The Child Who Recognized the Wolf Tattoo

CHAPTER 4 - WHAT HIS FATHER TOOK

Adrian wanted to call the police.

Elena wanted to run to the address that second.

Neither got what they wanted.

Instead they drove to the one place both roads seemed to lead: Richard Marlowe's townhouse on the Upper East Side.

Adrian had not been inside in nearly a year. Elena had never stood in a place where everything looked so controlled, so polished, so cold.

Richard Marlowe was in his seventies now, silver-haired and elegant, seated in a library lined with books nobody seemed to read.

When he saw the wolf sketch in Elena's hand, all the color left his face.

That was enough.

"You knew," Elena said.

Richard set down his teacup with a faint clink. "I knew Luca was in danger."

Adrian stared at him. "From what?"

His father looked suddenly old. "From me."

Silence fell hard.

Thirteen years ago, Luca had discovered that one of the company's freight routes was being used by a criminal network. Nothing dramatic, nothing cinematic, just real corruption buried in invoices, containers, men paid to look away. Richard had tried to report it quietly. Instead, he was threatened with Luca's life.

"So you sent him away?" Adrian asked.

"I hid him," Richard said. "In Europe. Under another name."

Elena gripped the back of a chair. "And you let me believe he was dead."

Richard's eyes filled, but Elena felt no comfort in that. "Luca begged me not to tell you. He said if they knew about you, they would use you. Then the body was found. Clothes switched. Ring planted. My wife broke apart. I... I let the lie become permanent."

Adrian's voice was raw now. "You let me mourn my brother while he was alive."

"I was trying to keep him alive."

Elena thought of labor pains without Luca. Of Sofia's first fever. School forms with father's name left blank.

Years stolen by fear and a rich man's decision.

Richard opened a drawer and removed a folder. Inside were bank transfers, old passport copies, and one recent medical record.

Adrian read it first and looked as if the ground had shifted under him.

Elena snatched the paper.

Neurological clinic. Trieste.

Patient: Luca Marlowe.

Diagnosis: early-onset Parkinson's disease.

Her breath caught.

Richard finally broke. "He sent the photo because his hands are failing. He wants to see you both before he can't draw anymore."

On top of the file lay a plane ticket already printed in Elena's name.

But there was only one seat left on the evening flight.