Chapter 3 - Beneath the DeSantis House
Luca reached the cellar first.
"Back away from the door."
No answer.
Another pound shook the wood.
Marco positioned himself beside the frame.
Matteo drew a pistol.
Elena came down the stairs despite everything Luca had told her.
He saw her.
"Elena."
"Don't."
"This isn't safe."
"Neither was pretending I didn't know anything."
Before he could respond, a voice came from behind the cellar door.
"Help me."
Carlo.
Matteo went pale.
"Carlo?"
"Open it!"
Luca unlocked the door.
Marco pulled it outward.
Carlo collapsed into the corridor.
His white shirt was torn.
Blood ran from his temple.
Matteo caught him.
"What happened?"
Carlo looked terrified.
"Someone hit me."
Luca crouched.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Convenient."
Carlo's eyes widened.
"You think I did this to myself?"
Luca searched him.
No weapon.
No ring.
"Where's your family ring?"
Carlo looked at his hand.
"Gone."
Marco said, "We found one in your car."
Carlo stared.
"What?"
Luca watched every reaction.
"You heard me."
"That's not mine."
"It was in your car."
"Someone planted it."
Matteo laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
Carlo grabbed his brother.
"You think I'm lying?"
Matteo shoved him away.
"I think you've been stealing from Dad for years."
Carlo's face changed.
That hit something real.
Luca noticed.
"Explain."
Matteo looked at him.
"Carlo has gambling debts."
Carlo snapped, "Shut up."
"Millions."
Dominic appeared at the top of the stairs.
"That's enough."
Everyone looked up.
He descended slowly.
Teresa stood behind him, crying.
Luca asked, "You knew?"
Dominic said nothing.
"Uncle."
"Yes."
Carlo looked betrayed.
"Dad."
Dominic ignored him.
"I knew about the debts."
"And the foundation?"
"No."
Carlo laughed.
"You expect him to believe that?"
Dominic turned.
"Be quiet."
Carlo stared at his father.
Then something in him broke.
"You want me quiet now?"
Dominic's face tightened.
Carlo pointed at him.
"You've kept everyone quiet for thirty years."
Luca straightened.
"What does that mean?"
Dominic said, "He's injured."
Carlo laughed again.
"Tell him about Victor."
Silence.
Luca stopped breathing.
"What about my father?"
Dominic closed his eyes.
Carlo smiled bitterly.
"There it is."
Luca moved toward Dominic.
"My father."
Dominic looked at Elena.
Not Luca.
Elena felt sick.
"Tell him," she said.
Dominic whispered, "Victor's death wasn't an accident."
Everything stopped.
Luca's face became blank.
Elena had never seen him look like that.
"Say it again."
Dominic swallowed.
"The crash was arranged."
Luca stepped closer.
"By who?"
"I don't know."
Luca grabbed the front of Dominic's suit.
Teresa screamed.
Elena rushed forward.
"Luca!"
He didn't seem to hear her.
Dominic didn't resist.
"I swear to you, I didn't know who ordered it."
"But you knew it wasn't an accident."
"Afterward."
"When afterward?"
"A week."
Luca released him as if touching him had become unbearable.
"You buried him."
Dominic nodded.
"You stood beside me."
"I know."
"You let me believe—"
"I was trying to keep you alive."
Luca turned away.
He punched the stone wall.
Elena flinched.
Blood appeared across his knuckles.
She caught his wrist before he could hit it again.
"Stop."
He looked at her.
The fury disappeared for one second.
Pain replaced it.
She held his hand.
"Not like this."
His breathing slowed.
Carlo watched them.
Dominic sat heavily on the stairs.
"Victor found evidence that someone inside the organization had been selling access to federal investigators, rival crews, politicians—anyone willing to pay."
Marco asked, "The archive?"
Dominic nodded.
"He built it as leverage."
"Who knew?"
"Victor. Elena's mother. My wife. Me."
Teresa began crying harder.
Elena stared.
"You knew too?"
Teresa nodded.
"Your mother was my closest friend."
Elena suddenly remembered childhood dinners.
Her mother and Teresa disappearing into kitchens.
Whispering.
Stopping when Elena entered.
"What happened to the archive?"
Dominic shook his head.
"Victor moved it."
"Where?"
"We never found out."
Carlo said, "Maybe Elena's mother did."
Dominic glared at him.
"Enough."
But Elena already understood.
"The foundation."
Dominic nodded.
"Possibly."
Luca looked at his uncle.
"And V.D.S.?"
Dominic hesitated.
"Victor DeSantis."
Elena's breath caught.
Not Vault DeSantis.
Victor DeSantis.
Luca slowly reached into his pocket and removed her broken clasp.
The letters were there.
V.D.S.
He stared at Dominic.
"You lied."
Dominic looked ashamed.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't know why Elena had that mark."
Elena took the clasp.
"It's mine."
Teresa shook her head.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
Teresa wiped her cheeks.
"It belonged to your mother."
Elena stared.
"What?"
"I gave it to you last Christmas."
"I thought it was new."
"It wasn't."
Elena remembered the gift.
A small velvet box.
Teresa had told her the clasp had belonged to an old family friend.
Elena hadn't asked more.
Teresa whispered, "Your mother wore it the last year of her life."
Elena turned the silver clasp over.
V.D.S.
Her mother had carried Victor's initials.
Not romantically.
As a clue.
Luca understood.
