Chapter 4 - The Chapel of Buried Names
St. Agnes Hospital had been closed for renovation three years earlier, but its old chapel remained untouched because the city considered it a historic landmark.
Lucian arranged for Emma, Isabella, Marco, and four trusted guards to enter through a maintenance tunnel shortly before dawn. He wanted Emma to remain at the safe house. She refused.
“My brother hid the ledger for me,” she said. “I’m not waiting somewhere else while your men recover it.”
“You may be walking into a trap.”
“I woke in your bed, discovered my family was murdered, survived poison gas, and watched you get shot. I think we passed the point where caution feels useful.”
Lucian looked as though he wanted to argue, but Isabella intervened.
“She must come. Daniel designed the hiding place so only Emma could open it.”
They entered the hospital beneath a moonless sky.
Dust covered the corridors. Plastic sheets hung from the ceiling, shifting whenever cold air moved through broken windows. Old patient signs remained on the walls.
Emma passed the psychiatric wing where her mother had died.
She stopped outside Room 307.
The door stood open.
Inside was a narrow bed with leather restraint straps.
Emma’s breath caught.
Lucian stood behind her. “We can come back.”
“No. I need to see it.”
She entered.
Someone had written words beneath the peeling wallpaper.
EMMA, TRUST THE MAN WHO DOES NOT LIE ABOUT BEING A MONSTER.
Emma touched the letters.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Lucian read them over her shoulder.
“She knew about you,” Emma whispered.
“Or knew you would meet someone like me.”
“She could have meant Daniel.”
“No. Daniel lied to protect you. So did Isabella. So did your mother.” Lucian’s expression was grim. “I suspect she meant me.”
Emma turned. “Are you a monster?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“What have you done?”
“Things that would make you leave if I described them.”
“Then why tell me the truth?”
“Because someone has lied to you every day of your life. I will not become another.”
Emma looked again at her mother’s message.
Trust the man who does not lie about being a monster.
She did not know whether the words comforted or terrified her.
The chapel stood at the end of a narrow passage. Its stained-glass windows had been boarded from outside, leaving the room in blue-gray darkness. Dust covered rows of wooden pews.
At the altar rose a marble statue of Saint Michael, one foot pressing down upon a serpent.
“The snake sleeps beneath the saint,” Emma said.
Isabella pointed toward the angel’s back. “No shadow.”
A narrow beam of morning light slipped through a crack in the boards. The statue cast a shadow across the altar, but its wings did not. They were made from translucent stone.
Emma approached the serpent.
A circular space had been carved into one of its eyes.
She inserted Isabella’s necklace.
The base of the statue opened.
Inside was a leather ledger, a packet of photographs, and several cassette tapes.
Emma lifted the ledger.
Applause echoed from the chapel entrance.
Adrian Moretti stepped from the shadows.
He was in his late sixties, elegantly dressed, silver-haired, and smiling as though they were attending a charity dinner. Twenty armed men surrounded him.
“Beautiful,” Adrian said. “Daniel always did enjoy dramatic hiding places.”
Lucian moved in front of Emma.
“You attacked my home.”
“You stole what belonged to the family.”
“You murdered my mother’s allies.”
Adrian’s smile thinned when Isabella stepped into view.
“My dear sister-in-law. You have been inconveniently difficult to kill.”
Isabella raised her chin. “You were always a coward.”
Adrian laughed. “And yet I am alive.”
Marco’s guards raised their weapons, but they were badly outnumbered.
Adrian held out his hand. “Give me the ledger, Emma.”
“No.”
“You have no idea what is written inside.”
“My brother died for it.”
“Your brother died because he believed decency could defeat power.”
“And my mother?”
“Your mother could not stop talking.”
Emma’s grip tightened.
Lucian’s voice dropped. “You admit killing her?”
“I admit nothing. But she was a fragile woman taking dangerous medication.”
