Chapter 4 - The Phantom Queen
Two months later, the bitter Chicago winter gave way to the early thaws of spring.
Luca was desperate. Facing twenty years in federal prison, he used his one phone call to reach a corrupt private investigator who owed him a life debt. He demanded the investigator find Elena. Luca believed that if he could just get his hands on his newborn son, he could use the child to extort Elena into transferring the clean assets back to him to fund his legal defense.
The investigator tracked a massive medical expenditure to an ultra-exclusive, private mountain estate in Aspen, Colorado. The property was registered under a dummy corporation managed by Marcus.
Luca, having arranged a highly dangerous and expensive temporary release through a crooked bondsman, flew to Aspen in the dead of night. He bypassed the perimeter alarms, his heart pounding with vindictive triumph. He was going to take his son. He was going to make Elena pay for ruining him.
He kicked open the heavy oak doors of the master suite, a suppressed pistol gripped in his hand. "Elena!" he snarled into the darkness.
But the room was completely empty.
There was no crib. There were no baby clothes. There was only a single, glowing laptop sitting on a glass table in the center of the room.
Luca walked toward it cautiously. On the screen was a live video feed. Elena sat comfortably on a sun-drenched balcony overlooking the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean coast, thousands of miles away in Italy. In her arms, wrapped in a soft white blanket, was a perfectly healthy, sleeping baby boy.
"Hello, Luca," Elena said through the laptop speakers, her voice echoing in the dark Aspen room.
Luca gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles white. "Where are you?! Give me my son!"
"He is not your son. A father protects; a monster devours. You will never cast your shadow over him," Elena said softly, tracing the baby's cheek. "You always thought you were the smartest predator in the room. But did you really think I would hide in Aspen, using a bank account tied to my own lawyer?"
Luca’s breath hitched. He looked around the empty room, suddenly realizing how quiet the mountain estate was. Too quiet.
"You didn't track me, Luca," Elena smiled, a fiercely beautiful, victorious expression. "I left a trail of breadcrumbs so you would violate your bail conditions. Fleeing the state while awaiting federal trial is a mandatory revocation of all plea deals. Look out the window."
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Luca spun around and pulled back the heavy curtains. The driveway of the Aspen estate was flashing with the red and blue lights of US Marshals and local SWAT teams.
"Goodbye, Luca," Elena whispered. The laptop screen went black.