"There's something hidden in it."
Marco took the clasp.
He examined the edges.
"Could be."
He used a pocketknife.
A tiny seam opened.
Inside was a strip of folded paper.
Elena couldn't breathe.
Marco unfolded it.
Numbers.
Eight digits.
Then a word.
MERCY.
Luca stared.
Carlo said, "Bank code?"
Dominic shook his head.
"I've never seen it."
Elena whispered, "I have."
Everyone turned.
"Mercy House."
It was the first shelter her mother had funded.
Closed nine years ago after a fire.
Rosa had mentioned it often.
Luca said, "Where?"
"Brooklyn."
Marco was already making calls.
Elena looked at Dominic.
"Was that shelter connected to the archive?"
"I don't know."
Carlo stood.
"We should go."
Luca stared at him.
"You're not going anywhere."
Carlo laughed.
"I'm the one who got locked in a cellar."
"And the one with a ring in his car."
"Planted."
"Maybe."
Carlo froze.
Luca's tone had changed.
Calmer.
"Which is why you're staying here alive until I know."
That frightened Carlo more than a threat.
Marco returned.
"Mercy House still exists."
Elena frowned.
"No. It burned."
"The original building did."
"And?"
"A storage annex behind it remained."
"Owned by?"
Marco looked at Luca.
"The Marlowe Foundation."
Elena stared.
"I've never seen it in our property files."
"Someone buried the ownership under a subsidiary."
Luca nodded.
"We go tonight."
Dominic stood.
"No."
Luca gave him a cold look.
"You've lost veto privileges."
"If the archive is there, whoever attacked Elena may already know."
"Then we're late."
Teresa grabbed Elena's arm.
"Don't go."
Elena looked at Luca.
He would go regardless.
She knew that.
"I'm going."
Luca started to object.
She raised one finger.
"You can either bring me with security, or I can take my own car and make this more difficult."
Matteo smiled despite the tension.
Luca did not.
"You're enjoying this?"
"No."
"You look like you are."
"I'm enjoying not being treated like furniture."
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
"Fine."
They left twenty minutes later.
Luca, Elena, Marco, Matteo, and four security men.
Carlo remained under guard.
Dominic stayed with him.
Mercy House sat on a deserted block between an abandoned laundromat and a church.
The main building was a burned shell.
The storage annex stood behind a chain-link fence.
Marco cut the lock.
Inside, dust covered metal shelves.
Boxes filled the room.
Elena searched labels.
Most contained decade-old foundation records.
She found her mother's handwriting.
Housing grants.
Medical invoices.
Legal defense funds.
Her throat tightened.
Luca stood beside her.
"You okay?"
"No."
He nodded.
No empty reassurance.
Just presence.
Elena appreciated that.
Matteo called from the rear.
"Here."
They found a steel door behind a shelf.
Keypad.
Eight digits.
Elena unfolded the paper.
She entered the numbers.
Nothing.
Luca looked at the word.
"Mercy."
Elena typed MERCY using the numeric keypad equivalent.
The lock clicked.
The steel door opened.
Inside was a small room.
Empty except for a desk.
On the desk sat a laptop.
And an envelope.
ELENA MARLOWE.
Her knees weakened.
She recognized the handwriting.
Her mother's.
Elena opened the envelope.
Inside was one sentence.
If Victor's son is standing beside you, then I was right to trust him.
Luca stared at it.
Elena's eyes filled.
Beneath the note was a key.
Marco examined the laptop.
"No power."
A cable ran from it into the wall.
Matteo found a breaker.
Lights flickered.
The laptop came alive.
Password screen.
Elena tried her mother's birthday.
Wrong.
Her own birthday.
Wrong.
Luca asked, "What did your mother call you?"
"Ellie."
Wrong.
Elena looked at the note.
If Victor's son is standing beside you...
She typed LUCA.
The screen opened.
Everyone froze.
Hundreds of folders appeared.
Accounts.
Names.
Photographs.
Recorded calls.
Victor DeSantis had built enough evidence to destroy half the criminal infrastructure in New York.
Marco whispered, "Jesus."
Luca looked sick.
Elena clicked the newest folder.
DATE: FOURTEEN YEARS AGO.
Inside was a video.
Victor DeSantis appeared on screen.
Older than Luca remembered him.
Tired.
He spoke directly to the camera.
"If you're watching this, then something happened to me."
Luca sat down.
Elena took his hand.
Victor continued.
"The person behind this is someone my son trusts."
Luca's fingers tightened around hers.
Victor looked into the camera.
"I've hidden proof. But before you open it, you need to know something."
The screen flickered.
A sound came from outside.
Marco drew his gun.
Headlights swept across the windows.
Multiple vehicles.
Luca stood.
"Kill the screen."
Elena closed the laptop.
Doors slammed outside.
Men shouted.
Marco looked through the cracked curtain.
His face changed.
"Not ours."
Luca moved Elena behind the steel door.
Matteo raised his weapon.
Then a voice called from outside.
"Luca DeSantis!"
Luca froze.
The voice continued.
"We know you're in there."
Elena looked at him.
"Who is that?"
Luca's face had lost all color.
He whispered one name.
"Daniel Price."
Elena's CFO.
The man she had trusted with every dollar in her mother's foundation.
May you like
Then Daniel shouted through the wall:
"Bring Elena outside, or I'll tell Luca who really ordered his father's death."
