”
“He's conscious. The medical team is examining him.”
I looked at Lila.
“They found Daniel.”
She began crying.
We held each other.
For a moment, all the money, all the lies, and all the cruelty disappeared behind one simple fact.
A little boy was alive.
Later, Reyes told me how firefighters had found Daniel crouched behind a storage cabinet.
He'd become disoriented when the lights went out.
His father was waiting outside when they carried him through the doorway.
When Marcus saw his son, he fell to his knees.
Daniel still had his sister's sweater clutched in one hand.
I cried when I heard that.
Because the world could be cruel.
But it was also full of people who refused to stop loving each other.
That night, the families were moved to a safe temporary shelter.
Local organizations brought blankets, food, and transportation.
Several volunteers arrived with boxes of children's clothing.
Lila organized the distribution.
Nobody asked those families to prove they deserved kindness.
They simply helped.
And for the first time, I saw what Harbor House had always been supposed to represent.
Not a bank account.
Not a corporation.
A community.
But the danger wasn't over.
At 11:42 p.m., Reyes received security footage showing that Luca Moretti had been near the waterfront property shortly before the outage.
He wasn't supposed to be there.
Investigators also discovered that Victor's public appearance at the event had been canceled at the last minute.
He'd disappeared.
Dante called me shortly afterward.
His voice was low.
“Victor's getting desperate.”
“Good.”
“Elena—”
“No. Let him be desperate. Let him know what it feels like to lose control.”
Dante was silent.
Then he said:
“I gave Reyes the location of an old marina property Victor used for private meetings. Luca may be heading there.”
I looked out the window.
“Are you helping because you care about those families or because you're afraid you'll go to prison?”
He answered quietly.
“Both.”
I hadn't expected that.
For once, he didn't pretend his motives were pure.
“I hope you tell the truth about everything,” I said.
“I intend to.”
Before ending the call, he spoke again.
“Elena?”
“What?”
“Michael was a better man than I was.”
I looked toward Sophie's bedroom.
“Yes,” I whispered. “He was.”
Just after midnight, investigators reviewing Harbor House's surveillance recordings discovered something else.
Gabriel Rojas had gone to the property to help identify an old service entrance during the evacuation.
He'd assisted several people before returning toward the rear parking area.
Then a dark van pulled alongside him.
Two men stepped out.
Gabriel tried to move away.
But one man struck him.
The other forced him into the vehicle.
The camera captured the van driving toward the waterfront.
A clear image showed the man behind the wheel.
Luca Moretti.
Reyes called me immediately.
Her voice was grave.
“Elena, Gabriel's been taken.”
My heart dropped.
“Why?”
She paused.
“Because he's one of the few living witnesses who can connect Luca to Michael's murder.”
I looked at Michael's silver star key chain lying beside my phone.
Gabriel had spent three years hiding because he was afraid of dying.
Now he'd finally chosen to tell the truth.
And someone was trying to silence him again.
Then a message arrived from Gabriel's phone.
It contained a photograph of him sitting on the floor of a dark room.
His hands were restrained.
May you like
Beneath the photograph was a single sentence.
TELL DANTE TO COME ALONE, OR THE LAST MAN WHO SAW MICHAEL ALIVE DIES NEXT.
