Chapter 6 - The Church at Midnight
I called Mercer.
He answered immediately.
“Don’t go to the church.”
“You knew Marcus was alive.”
Silence.
“Didn’t you?”
“Elena—”
“You looked me in the face while I was holding a six-week-old baby and told me her father was dead.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“Everyone keeps saying that after ruining my life.”
Marcus looked away.
Mercer sighed.
“Put Callaway’s man on.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No more men deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
I had never sounded like that before.
Something inside me had changed.
Maybe it happened when Reed found Ava.
Maybe when Marcus returned from the dead.
Maybe when someone threatened my daughter for the third time in one night.
I was done being protected with lies.
“Tell me what Victor wants.”
Mercer hesitated.
“The second key.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You might.”
“How?”
“Marcus’s mother gave it to you.”
I remembered Evelyn.
Coffee.
Pancakes.
Her warm smile.
One Tuesday she had given me a little music box.
A cheap wooden thing.
She said she was moving and didn’t want it.
I kept it for years.
Then when Ava was born, I put it on a shelf above her crib.
My breath caught.
“The music box.”
Marcus stared.
“What?”
“Your mother gave me a music box.”
Mercer said, “Where is it?”
“My apartment.”
Everyone swore at once.
The apartment Victor almost certainly knew about.
Mercer continued.
“Do not go there.”
“Then what?”
“I’ll retrieve it.”
“How can I trust you?”
“You can’t.”
At least he learned.
“But if Victor gets the key, he can destroy enough people to own half the city.”
“What’s on the second copy?”
“Not Rainer’s crimes.”
Mercer paused.
“Victor’s.”
The room went silent.
So that was it.
Marcus had accidentally collected evidence on both sides.
Rainer.
Victor.
Corrupt police.
Politicians.
Judges.
Everyone.
The drive was not insurance.
It was a bomb.
“Why did Evelyn hide the key with me?”
Mercer said, “Because you were nobody.”
I almost laughed.
“Thanks.”
“That’s why you were safe. No criminal record. No connections. No family in Chicago. Nobody would look at a waitress.”
Until they did.
Ava slept beside me.
I touched her tiny hand.
“What happens if we expose everything?”
Mercer went quiet.
“People fall.”
“Good.”
“Elena, you don’t understand.”
“No. I understand perfectly.”
For eight months, dangerous men had hidden behind the excuse that telling me the truth would put me at risk.
The lies put me at risk anyway.
I looked at Marcus.
“You coming?”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Mercer shouted through the phone.
“Absolutely not.”
I ended the call.
Adrian stared at me.
“You’re terrifying.”
“Drive.”
We reached my building twenty minutes later.
Adrian called two men he trusted.
Not Victor’s people.
Reed’s.
They cleared the hallway.
My apartment door had been forced open.
Inside, everything was destroyed.
Drawers dumped.
Mattress cut.
Cabinets open.
Ava’s crib overturned.
I stopped in the doorway.
My tiny home.
My entire life.
Destroyed because men needed something.
Marcus put a hand on my shoulder.
I moved away.
“The music box.”
The shelf was empty.
My chest sank.
“They got it.”
“Maybe.”
I stared.
Then remembered the night Ava had learned to pull herself up.
I moved the box after she nearly grabbed it.
Not shelf.
Closet.
Top rack.
Inside a shoe box.
I ran.
The shoe box remained.
Inside.
Music box.
I almost cried.
Marcus took it.
“How does it open?”
“It already opens.”
He lifted the lid.
A tiny ballerina turned.
Nothing.
We examined it.
Then I noticed something.
Evelyn had once told me, “Never wind it more than seven times.”
I thought she was protecting the mechanism.
I turned the key seven times.
Click.
A hidden bottom released.
Inside was a brass key.
And a piece of paper.
Marcus unfolded it.
A bank name.
Safe deposit box number.
Chicago Federal Trust.
