Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
For twelve years, Elena had carried one memory of her mother.
A hospital room.
White sheets.
Her mother’s thin fingers around hers.
A whispered goodbye.
Then silence.
Anthony told her the cancer had won before dawn.
Elena never saw the body.
She was sixteen.
She believed her father because daughters were supposed to believe fathers.
Now Maria DeLuca stepped into Cassian’s garage alive.
Her hair, once dark like Elena’s, was threaded with silver. She wore a black coat and no jewelry.
Gabriel’s arm remained locked around Elena.
Maria looked at him.
“Let her go.”
Gabriel laughed.
“This is becoming a family reunion.”
Maria’s expression did not change.
“You made a mistake coming here.”
“Apparently everyone plans to tell me that tonight.”
Cassian slowly shifted position.
Gabriel noticed.
“Don’t.”
The gun pressed harder against Elena.
Cassian stopped.
Maria’s eyes found Elena.
“My baby.”
Elena’s throat closed.
“No.”
Maria took one step.
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“Elena—”
“You’re dead.”
Maria’s face broke.
“I know.”
“My father buried you.”
“No.”
“I went to your funeral.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Elena looked at Anthony on the floor.
He was conscious, one hand pressed to his bleeding shoulder.
“You knew.”
Anthony closed his eyes.
Elena stared.
“You knew she was alive?”
“Elena—”
“Twelve years?”
Maria whispered, “He thought he was protecting you.”
Elena laughed hysterically.
“From my mother?”
“From the Serranos.”
Gabriel smiled.
“There it is.”
Cassian looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Of course.”
Maria turned toward Cassian.
“My husband and Gabriel’s father worked together years ago. I discovered what the Serrano organization was becoming.”
“Trafficking.”
Maria nodded.
“I tried to expose them.”
Anthony groaned.
“They threatened Elena.”
Maria continued.
“We staged my death.”
Elena stared at them.
“You left me.”
“I stayed away to keep you alive.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I watched from a distance.”
“That is not motherhood.”
Maria’s eyes filled.
“No.”
The single word silenced Elena.
Maria looked at Gabriel.
“You were never supposed to get near her.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Yet Anthony welcomed me into the family.”
Anthony tried to sit.
“I thought your father’s operations ended years ago.”
“And once you knew they hadn’t?”
Anthony looked away.
Maria closed her eyes.
Cassian understood.
Anthony had discovered the truth but chose debt, reputation and survival over confronting it.
Gabriel tightened his grip on Elena.
“This family therapy has been moving, but I need the key.”
Maria looked at Elena.
“What key?”
Gabriel smiled.
“She kept records.”
Maria’s expression changed.
“Elena.”
Elena said nothing.
Maria suddenly looked afraid.
“What exactly did you take?”
“Enough.”
“Where is it?”
Elena stared at her.
“I don’t trust any of you.”
Maria nodded slowly.
“You shouldn’t.”
Gabriel’s patience snapped.
He pulled Elena backward toward the vehicle.
Cassian moved.
Gabriel aimed at him.
Then Maria reached inside her coat.
Every weapon in the garage shifted toward her.
She removed a phone.
“I sent everything thirty minutes ago.”
Gabriel froze.
“What?”
Maria held up the screen.
“I’ve spent twelve years collecting evidence against the Serrano network.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
“Try me.”
She tapped the screen.
A timer appeared.
00:04:12.
“What is that?” Elena asked.
“Dead-man release.”
Maria looked at Gabriel.
“If I don’t cancel it in four minutes, files go to federal investigators, journalists and three competing organizations that would love to know where your money is hidden.”
Gabriel stared.
“You don’t have enough.”
Maria smiled sadly.
“I have your father’s ledgers.”
Gabriel’s confidence vanished.
Cassian saw his grip loosen.
“Elena,” Cassian said.
She understood.
Elena drove her heel down onto Gabriel’s foot and twisted.
His gun shifted.
Cassian moved.
The shot went into the ceiling.
Luca tackled Gabriel from the side.
Elena fell.
Cassian caught her before she hit the floor.
The garage erupted.
Gabriel’s remaining men retreated toward the exit.
Maria stepped over the fallen gun and kicked it away.
Cassian held Elena against him.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I’m fine.”
He stared.
Even now, she used the sentence.
She almost laughed.
Anthony groaned nearby.
Elena pulled away.
“My father.”
