Chapter 5 - Rachel's Father
Marco Bellini smiled.
Eleven years had changed him.
His hair was gray.
His shoulders had narrowed.
But the eyes were the same.
Enzo reached for his weapon.
“Don't.”
Marco pressed the gun closer to Margaret.
Caleb struggled upright.
“You died.”
Marco smiled.
“People believe whatever grief makes convenient.”
Rachel stared at her mother.
Margaret shook her head subtly.
Don't.
Marco demanded Daniel's ledger.
Rachel refused.
He laughed.
“You have your father's stubbornness.”
“You killed him.”
Marco's smile faded.
“No.”
Rachel looked at Caleb.
Caleb looked at Marco.
“Tell her.”
Marco tilted his head.
“Which part?”
“Who killed Daniel?”
Marco's amusement returned.
“You still haven't told her?”
Rachel turned toward Caleb.
“Tell me.”
Caleb said nothing.
Marco answered for him.
“Caleb pulled the trigger.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
Margaret shouted, “That's not what happened!”
Marco struck her.
Rachel lunged forward.
Enzo caught her.
Caleb's monitor accelerated.
Rachel stared at him.
“You shot my father?”
Caleb looked directly into her eyes.
“Yes.”
The room disappeared around her.
Eleven years of grief collapsed into one word.
Yes.
Marco laughed.
But Margaret screamed:
“Daniel asked him to!”
Rachel looked at her mother.
Marco's expression changed.
Margaret continued before he could stop her.
“Your father was dying already. Marco's men had tortured him. Daniel knew they would make him talk. He begged Caleb to end it before he revealed where he'd hidden the evidence.”
Rachel felt sick.
Caleb whispered, “I tried to get him out.”
Daniel had been shot twice before Caleb arrived.
He was bleeding internally.
Marco's men were returning.
Daniel made Caleb promise two things.
Protect Margaret.
Protect Rachel.
Then he asked Caleb not to let Marco take him alive.
Caleb had carried the guilt ever since.
Rachel's eyes filled.
“You should have told us.”
“I couldn't tell a fourteen-year-old girl I killed her father.”
“So you let me believe he died alone on a highway?”
“Yes.”
“I hated myself because we'd argued that morning.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You knew?”
“Your father told me.”
Rachel broke.
For eleven years she had remembered refusing to hug Daniel goodbye because he wouldn't let her attend a concert.
She had believed those were her final moments with him.
Caleb had known.
Marco grew impatient.
“The ledger.”
Enzo shifted.
Marco noticed.
His gun turned.
Caleb shouted.
A shot exploded.
Enzo fell.
Chaos erupted.
Rachel dragged Margaret behind the bed.
Caleb ripped out his IV and launched himself toward Marco despite his injuries.
Security flooded the room.
Marco escaped through the adjoining service corridor.
Enzo survived.
The bullet had grazed his side.
Rachel treated him while police searched the hospital.
Later, Margaret finally told Rachel the truth about the photograph.
Rachel Rossi wasn't her birth name.
It was a code.
Daniel believed Marco monitored his family.
He used “Rossi” in records indicating Caleb was Rachel's emergency protector if Daniel died.
Nothing more.
Rachel felt both relief and confusion.
Then Margaret handed her Daniel's wedding ring.
Inside was an engraving Rachel had never noticed.
M-317.
“Another locker?” Rachel asked.
Margaret shook her head.
“Not a locker.”
“What?”
“A medical archive.”
At Harbor Mercy.
Rachel searched the hospital database.
M-317 corresponded to a sealed basement storage room.
The room had not been opened in twelve years.
Rachel went downstairs alone.
She found the door.
M-317.
She inserted the brass key.
It fit.
Rachel turned it.
May you like
The lock clicked.
From inside the dark room came the unmistakable sound of someone breathing.
