Chapter 5 - The Dead Brother’s Bargain
“Put the gun down,” Damiano said.
Marco smiled without warmth.
“You first.”
Damiano lowered his weapon.
Serena stared at the man everyone had buried eighteen years earlier.
Marco Vercelli looked like an older, leaner reflection of Damiano, but the resemblance ended in his eyes.
Damiano’s eyes were guarded.
Marco’s were exhausted.
Victor Hale pressed a gun near Leo’s shoulder.
“Drive.”
Serena stepped forward.
“Let the boy go.”
Hale laughed.
“The baker gives orders now?”
“Yes.”
Something about her certainty made him stop laughing.
Marco looked at Serena.
“You’re Evelyn’s daughter.”
“And you’re the reason my mother spent half her life afraid.”
Pain crossed his face.
“She saved mine.”
“Then honor that.”
Marco looked at Hale.
“Release the kid.”
“No.”
Marco’s gun shifted.
For the first time Serena understood.
They weren’t partners.
Marco was another hostage.
Hale had forced him here.
“Where’s Elena?” Serena asked.
“Alive,” Marco said.
Hale snapped, “Enough.”
Damiano studied his brother.
“You sent the messages.”
“Some.”
“The photograph?”
“Yes.”
“The ruby?”
“I took it.”
“Why?”
“To keep Hale from getting what was inside.”
Hale’s expression hardened.
Marco continued.
“The microfilm is worthless without the original ledger. Carlo designed the records in pairs.”
“Where’s the ledger?” Damiano asked.
Marco looked toward the altar.
“Where our mother left it.”
Hale struck Leo.
The child cried out.
Serena moved before thinking.
Damiano caught her.
“Don’t.”
Hale demanded the drive.
Serena removed the decoy from her purse.
“Let Leo walk to me.”
Hale considered.
Then shoved him forward.
Leo ran.
Serena wrapped him in her arms.
She tossed the drive across the floor.
Hale grabbed it.
“Smart.”
“Sometimes.”
He plugged it into a laptop.
Empty.
His face changed.
Serena smiled.
“Sometimes very smart.”
Chaos erupted.
Marco fired.
Hale ducked.
Damiano pushed Serena and Leo behind a pew.
Security rushed through side entrances.
Hale escaped through the sacristy.
Marco collapsed against the altar.
Blood darkened his sleeve.
Damiano approached slowly.
“You’re really alive.”
Marco laughed weakly.
“Disappointed?”
Damiano’s face broke.
He pulled his brother into an embrace.
Marco resisted for half a second.
Then held him back.
Serena looked away.
Some moments belonged to families, even broken ones.
Elena was found tied inside the church office.
She was shaken but unharmed.
Afterward, Marco told them everything.
Lucia had staged his death to protect him.
Evelyn moved him repeatedly.
After Lucia was killed, Marco disappeared overseas.
For years he collected evidence.
Victor Hale inherited Carlo’s criminal network after Carlo’s death and spent years hunting the ledger.
“Why now?” Damiano asked.
“Because Hale learned about Serena.”
Marco looked at her.
“Evelyn hid the last access code inside something she knew nobody in our world would understand.”
“A recipe,” Serena said.
Marco nodded.
“The mercy cake.”
Serena remembered the ingredients.
Chocolate.
Espresso.
Salt.
Orange.
Vanilla.
Quantities.
Numbers.
She suddenly understood.
The recipe measurements formed coordinates.
They led to a storage facility near Red Hook.
At dawn, they arrived.
Unit 417.
Of course.
Inside were boxes belonging to Lucia.
Clothes.
Letters.
Photographs.
And one locked trunk.
The brass key opened it.
Inside was the original ledger.
Damiano stared.
This could dismantle what remained of his father’s empire.
Serena saw something else.
A smaller envelope.
For Serena.
She opened it.
Inside was a legal document.
Sweet Mercy Bakery’s building.
Her mother had purchased it years ago.
Serena frowned.
“That’s impossible. I lease.”
Marco read the paperwork.
“Your landlord doesn’t own the building.”
“Then who does?”
“You.”
Serena sat down.
Evelyn had secretly purchased the property through a trust.
Someone had concealed it after her death.
Victor Hale.
He had been collecting rent from Serena for eight years on a building she already owned.
Damiano’s expression became dangerous.
“He stole from you.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“Get in line.”
There was another document.
A birth certificate.
Marco picked it up.
Then stopped.
“What?”
He handed it to Serena.
Leo Vale.
Father:
Marco Vercelli.
Serena looked at him.
Marco closed his eyes.
“Elena never told me.”
Elena stood in the doorway.
“I was trying to keep him alive.”
Marco turned.
“Seven years.”
“You were being hunted.”
“He’s my son.”
“And every person who wanted you dead would have used him.”
Leo stood behind her.
“Mom?”
Elena’s face crumpled.
Marco crouched.
The feared, vanished Vercelli suddenly looked terrified.
“Hey.”
Leo studied him.
“Are you my dad?”
Marco swallowed.
“Yes.”
Leo considered this.
Then pulled the green dinosaur from his pocket.
“You can have him back.”
Marco laughed and cried at the same time.
“No. I think he belongs to you.”
For a few minutes, the nightmare softened.
Then Damiano opened the ledger.
Several pages had been removed.
“Marco.”
His brother looked.
“The Hale pages.”
“Gone.”
Serena noticed a small slip of paper inside the binding.
A hotel room number.
And today’s date.
They went to the hotel.
Room 803 was unlocked.
Inside, a television was playing security footage from Mia’s wedding.
Serena watched herself being searched.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Then the footage changed.
Victor Hale appeared on screen.
Recorded message.
“If you’re watching this, you found the ledger.”
He smiled.
“But you still don’t understand the ruby.”
The camera moved.
The cameo lay on a table.
Hale removed its backing.
Inside was not microfilm.
It was a tiny key.
“The real secret was never the evidence,” Hale said.
“It was what Lucia locked away.”
The recording ended.
A telephone rang inside the room.
Damiano answered.
Hale’s voice came through.
“Ask your grandmother what she did with the baby.”
Damiano’s face went still.
“What baby?”
Hale laughed.
“The one Serena’s mother took from your house.”
Then the line went dead.
Behind them, Serena whispered, “Damiano.”
She was staring at a photograph taped to the wall.
Evelyn held a newborn baby.
May you like
Around the infant’s wrist was a hospital bracelet.
SERENA VERCELLI.
