Page 86 of This Moment

I looked down at my hands. I was rubbing them together. “That’s true. We haven’t spoken to each other ever since I left Boston, but he has heard from me. I sent him a letter via the guy who helped me change my identity.”

“What did the letter say?” Lucas asked.

I replied, “That I was going to be disappearing for a while and that he wouldn’t hear from me. That if anyone asked, for him to say we hadn’t spoken in a number of months. The guy told me to keep everything as close to the truth as possible.”

Lucas nodded. “Okay, good.”

“Is my brother safe?”

“I think so,” Lucas stated. “It doesn’t appear that Michael thinks he is lying. And he probably thinks you wouldn’t go to your brother’s because you wouldn’t want to put him in any danger.”

All I could do was nod.

“Are you ready to tell me what caused you to change your identity?”

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. “Michael and I had been dating off and on, more off than on. He invited me to a gala that his bank was having at a hotel in Boston.”

“What date was this?” Lucas asked as he started to write on a notepad. “Also, do you mind if I record this conversation?”

He took a recording device out and showed me it.

“No, I don’t mind.”

Smiling, Lucas turned it on. His smile vanished and he was back to business. “What date was this gala that Michael Bellucci invited you to?”

“It was, um, on December 13. I remember because I joked with my roommate, Lauryn, that it was Friday the thirteenth and nothing good ever happens on that day.”

“Can you walk me through that night?”

“Yes,” I replied as I slid my hands under my legs to keep them from shaking. “I told Michael I would meet him at the hotel because I had been distancing myself from him. I couldn’t find him for the first twenty minutes.” I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself back at the gala as I kept talking. “Once he found me, we mingled, he introduced me to some people he worked with and…”

My eyes flew up.

“What is it?” Lucas asked as Kian sat down next to me.

“The guy Michael had the gun on. He introduced me to him. I hadn’t remembered until just now. At least, I think it’s him.”

“Who was it?” Lucas asked.

“His name was Andrew Wagner, and he was the bank’s chief operating officer.”

Mark let out a gruff laugh. “The second.”

Lucas looked at Mark and then at me. “The second?”

“When Michael had the gun pointed at him and his father was pressuring him to shoot, he mentioned that the man had betrayed and stolen from them, and that he had been their second.”

Lucas leaned back in his chair. “Andrew Wagner died in a house fire.”

“When?” Mark, Kian, and I all asked in unison.

Lucas looked at me. “December 14. It was all over the news in Boston.”

My hand came up to my mouth as I sucked in a breath.

“Was it confirmed with DNA?” Mark asked.

Lucas pulled out his phone and hit a number. “Andrew Wagner, was his death confirmed with DNA? Get your handson the autopsy and get back to me if you find anything unusual.”

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