Chapter 8 - The Night Joseph Chose to Disappear
Dante tackled Sarah a second before the shot.
The bullet struck the garage.
Everyone scattered.
Joseph dragged Josephine behind the SUV.
Dante’s men returned fire toward the neighboring roof.
The sniper fled.
Seconds later they were moving.
Sarah sat beside Josephine in the SUV.
Neither knew what to say.
Twenty-two years.
Josephine had imagined her mother in dreams.
Sometimes she remembered her voice.
Sometimes only perfume.
Now Sarah was inches away.
Alive.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah whispered.
Josephine stared forward.
“That word has become very popular.”
“I deserve that.”
“Where were you?”
“In hiding.”
“For twenty-two years?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come for me?”
Sarah cried silently.
“Because Victor told me Robert would kill you if I appeared.”
Josephine almost laughed.
“And Robert told me you were dead.”
“He believed I was.”
“So everyone was protecting everyone by lying.”
Sarah wiped her eyes.
“Your father died that night. I escaped. Victor found me two days later and offered a choice. Disappear, or he would kill you.”
Josephine finally looked at her.
“You believed him.”
“I had just watched him kill Michael.”
That stopped her.
Sarah reached slowly toward Josephine’s hand.
Josephine let her touch it.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But contact.
Sarah knew the location where Victor had moved Evelyn.
An old courthouse annex.
More importantly, she knew why Victor needed Joseph.
Harbor’s deepest archive contained evidence linking Victor to decades of murders.
He had encrypted it using a genetic lock.
Victor’s DNA.
If he died, Joseph was the only child capable of opening it.
“That’s why he never killed me,” Joseph said.
Sarah nodded.
“He needs you.”
Josephine looked at her husband.
“That gives us leverage.”
Dante said, “It gives Victor a reason to keep him alive. Not freedom.”
They planned.
Joseph would appear to surrender.
Josephine hated it.
Joseph insisted.
“For once, let me choose the danger instead of choosing for you.”
That landed.
She nodded.
At dawn Joseph walked alone into the courthouse annex.
He wore a hidden transmitter.
Dante and Josephine listened from a van.
Victor’s men searched him.
Then led him inside.
Victor’s voice came over the transmitter.
“You look like your mother.”
Joseph answered, “You killed her.”
“She betrayed me.”
“You killed everyone who stopped fearing you.”
Victor laughed.
“And yet you’re here.”
“For Evelyn.”
“No. You’re here for Josephine.”
Silence.
Victor understood Joseph better than Joseph wanted.
Josephine listened.
Victor continued.
“You faked your death because you believed being dead would make her useless to me.”
“I was wrong.”
“You were sentimental.”
Joseph said, “Same thing, sometimes.”
Then another voice.
Evelyn.
“Joseph?”
Alive.
Josephine exhaled.
Victor instructed Joseph to unlock a portable archive.
Joseph complied partially.
Dante tracked the data signal.
They now knew the location of Victor’s central server.
But then Victor discovered the transmitter.
Static exploded.
Josephine heard a blow.
The connection died.
She stood.
“We go.”
Dante nodded.
They stormed the annex.
Short gunfight.
Victor had already escaped.
But Evelyn remained behind.
Alive.
Joseph was gone.
Again.
Josephine nearly broke.
Evelyn grabbed her.
“He chose this.”
“I’m tired of everyone choosing things that take him away.”
“He left you something.”
Evelyn gave her Joseph’s second phone.
A scheduled message had appeared.
Josie,
If Victor takes me, follow the account ending 0317.
Don’t follow me.
Follow the money.
Josephine opened the Harbor records.
Account 0317.
Transfers traced to a private medical research company on the lake.
She looked at Dante.
“That’s where he’s going.”
Sarah examined the address.
“No.”
“What?”
“That building isn’t medical.”
“What is it?”
Sarah’s face changed.
“It’s where Harbor began.”
They drove there.
A modern glass building near the water.
Inside, abandoned offices.
Basement access.
They found biometric doors.
Joseph’s blood had recently opened them.
Beyond lay a server complex.
Hundreds of drives.
Victor’s entire archive.
And Joseph, strapped to a biometric chair.
Victor stood beside him.
Alessandro Moretti stood across the room.
Dante raised his weapon.
“Father.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“I can end this.”
Victor laughed.
“You had twenty years.”
Alessandro held up a small detonator.
“The servers are rigged.”
Josephine understood.
Destroy Harbor.
Destroy all records.
Victor shouted, “You destroy that evidence, every victim disappears twice!”
Alessandro hesitated.
Joseph called out.
“He’s right.”
Dante stared at his father.
“Don’t.”
Victor smiled.
Everyone needed the evidence.
Which meant no one could destroy it.
Josephine stepped toward the biometric console.
“Victor, you want Joseph to unlock it.”
“Yes.”
“And Joseph wants the evidence preserved.”
“Yes.”
“And Dante wants you in prison.”
Dante said, “Prison is the polite option.”
Josephine looked at Alessandro.
“You want your son free.”
Alessandro nodded.
“Then everyone wants something.”
Victor narrowed his eyes.
“What are you proposing?”
Josephine smiled faintly.
“A trade.”
She held up the Moretti ledger.
Victor stared.
“The handwritten original.”
“Yes.”
“For Joseph?”
“And Evelyn.”
Victor considered.
Then nodded.
Dante whispered, “Josephine.”
“Trust me.”
She walked forward.
Halfway across the room, she tossed the ledger.
Victor instinctively reached.
Joseph kicked the biometric chair sideways.
Alessandro hit the emergency lights.
Dante fired.
Chaos.
Josephine ran to Joseph.
She cut his restraints.
Victor grabbed the ledger and fled through a side door.
Dante pursued.
Alessandro shouted, “Let him go!”
Dante stopped.
“Why?”
“Because the ledger is fake.”
Josephine stared.
Alessandro looked at her.
“The original was never in that house.”
“Then where is it?”
Alessandro pointed toward Joseph.
“His wedding ring.”
Joseph blinked.
Dante almost laughed.
The ring contained not just a chip.
It contained microscopic scans of every page.
Victor had stolen a decoy.
For the first time, they had outplayed him.
Then Sarah screamed from the doorway.
Robert stood behind her.
A gun pressed against her neck.
Josephine froze.
Robert looked devastated.
“I’m sorry.”
Dante raised his weapon.
Robert tightened his grip.
“Put it down.”
Josephine stared at the man who had raised her.
“You saved me.”
Robert’s eyes filled with tears.
“I tried.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Robert looked toward Alessandro.
“Because there’s one truth none of you know.”
He pressed the gun closer to Sarah.
“Victor Hale isn’t the man who ordered Michael Moretti’s murder.”
Josephine stopped breathing.
May you like
Robert looked directly at Dante.
“Your father did.”
