Chapter 11 - Blood at the Door
Vincent raised his gun.
Samuel smiled.
“You look like your father.”
“Where is Lucas?”
“Safe.”
“You’ve used that word too many times.”
Samuel stepped inside.
Older than Vincent remembered.
Gray hair.
Scar beneath his ear.
But unmistakably Marchetti.
“You destroyed everything.”
Vincent’s finger rested on the trigger.
“No. You did.”
Samuel laughed.
“Antonio stole my life.”
“He stopped you after you murdered my mother.”
Samuel’s smile disappeared.
“So Lucia kept the evidence.”
“She did.”
“She should have minded her own business.”
Vincent’s eyes hardened.
Samuel continued.
“And now her daughter owns what should belong to me.”
“That was never yours.”
“It was my family.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Family isn’t ownership.”
Samuel glanced toward the hallway.
“You’ve become sentimental.”
“Where is Lucas?”
Samuel tossed a phone onto the bed.
Live video.
Lucas sat in a van.
A masked man beside him.
Samuel said, “Kill me and the boy dies.”
Vincent lowered the gun.
Samuel smiled.
Then Alina’s voice came from behind him.
“He doesn’t need to kill you.”
Samuel turned.
Alina stood with Marco and federal agents.
Samuel’s expression changed.
Vincent had triggered a silent alarm when he entered.
Samuel reached for his weapon.
Marco fired.
The bullet struck Samuel’s shoulder.
He fell.
Vincent could have finished him.
For years he might have.
Instead he kicked the weapon away.
“Tell us where Lucas is.”
Samuel laughed through the pain.
“You’ll never reach him.”
Mia appeared behind Alina.
She looked at the phone.
“That’s Grandma’s bridge.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
“The wall.”
Behind Lucas in the video was a painted moon.
Mia recognized it from Lucia’s old drawings.
The silver bridge.
Vincent understood.
The van wasn’t moving.
It was parked beneath the bridge facility they had already searched.
They raced there.
Lucas was found inside a concealed lower chamber.
The masked guard surrendered when surrounded.
Vincent opened the locked door.
Lucas ran into him.
This time Vincent hugged his son without hesitation.
“It’s over.”
Lucas looked at him.
“Promise?”
Vincent wanted to.
But he had learned not to promise what he couldn’t control.
“I promise I’ll keep showing up.”
Lucas nodded.
“That’s enough.”
Samuel survived surgery.
He was arrested.
Voss was arrested hours later while attempting to leave the country.
The network began collapsing.
Yet one mystery remained.
Who had first placed Alina inside Vincent’s mansion?
Employment records showed her application had been altered.
Someone had moved her name to the top.
Vincent assumed Samuel.
He was wrong.
Cole found the original file.
The authorization signature belonged to Antonio Marchetti.
Vincent’s father.
But Antonio had been dead for twelve years.
The authorization had been submitted eight months earlier.
Someone was using his credentials.
They traced the submission.
It came from a law office.
Vincent recognized the firm.
His father’s old attorney.
They visited that afternoon.
The attorney, Henry Bell, was eighty-two.
He looked at Alina and smiled.
“I wondered when you’d come.”
Vincent placed the authorization on his desk.
“You arranged her employment?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Your father asked me to.”
“He died twelve years ago.”
“He left instructions.”
Bell opened a safe.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
TO VINCENT AND LUCIA’S DAUGHTER.
Alina sat beside Vincent.
Bell handed it over.
Vincent broke the seal.
Inside was a letter and a legal document.
He read the first paragraph.
Then stopped.
Alina looked at him.
“What?”
Vincent silently handed her the page.
She read one sentence.
Her hands began trembling.
Antonio had not merely protected Lucia.
He had loved her.
And beneath the letter was a birth certificate.
Alina looked at the name listed under “Father.”
May you like
Then she looked at Vincent.
Because the name was Antonio Marchetti.