Adrian looked at the clock.
11:18.
Forty-two minutes.
“We can’t access a bank vault at midnight.”
Mercer called again.
I answered.
“You’re at the apartment.”
“Yes.”
He cursed.
“We found the key.”
Silence.
“Meet me behind Chicago Federal.”
We drove.
Mercer waited.
He looked older than I remembered.
Tired.
He handed me an access card.
“Federal seizure authorization.”
“Fake?”
“Real enough.”
The night manager let us inside.
The safe deposit box was narrow.
Inside was another drive.
And a letter.
For Elena.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Evelyn’s handwriting.
Dear Elena,
If you are reading this, my son failed to leave a world he never should have entered.
I knew Marcus loved you before he admitted it.
That was why I chose you.
Not because you were unimportant.
Because you were good.
Good people are invisible to men who only measure power.
If Ava exists when you read this, protect her by refusing to become what frightened you.
Do not use this information for revenge.
Use it to end what should never have begun.
I cried quietly.
Marcus turned away.
Mercer plugged in the drive.
Files appeared.
Victor.
Rainer.
Police.
Judges.
Bank transfers.
Murders.
Everything.
Mercer looked stunned.
“This could dismantle both organizations.”
Adrian said, “Including Reed’s?”
Mercer looked at him.
“Parts.”
My heart tightened.
“What about Reed?”
“Depends what he knew.”
I thought about him standing in the doorway of the storage room.
The way he immediately protected Ava.
The way he told me he was dangerous rather than pretending otherwise.
“What happens if we send this to federal investigators?”
Mercer nodded.
“Then nobody can bury it locally.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Do it.”
He hesitated.
“Elena.”
“Do it.”
Mercer uploaded copies to three separate federal addresses.
Then journalists.
Then an attorney.
Insurance.
Once released, the information could not disappear.
Victor’s power ended the moment those files arrived.
Maybe he didn’t know yet.
We still had one problem.
Reed.
11:46.
Fourteen minutes.
We drove to St. Gabriel’s.
Mercer called federal agents.
Adrian called Reed’s loyal men.
Marcus wanted me to stay in the car.
I stared at him.
“You died once to make decisions for me. Don’t do it again.”
He nodded.
Fair.
The church was dark except for candlelight near the altar.
Victor stood there.
Reed was tied to a chair.
Blood on his shirt.
Alive.
Victor saw me.
Then Ava.
I had left Ava with Margaret and two federal agents before coming.
Victor’s smile vanished.
“Where is the child?”
“Safe.”
“You disobeyed me.”
“Yes.”
He raised a gun.
Reed said, “She does that.”
Even injured, he almost sounded amused.
I held up the brass key.
Victor’s eyes locked onto it.
“This?”
He stepped closer.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“I know exactly.”
His phone vibrated.
Then again.
Again.
Victor frowned.
He looked.
His face changed.
The files were out.
Sirens sounded outside.
He stared at me.
“What did you do?”
“I stopped being afraid of men like you.”
Rage transformed him.
He raised the gun toward me.
Reed launched himself sideways, chair and all.
The shot exploded.
Glass shattered.
Adrian fired.
Victor fell.
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Reed lay motionless on the church floor.
Blood spread beneath him.
I ran.
“Reed!”
His eyes were closed.
“Reed!”
Mercer cut the ropes.
I pressed my hand against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes opened slightly.
“Elena.”
“I’m here.”
“Baby?”
“Safe.”
He exhaled.
“Good.”
His eyes closed again.
“No.”
Paramedics rushed inside.
They pulled me back.
I fought them.
Marcus held my shoulders.
The stretcher disappeared through the church doors.
I followed.
At the hospital, hours passed.
Marcus sat across from me.
We said almost nothing.
At 5:37 in the morning, a surgeon entered.
“Family of Reed Callaway?”
I stood.
May you like
The surgeon removed his mask.
And his expression told me nothing.
