Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Died
Sebastian dropped into the nearest chair.
Ruby had never seen him lose control.
Not when Dante entered the mansion.
Not when Elena disappeared.
Not even when Sofia returned from the dead.
But the voice in the video shattered something.
“Play it again.”
Ruby did.
The man remained mostly hidden.
Only one side of his jaw caught the light.
“Hello, brother.”
Three seconds.
Then black.
Sofia whispered, “Luca?”
Sebastian stared at the screen.
“No.”
Ruby watched him.
“You recognize the voice.”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because it sounds like him.”
Sofia crouched beside him.
“It is him.”
Sebastian stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
“My brother died.”
“So did I.”
That stopped him.
Sofia continued.
“You watched a coffin.”
“I saw his body.”
“Did you?”
Sebastian’s face changed.
Ruby recognized the question had landed somewhere dangerous.
“What do you mean?”
Sofia spoke carefully.
“His funeral was closed casket.”
“I saw him before.”
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
“Was Elena with you?”
“No.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
Sofia’s expression darkened.
“Who identified him?”
“My father.”
“And you?”
Sebastian said nothing.
Ruby understood.
“You saw someone badly injured.”
His jaw tightened.
“Face trauma.”
Sofia nodded slowly.
“You assumed.”
“I saw his tattoo.”
“Which one?”
“Left shoulder.”
Sofia went pale.
“Sebastian.”
“What?”
“Luca never had a tattoo on his left shoulder.”
Sebastian stared.
“Yes, he did.”
“No.”
“I saw it a hundred times.”
“Right shoulder.”
Silence.
Sebastian’s eyes closed.
For one terrible moment, Ruby watched him reconstruct six years of grief.
Then his eyes opened.
Rage replaced shock.
“My father.”
Sofia nodded.
“Maybe.”
“Why fake Luca’s death?”
“Control.”
Ruby said it quietly.
Both looked at her.
“If Luca wanted out, and Sebastian wanted to leave with you, their father was losing both sons.”
Sofia’s eyes widened.
Ruby continued.
“If Luca vanished, Sebastian stayed.”
Sebastian looked sick.
“My father used my brother’s death to chain me to the organization.”
Sofia whispered, “And used my death to make sure you had nowhere else to go.”
Nobody spoke.
The cruelty was almost too perfect.
Ruby felt anger rise on Sebastian’s behalf.
Then remembered Elena.
“We need to call your mother.”
Sebastian immediately dialed.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
His security chief picked up.
“Boss?”
“My mother.”
“She’s asleep.”
“Wake her.”
A pause.
“Now.”
Footsteps sounded over the call.
Then the security chief returned.
“She’s awake.”
“Put her on.”
Elena’s groggy voice came through.
“Sebastian?”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Lock the door.”
“Why?”
“Do it.”
Ruby heard the click.
Sebastian closed his eyes briefly.
“Mother. Luca.”
Long silence.
“What about him?”
The answer was too controlled.
Sebastian noticed.
“Did you know?”
Elena said nothing.
His face changed.
“Mother.”
Ruby held her breath.
Elena finally whispered, “Not until after your father died.”
Sebastian staggered back.
Sofia covered her mouth.
Ruby felt the room tilt.
“You knew he was alive?”
“I suspected.”
“For six years?”
“No.”
“How long?”
“Three.”
Sebastian’s voice became raw.
“Three years?”
“I never found him.”
“You never told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
He laughed.
It was the worst sound Ruby had heard from him.
“You too.”
“Sebastian—”
“You too.”
Ruby moved closer.
He did not seem to notice.
Elena spoke through the phone.
“I found a letter in your father’s safe.”
“What letter?”
“From Luca.”
“What did it say?”
“That he was alive. That he would never forgive Vittorio. That he would come back when he could destroy everything your father built.”
Sebastian looked toward Ruby.
“And you kept it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Silence.
“Mother.”
“In the chapel.”
“The mansion chapel?”
“Behind the Saint Michael painting.”
Sebastian disconnected.
Ruby stared.
“You hung up on your recovering mother.”
“If I stayed on that call, I’d say something I regret.”
“That’s fair.”
Sofia stood.
“We need the letter.”
Sebastian looked toward Ruby.
“You’re staying here.”
She laughed.
“No.”
“Ruby.”
“I am not sitting alone after a supposedly dead woman broke into my apartment and your supposedly dead brother sent me a video.”
Sofia raised a finger.
“I didn’t break in.”
Ruby glared.
“Not helping.”
Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose.
“This is insane.”
“Yes,” Ruby said. “But apparently this is your normal.”
They returned to the mansion under heavy security.
Elena waited awake.
When Sebastian entered her room, she held out a hand.
He did not take it.
Ruby hated that for both of them.
