Chapter 5 - The Friend Who Knew Everything
Dante raised his gun.
Marco froze.
Twenty years of friendship stood between them.
So did twenty armed men.
“Hand out,” Dante said.
Marco slowly removed it from his jacket.
He held a phone.
Nothing else.
Anthony laughed.
“Look how quickly trust dies.”
Marco stared at Dante.
“You believe him?”
“I believe evidence.”
“Then find some.”
Dante looked toward Anthony.
“Why Marco?”
Anthony smiled.
“Ask him where he was the night Rafael died.”
Dante already knew.
Marco had claimed he was in Queens handling a robbery.
“Queens,” Dante said.
Marco’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
“Tell him,” Anthony whispered.
Marco’s voice became flat.
“I was at Pier 17.”
Dante felt something inside him drop.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“For six years.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Rafael made me.”
Dante stepped closer.
Marco continued.
“Rafael called me an hour before he died. Said he needed backup but that you couldn’t know.”
“Why?”
“Because he thought your phones were compromised.”
“Who was there?”
“Rafael. Anthony. Two men I didn’t know.”
“And you?”
“I stayed outside until shooting started.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
“You let my brother walk inside alone?”
“He ordered me to.”
“You were supposed to protect him.”
“I know.”
Dante’s gun remained raised.
Marco’s voice cracked for the first time.
“I know.”
Silence.
Anthony watched with satisfaction.
Marco looked at Elena.
“She knows.”
Dante turned toward her.
Elena nodded weakly.
“Rafael trusted Marco.”
“Then why did you hide the ledger from him?”
“I didn’t.”
Dante frowned.
Anthony’s smile vanished.
Elena continued.
“Marco knows where it is.”
Dante stared.
Marco closed his eyes.
“Damn it, Elena.”
“Enough secrets.”
Dante stepped closer.
“Where is it?”
Marco looked at him.
“Inside your father’s grave.”
Dante almost thought he misheard.
“What?”
“Rafael put it in Giovanni’s coffin the day before burial.”
“That was three years before Rafael died.”
“No. Rafael replaced it later.”
“How?”
“The family mausoleum has a service entrance.”
Dante’s rage returned.
“You knew all this time?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Rafael believed revealing the full list would start a war that would kill dozens of children.”
Dante stopped.
Children.
Again.
“The ledger contains identities,” Marco said. “Not just of people involved in the program. It contains the children’s names and locations.”
Anthony swore.
Marco looked toward him.
“That’s what he wants. Not leverage on you. Leverage on everyone.”
Dante lowered his weapon slightly.
Elena said, “Rafael’s last instruction was that nobody opened the ledger until the program resurfaced.”
Dante glanced at Lily’s flash drive.
“It resurfaced.”
“Yes.”
Anthony suddenly lunged.
A hidden blade appeared in his hand.
Before anyone could fire, he struck one guard and ran toward the side exit.
Marco chased him.
Dante followed.
Anthony reached a waiting motorcycle outside.
He escaped through the chaos before the outer team could close the perimeter.
Dante stopped Marco from pursuing.
“Let him go.”
Marco stared.
“What?”
“He wants the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“So we know where he’s going.”
Two hours later, they stood inside the Moretti family mausoleum.
Dante had not entered since his father’s burial.
Giovanni’s stone coffin sat beneath a carved statue.
Marco removed a section of marble paneling.
Behind it was a narrow compartment.
Inside sat a waterproof case.
Dante opened it.
A leather ledger rested inside.
Rafael’s handwriting covered the first page.
If Dante is reading this, I’m sorry.
Dante closed his eyes.
He continued.
Our father believed family meant blood.
He was wrong.
Family is the person you protect when protecting them costs you everything.
Dante looked at Marco.
Marco looked away.
They turned pages.
Names.
Doctors.
Payments.
Seven embryo identifiers.
Three had been destroyed.
Four had resulted in births.
Lily.
And three other children.
None carried Moretti DNA.
They belonged to other powerful criminal or political families.
Anthony could control entire organizations through them.
The final pages listed collaborators.
Dante found his father.
Dead.
Two doctors.
One politician.
Anthony Vieri.
Then one name stunned him.
Salvatore Greco.
Greco had supposedly left the estate before midnight.
He was still free.
“Call the house,” Dante said.
Marco reached for his phone.
No signal.
They exchanged a look.
Dante ran outside.
His phone immediately connected.
Seventeen missed calls.
All from the estate.
He called.
A guard answered breathlessly.
“Sir, Greco came through the north gate with a police escort.”
“When?”
“Eight minutes ago.”
“Where’s Lily?”
A pause.
Dante stopped walking.
“Where is my daughter?”
“We can’t find her.”
The world narrowed to one sentence.
Elena grabbed Dante’s arm.
“No.”
Dante forced himself to think.
“Cameras?”
“Looped.”
“Guards?”
“Two down. Alive.”
“Greco?”
“Gone.”
Dante looked at the ledger.
Anthony had distracted them.
Greco had taken Lily.
Marco’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dante answered.
Greco’s voice spoke calmly.
“You should have brought the girl when Anthony asked.”
Dante’s hand tightened.
“If you hurt her—”
“You’ll what?”
Dante said nothing.
Greco continued.
“You have something I want.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Proof Lily is alive.”
A pause.
Then a tiny voice.
“Mr. Dante?”
Dante’s chest clenched.
“Lily.”
“I lost my bunny.”
“I’ll find it.”
“The man says Mommy is mad at me.”
“No. Listen to me. Your mommy loves you.”
“Are you coming?”
Dante looked at Elena.
Tears ran down her face.
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Pinky promise.”
Greco returned.
“Touching.”
“Where?”
“You’ll receive instructions.”
The call ended.
Elena shook.
“This is my fault.”
“No.”
“I brought her here.”
“You brought her somewhere she could survive.”
Dante opened the ledger.
Greco wanted it desperately.
Which meant it still held something Dante had not understood.
He reread Rafael’s opening message.
Family is the person you protect when protecting them costs you everything.
Below the sentence was a faint indentation.
Dante rubbed a pencil over the page.
Hidden writing appeared.
Coordinates.
Marco entered them into his phone.
The location appeared.
An abandoned church in Brooklyn.
Elena stared.
“That’s where Rafael and I planned to get married.”
Dante looked at her.
She swallowed.
“We never made it there.”
They drove immediately.
No police.
No large convoy.
Dante, Marco and Elena.
At the church, the doors stood open.
Lily’s stuffed rabbit lay on the front steps.
Dante picked it up.
One ear had been torn.
Elena covered her mouth.
Inside, candles burned despite daylight.
Dante walked down the aisle.
At the altar sat the blue box from Elena’s apartment.
He opened it.
Empty.
Then a speaker clicked on.
Greco’s voice filled the church.
“You found Rafael’s final clue.”
Dante looked around.
“Come out.”
“Soon.”
A side door opened.
Dante raised his gun.
A small shadow appeared.
Lily.
“Elena,” Dante whispered.
Elena ran.
“Lily!”
The child ran toward her.
They collided in the aisle.
Elena fell to her knees, holding her daughter.
Dante’s relief lasted one second.
Then he saw the device strapped beneath Lily’s yellow dress.
A red light blinked.
Marco whispered, “Bomb.”
Lily looked at Dante.
“Why is Mommy crying?”
The timer activated.
00:59.
00:58.
May you like
00:57.
And Greco locked every church door from the outside.