Cassian helped her to him.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
Painful.
Not fatal.
Anthony looked up.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena knelt.
“For which part?”
He closed his eyes.
“That’s fair.”
Paramedics were called through one of Cassian’s legitimate security channels.
Gabriel was restrained.
Maria canceled the timer with six seconds remaining.
Cassian saw.
“You weren’t bluffing.”
“No.”
“Good.”
She looked at him.
“You’re Cassian Rizzo.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“I know what your family is.”
Cassian glanced at Elena.
“She knows too.”
Maria studied him.
“And you’re protecting her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Cassian did not answer.
Elena looked at him.
For once, Cassian seemed uncomfortable.
Sophia appeared beside the Aston Martin.
“I can answer.”
Cassian gave her a warning look.
Sophia raised her hands.
“Later.”
By dawn, Anthony was in a private hospital.
Gabriel had somehow escaped formal police custody because the officers who arrived were not as neutral as Cassian hoped.
That enraged him.
“He bought them,” Luca said.
Cassian looked toward the empty holding room.
“Find out who.”
Elena stood in the doorway.
“He’ll come back.”
“Yes.”
“He won’t stop.”
“No.”
“What happens now?”
Cassian faced her.
“You decide.”
She frowned.
“Decide what?”
“Whether you want to keep running.”
“I don’t have another option.”
“You do.”
“What?”
“Stop.”
Elena laughed.
“That’s not an option.”
“Then we make it one.”
“You think you can destroy Gabriel?”
“I think we can expose him.”
“You said police are compromised.”
“Some.”
“And federal investigators?”
“Maybe some.”
“And your solution?”
Cassian walked toward her.
“We make the evidence impossible to bury.”
Elena stared.
“You’d help me do that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Again, the question.
Again, Cassian had no easy answer.
He finally said, “Because when you ran toward me last night, you were terrified.”
Elena looked away.
“You thought I was dying.”
“I thought you were hurt.”
“And you forgot your disguise.”
Her eyes returned to his.
Cassian’s voice softened.
“For one second, you trusted me more than you feared being discovered.”
Elena swallowed.
“I don’t know if that was trust.”
“What was it?”
She did not answer.
He stepped closer.
“Whatever it was, I’m not going to punish you for it.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“You should fire me.”
“You’re the only mechanic who can fix the Bora.”
A small laugh escaped her.
Cassian smiled.
It was the first time she had seen him smile without intimidation behind it.
“You can stay as Nico if you want.”
“That seems difficult now.”
“To everyone else, Nico had a family emergency.”
“And Sophia?”
“She’s incapable of keeping secrets unless sufficiently threatened.”
From outside the office, Sophia shouted, “I heard that.”
Elena laughed again.
Something shifted.
Not safety.
Not yet.
But possibility.
Two days later, they traveled to Providence.
Cassian drove.
Elena sat beside him.
Luca followed in another car.
The safe-deposit box was inside a private financial institution near downtown.
Elena used the silver key.
The clerk escorted them downstairs.
When the box was placed on the table, Elena’s hands trembled.
Cassian noticed.
“You can stop.”
“No.”
She opened it.
Inside were three flash drives.
A ledger.
Copies of manifests.
Photographs.
And a sealed envelope.
Elena stared at it.
Her name was written across the front.
ELENA.
The handwriting belonged to Maria.
Cassian looked at her.
“Your mother put that there?”
“I’ve never seen it.”
Elena opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of herself as a child.
Behind it was a handwritten letter.
She read the first line.
Then froze.
Cassian saw the color drain from her face.
“What?”
Elena handed him the letter.
He read.
If you are reading this, Anthony finally failed to keep the truth from you.
Cassian continued.
The next sentence changed everything.
Gabriel Serrano was not the reason Maria had disappeared.
Anthony DeLuca was.
Elena backed away from the table.
“No.”
Cassian kept reading.
Then he stopped.
Elena stared.
“What does it say?”
Cassian looked up.
“Elena…”
She grabbed the letter.
Her eyes raced down the page.
At the bottom were three words that made her knees nearly give out.
Ask about Sofia.
Elena whispered, “Who is Sofia?”
Behind them, the vault door slammed shut.
The lock engaged.
Cassian turned.
A speaker crackled overhead.
May you like
Then Gabriel Serrano’s voice filled the sealed room.
“I was wondering when you’d find out.”
