Chapter 5 - Room 814
Josephine turned.
Evelyn Pierce stood ten feet away.
A pistol hung loosely in her hand.
Her face was wet with tears.
“Put it down,” Josephine said.
Evelyn looked at Robert.
“You weren’t supposed to tell her.”
Dante emerged from the fog behind Evelyn.
“Drop the weapon.”
Evelyn obeyed immediately.
She was not there to kill Josephine.
She had come to surrender.
Robert collapsed from blood loss.
Dante’s men rushed him to a vehicle.
Josephine grabbed Evelyn.
“What did he mean?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“You weren’t born Josephine Miller.”
Everything became silent.
Even the gunfire had stopped.
“My name.”
“Josephine was your name. Miller wasn’t.”
“What was it?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Moretti.”
Dante went completely still.
Josephine turned toward him.
“No.”
Evelyn continued.
“Your father was Alessandro Moretti’s younger brother, Michael.”
Dante stared at Josephine.
“My uncle?”
Josephine backed away.
“No.”
“Michael left the family,” Evelyn said. “He became an accountant for the state. He married your mother, Sarah. When they discovered Harbor, Victor ordered them killed.”
Josephine looked at Dante.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Are we related?”
Dante answered quietly.
“Second cousins.”
Josephine sat down on the pier.
This was becoming absurd.
Husband alive.
Husband had false identity.
Dead mafia patriarch alive.
Her own parents murdered.
She herself had been legally declared dead as a child.
At some point reality had to stop producing trapdoors.
Evelyn explained.
After Josephine’s parents were murdered, Robert helped create a new identity for her.
He used Harbor.
That was why his name appeared in its records.
“He saved me?”
“Yes.”
“But he worked with Victor.”
“He pretended to.”
“For twenty-two years?”
“He was waiting for evidence strong enough to destroy the network.”
Josephine thought of Robert bleeding.
Maybe Joseph had been right.
Trust evidence.
Not grief.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because if Victor knew you remembered anything, he would kill you too.”
Josephine looked at the memory card Robert had given her.
“St. Catherine’s?”
Evelyn nodded.
“A church on the South Side. Your mother hid evidence there.”
Dante checked his phone.
“We have another problem.”
Josephine looked up.
“Joseph?”
“No.”
He showed her an alert.
A fire.
Hotel Lexington.
Room 814.
They raced back.
The building was already surrounded by firefighters.
Smoke poured from basement vents.
Someone had destroyed Joseph’s safe room.
“Victor is erasing evidence,” Dante said.
Josephine clutched the memory card.
“Then we stop chasing what he wants us to chase.”
Dante looked at her.
“St. Catherine’s.”
They reached the church at sunset.
The building was nearly empty.
An elderly priest named Father Brennan recognized Josephine immediately.
Or rather—
He recognized her mother.
“You have Sarah’s eyes.”
Josephine nearly cried.
Father Brennan led them beneath the church.
An old records room.
One wall contained hundreds of small drawers.
“Your mother left instructions.”
“For me?”
“For Robert.”
“When?”
“Twenty-two years ago.”
He opened drawer 214.
Inside was a metal box.
The memory card unlocked a digital compartment.
A video appeared on an old laptop.
Sarah Moretti.
Josephine’s mother.
Young.
Alive.
She looked directly at the camera.
“If my daughter sees this, then Robert kept his promise.”
Josephine covered her mouth.
Her mother continued.
“Harbor began as a way to protect witnesses from criminal families. Alessandro Moretti financed it secretly to help people escape men like Victor Hale.”
Dante frowned.
“My father built it?”
Sarah nodded from the past.
“But Victor corrupted it. He began selling identities to criminals. When Alessandro tried to shut it down, Victor threatened his sons.”
Dante whispered, “Sons?”
Sarah continued.
“Dante knows nothing. Keep him that way.”
Dante stared.
Josephine looked at him.
His entire history was changing too.
Sarah explained that Victor had infiltrated Harbor, blackmailed officials, and staged deaths.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Jonathan Hale.
Joseph.
Sarah had known Joseph as a boy.
She helped Robert remove him from Victor’s control.
“Our families were connected before we were born,” Josephine whispered.
Dante nodded.
The video continued.
“If Victor discovers this recording, he will come after Josephine. But there is one person he fears.”
Sarah paused.
“Alessandro Moretti.”
Josephine and Dante exchanged glances.
Alessandro was alive.
Maybe that had never been Victor’s secret.
Maybe it had been the weapon against him.
The video ended with coordinates.
A house outside Chicago.
Dante recognized them.
“Our family estate.”
“The house from Joseph’s video.”
“Yes.”
Josephine stood.
“That’s where they’re holding him.”
“Probably.”
“We go tonight.”
Dante looked toward the church exit.
“No.”
“Don’t start.”
“My father may be alive. Victor has Joseph. We don’t know who controls whom.”
“We know Joseph is there.”
“We know a video was filmed there.”
“That’s enough.”
Dante stared at her for a long moment.
“You really are a Moretti.”
Josephine almost smiled.
“Apparently.”
They prepared carefully.
Dante called only two men he trusted.
No large team.
No police.
The Harbor files proved too many officials were compromised.
At midnight, they reached the estate.
A sprawling stone mansion surrounded by woods.
No lights.
No visible guards.
Too easy.
They entered through a service tunnel Dante remembered from childhood.
Inside, they found fresh footprints.
Voices.
Dante led Josephine toward the black door from the video.
He stopped outside.
“This was my father’s study.”
Josephine placed her hand on the knob.
Dante caught her wrist.
“If he’s in there—”
“He’s your father.”
“He was.”
Josephine understood.
The dead version of someone can be easier to love than the living truth.
She opened the door.
The study was empty.
One lamp burned.
On the desk sat Joseph’s wedding ring.
The one Daniel had delivered.
Another ring lay beside it.
Dante picked it up.
His father’s.
A hidden speaker crackled.
Alessandro’s voice filled the room.
“You both came.”
Dante stepped toward the speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
A wall panel opened.
Stairs descended underground.
Josephine heard someone coughing below.
Joseph.
She knew that cough.
She ran.
Dante followed.
At the bottom stood another black door.
Josephine reached for it.
From the other side came her husband’s voice.
“Josie, don’t open it.”
She froze.
Then a second voice spoke behind the door.
Victor Hale.
“Go ahead, Josephine.”
May you like
A lock clicked.
The door began opening from the inside.