Emma wanted to lunge at him. Lucian’s hand caught hers behind his back, holding her in place.
Adrian looked amused. “How touching. The orphan and the aging prince.”
Lucian’s expression did not change, but Emma felt his fingers tighten.
“Let them leave,” he said. “I will stay.”
“Lucian, no,” Isabella whispered.
Adrian tilted his head. “You would sacrifice yourself for a maid?”
“She is under my protection.”
“She slept in your bed once and now you imagine yourself redeemed?”
Emma saw Lucian’s jaw tense.
Adrian knew.
That meant someone inside the house had reported the incident before Victor’s attack.
There was still a traitor among Lucian’s people.
Adrian motioned toward the ledger. “Last chance.”
Emma opened it.
The pages contained dates, shipment numbers, names of officials, and payments made over nearly twenty years. Judges. Police commissioners. Senators. Business owners.
At the bottom of one page was Adrian’s signature beside an order marked CARTER FAMILY—FINAL DISPOSITION.
Emma’s fear disappeared.
“You signed their death orders.”
Adrian sighed. “Your brother was warned.”
Lucian drew his gun and fired.
The chapel erupted.
Emma dropped behind the altar as bullets tore into the marble. Isabella crawled beside her while Marco’s men returned fire. Lucian moved through the pews with terrifying precision, using the columns for cover.
One of Adrian’s men reached the altar.
Emma struck him with a brass candleholder. He fell, and Isabella took his gun.
“I learned to shoot before Lucian was born,” she said.
They moved toward the side door.
Adrian appeared before them, gun raised.
“Give me the ledger.”
Emma held it behind her.
Adrian aimed at Isabella.
Lucian stepped from behind a column. “Put it down.”
Adrian swung his weapon toward him.
Emma threw the ledger across the chapel.
Every eye followed it.
Isabella fired.
The bullet struck Adrian’s hand, sending his gun spinning away.
Lucian tackled him against the pews.
For a moment, nephew and uncle fought with brutal silence. Adrian struck Lucian’s wounded shoulder. Lucian nearly collapsed, but Emma grabbed Adrian’s discarded weapon and aimed it at him.
“Stop.”
Adrian looked at her and smiled.
“You won’t shoot me. Daniel raised you to believe life is sacred.”
“He also taught me to protect people.”
Adrian lunged.
Emma fired.
The bullet struck his leg.
He fell screaming.
Lucian stared at her.
“So much for not shooting,” Adrian gasped.
“I said protect people,” Emma replied. “I didn’t say I had to miss.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Adrian laughed despite the pain. “You think the police will arrest me? Half the department is in that ledger.”
Marco appeared with blood on his sleeve. “That’s why I called federal agents.”
Adrian’s smile vanished.
Within minutes, the chapel filled with federal officers led by Special Agent Rachel Hayes, whose name did not appear anywhere in the ledger.
Adrian was handcuffed and taken away.
Emma should have felt victorious.
Instead, when Agent Hayes examined the ledger, her face changed.
“This isn’t complete,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Emma asked.
“Several pages have been removed. The entries stop the year Daniel died.”
Isabella looked confused. “The evidence should include everything.”
Hayes turned toward Lucian. “Someone took the final section before you arrived.”
Lucian looked toward Marco.
Marco’s expression hardened. “The chapel was sealed.”
“Not completely,” Hayes said. “Someone entered through the hospital before your team.”
Emma remembered her mother’s room.
The message had been uncovered recently. Dust had not settled inside the carved letters.
Someone had wanted her to see it.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
YOU FOUND THE LEDGER. NOW FIND THE MAN WHO BURNED YOUR BROTHER ALIVE.
Below it was a photograph taken inside the chapel only moments earlier.
The image showed Lucian standing beside the altar.
A red circle surrounded his face.
Emma looked up.
A single thought chilled her more than the armed ambush.
May you like
Adrian might have ordered the fire.
But someone claimed Lucian had been there.