Elena’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
Sebastian remained near the door.
“You let me mourn him.”
“I mourned him too.”
“You knew.”
“I knew only that he might be alive.”
“You knew enough.”
“I was afraid.”
“You taught me fear wasn’t love.”
Elena flinched.
Ruby almost stepped out.
But Elena looked at her.
Stay.
Ruby stayed.
Sofia entered behind them.
Elena gasped.
For several seconds, the older woman simply stared.
“Sofia?”
Sofia nodded.
Elena began crying.
“Oh, my God.”
Sofia crossed the room and embraced her.
Whatever resentment existed between them vanished in that instant.
Elena clung to her.
“I’m sorry.”
Sofia whispered, “You didn’t do it.”
“I should have known.”
“We all should have.”
Sebastian looked away.
Ruby touched his arm.
He did not pull away.
After Elena calmed, she directed them to the chapel.
It was small.
Private.
Built off the west corridor.
A painting of Saint Michael hung behind the altar.
Sebastian removed it.
Behind it sat a wall safe.
He entered a code.
Inside were documents, jewelry, old currency, and a single yellowed envelope.
SEBASTIAN.
His name.
Written in Luca’s handwriting.
Sebastian took it.
His hands shook.
Ruby noticed.
He did too.
He handed her the letter.
“Read it.”
“Me?”
“I can’t.”
The confession was quiet.
Ruby opened the envelope.
Inside were four pages.
She began.
“Seb,
If you’re reading this, Father is dead or Mother finally decided you deserve the truth.”
Sebastian looked toward Elena.
She lowered her head.
Ruby continued.
“I didn’t die outside that club. Father arranged it after I discovered what he and Enzo Bellini were moving through the docks.”
Sofia inhaled.
“Enzo.”
Dante’s uncle.
Ruby kept reading.
“Not drugs. People.”
Sebastian’s jaw clenched.
“I threatened to go federal. Father told me if I did, you would take the fall because the businesses were in your name.”
Sebastian whispered, “That bastard.”
Ruby continued.
“So I disappeared. I let him fake my death because I thought I was protecting you. I was wrong.”
The next paragraph was harder.
“Father used my death to make you stay. He told me he would kill Sofia if I contacted you. Later he told me she was dead anyway. I believed him.”
Sofia covered her face.
Ruby’s voice softened.
“I have spent years gathering proof against Enzo and the network Father helped hide. I don’t know how much you knew. I pray it was nothing.”
Sebastian whispered, “Nothing.”
Ruby kept reading.
“I want to come home. But if I do before Enzo falls, everyone I love becomes leverage.”
Ruby looked at Sebastian.
The word again.
Leverage.
She continued.
“If Mother is alive, kiss her for me. If you have become Father, burn this letter. If you haven’t, finish what I couldn’t.”
The last line was simple.
“Your brother, always. Luca.”
Silence filled the chapel.
Elena cried quietly.
Sebastian took the pages.
“Three years.”
“I tried to find him,” Elena said.
“How?”
“Private investigators.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the letter said people around you might belong to Enzo.”
Sebastian froze.
Ruby understood.
Someone inside Sebastian’s organization had been feeding information.
The photo.
The power outage.
Elena’s room.
Her apartment.
Their plans.
Someone close.
Sebastian reached for his phone.
“Lock every exit.”
Elena frowned.
“What?”
“There’s a traitor in the house.”
Sofia said, “Dante?”
“No. Dante’s an enemy. This is someone with access.”
Ruby thought back.
The photograph had been taken outside the mansion.
The staged firing.
Her address.
Her apartment layout might be public.
But Elena’s room?
Her schedule?
The security outage?
Someone inside.
Sebastian called his chief of security.
“Marco. Chapel. Now.”
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
They left the chapel.
A guard hurried toward them.
“Boss.”
“Where’s Marco?”
The guard hesitated.
“He left.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Why?”
“Said you ordered him to escort Mrs. Romano.”
Everyone turned toward Elena.
She stood beside Ruby.
Safe.
Sebastian went still.
“Escort who?”
The guard looked confused.
“Mrs. Romano.”
Sofia whispered, “He means me.”
Sebastian stared.
Ruby’s blood chilled.
Marco had expected Sofia.
He had known she returned.
And if he had left to “escort” her, he was heading somewhere.
Sebastian pulled up the security system.
One vehicle had exited the rear gate.
His SUV.
Marco’s credentials.
Destination unknown.
Then Ruby’s phone buzzed.
She looked down.
A text from Sebastian’s own number.
Impossible.
She opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Marco sat behind the wheel.
Beside him was Dante Bellini.
And in the back seat, smiling directly at the camera, sat Luca Romano.
Alive.
The message beneath it contained an address.
May you like
And one sentence.
COME ALONE, BROTHER.
