Chapter 10 - The Choice
Vincent tore a curtain from the window.
"Cover your mouths."
Smoke thickened.
Rose worked on the device.
"I need sixty seconds."
"You have twenty."
Carlo tried the door.
Locked.
Victoria coughed.
Giovanni sat calmly.
Vincent looked at him.
"Antidote?"
"No."
"What gas?"
"Not lethal."
"Then what?"
"Sleep."
Vincent almost laughed.
Even now, Giovanni wanted control, not corpses.
Vincent shot the door lock.
Nothing.
Reinforced steel behind wood.
He moved to the window.
Third floor.
Downspout.
Roof section below.
Possible.
"Rose."
"Almost."
Victoria began losing consciousness.
Carlo grabbed her.
Vincent smashed the window with a chair.
Cold air rushed in.
"Out."
Carlo went first, lowering Victoria onto the roof.
Vincent turned to Rose.
She held up the device.
"Stopped."
"Go."
"What about Giovanni?"
Vincent looked at the old man.
Giovanni smiled weakly.
"Leave me."
Vincent hated him.
Hated what he had built.
Hated the decades of lies.
But leaving an eighty-seven-year-old man to suffocate would make Giovanni's worldview correct.
Vincent lifted him.
Giovanni looked startled.
"What are you doing?"
"Ruining your lesson."
They escaped.
Marco arrived as dawn broke.
Giovanni was arrested—not by local police, but federal agents contacted by Vincent's retired investigator.
Rebecca/Claire disappeared.
Thomas remained missing.
Isabella was located at a private airfield.
Antonio Romano convinced her to surrender.
By noon, the immediate threat had changed.
Not ended.
Changed.
Vincent returned home.
Lily ran toward him.
He crouched.
She stopped before crashing into him.
"Mommy says I have to ask before hugs."
Vincent blinked.
"That's a good rule."
"Can I?"
He opened his arms.
Lily hugged him.
Something inside Vincent broke and repaired itself simultaneously.
Elena watched from the doorway.
"Thank you."
Vincent stood.
"We're not finished."
"I know."
Rose entered later.
For the first time, she wore ordinary clothes.
No weapons.
No hidden drives.
Just jeans and a sweater.
Vincent looked at her shoulder.
"Doctor?"
"Fine."
"You're staying?"
"If you'll let me."
Vincent considered.
"You disappeared for thirteen years."
"I know."
"You lied."
"Yes."
"You turned a child into an encryption key."
Pain crossed her face.
"Yes."
"So don't expect this to become normal overnight."
"I don't."
Vincent nodded toward the kitchen.
"Coffee?"
Rose smiled.
"That's more than I expected."
They drank coffee.
It lasted seven minutes.
Then Marco called.
"We have a problem."
"Of course."
"Archive release stopped. But someone copied a segment."
"Rebecca?"
"Probably."
"What segment?"
"Personnel."
Names of witnesses.
Informants.
Employees.
Elena's name among them.
"How many?"
"Forty-three."
"Get everyone protected."
"We're trying."
"Rebecca's target?"
"We intercepted a message."
"What?"
Marco hesitated.
"Lily."
Vincent closed his eyes.
"Why?"
"Apparently Rebecca believes Lily can open something Rose didn't know existed."
Rose heard.
"What?"
Marco continued.
"Archive Level Two."
Rose went pale.
"There is no Level Two."
Vincent looked at her.
"Sure?"
"My father—Giovanni—mentioned backups. I assumed copies."
Marco said, "Message uses phrase 'inheritance layer.'"
Vincent looked toward Lily, drawing at the kitchen table.
Rose whispered, "Oh no."
"What?"
"Giovanni wasn't building blackmail only."
"Then?"
"He was building succession."
Vincent understood.
Assets.
Accounts.
Companies.
Hidden money.
Maybe ownership transferred through biometric identity.
Lily's bloodline made her eligible.
"How much?"
Rose swallowed.
"Potentially billions."
Vincent laughed bitterly.
"She's four."
"Exactly why nobody would suspect her."
Again.
Adults kept using that sentence as justification for exploiting a child.
Vincent's decision came instantly.
"Destroy it."
Rose stared.
"If we find Level Two—"
"Destroy it."
"Vincent, that money could—"
"Destroy it."
She nodded.
Marco called again thirty minutes later.
"We found a possible server."
"Where?"
"Private hospital outside Boston."
"What connection?"
"Thomas received treatment there."
"Go."
Vincent did not.
For once, he stayed with Lily and Elena.
Until a package arrived.
No return address.
Inside was a child's music box.
Lily recognized it.
"That's mine."
Elena frowned.
"No, it's not."
"Yes. Daddy gave me one."
Daniel.
Her dead legal father.
Vincent examined the box.
Hidden underneath: microdrive.
A note.
FOR LILY WHEN SHE IS OLD ENOUGH.
Elena began crying.
Vincent inserted it into an isolated laptop.
Daniel appeared onscreen.
Alive at recording time.
"If Elena is watching this, I'm sorry."
She covered her mouth.
"I made choices that put our family in danger. I found Giovanni Moretti's second system."
Vincent leaned closer.
"It isn't money."
Rose whispered, "Then what?"
Daniel continued.
"It's identities."
Vincent frowned.
"Children."
The room went silent.
"Giovanni tracked children connected biologically to powerful families. Secret children. Adopted children. Donor-conceived children. He planned to use them as leverage for decades."
Lily colored, unaware.
Vincent felt nauseated.
Daniel continued.
"Lily is one name."
Then the video listed another.
And another.
Dozens.
This was bigger than their family.
Vincent looked at Rose.
"We don't destroy Level Two."
She understood.
"We expose it safely."
"To federal investigators."
"Yes."
The screen flickered.
Daniel's final words appeared.
"But if you're watching this, Claire Shaw already knows."
Vincent's phone rang.
Unknown.
He answered.
Rebecca—Claire—spoke.
"I have one of the children."
Vincent stood.
"Who?"
She sent a photograph.
A ten-year-old boy.
Vincent recognized him.
Antonio Romano's grandson.
Isabella's nephew.
May you like
Rebecca whispered:
"Bring me Lily, or this boy becomes the first name on Giovanni's list to disappear."
