Chapter 5 - Where Lucia Stopped Time
Dante had twelve minutes to reach the clock tower.
Vittorio had made that very clear.
No police.
No extra security.
No tricks.
Dante looked at the dead messenger in the alley.
Then at Mara.
"You're not coming."
She almost laughed.
"My mother left the clue."
"Exactly why you're not coming."
"You found out I might be your sister fifteen minutes ago and you've already become controlling?"
"This isn't funny."
"No. It isn't."
Isabella stepped between them.
"Mara goes."
Dante glared.
"Whose side are you on?"
"Elena's."
Dante's jaw tightened.
Isabella continued.
"If Lucia designed the meeting, Mara may be the only person who can get us through it."
Marco said, "Boss, she's right."
Dante looked betrayed by his entire family.
Finally:
"Fine."
They abandoned the vehicle and took a delivery van from Rafael's contact nearby.
Dante sat in back while Mara rewrapped his leg.
"You need a hospital."
"I was in one."
"You assaulted the staff."
"One staff member."
"Two."
"The second one slipped."
Mara looked at him.
He almost smiled.
Then his face became serious.
"Did Lucia ever mention me?"
Mara paused.
"Not by name."
"What did she say?"
"She said my biological father had another son."
Dante waited.
"She said he was dangerous."
"Accurate."
"She said he was also loyal to people he loved."
Dante looked away.
"Less accurate."
"Maybe she knew better than you do."
The van stopped two blocks from the harbor.
The clock tower rose against the city lights.
Old brick.
Four faces frozen permanently at 11:47.
Mara looked upward.
Where Lucia stopped time.
Her mother had worked a mass-casualty incident there twenty years earlier after a ferry collision.
The tower clock had broken that night.
11:47.
Lucia had once told Mara:
Some moments change everything that comes after them.
They entered through a maintenance door.
No guards.
Too easy.
Marco searched ahead.
Isabella stayed behind Dante.
Mara followed.
Inside, the tower smelled of dust and salt.
They climbed.
Dante struggled.
His face turned pale.
Mara whispered, "Stop."
"No."
"You're going to pass out."
"Later."
At the third level, they found a chair.
Empty.
Ropes on the floor.
Dante stared.
"Elena."
Mara touched the rope.
Warm.
Recently cut.
A phone sat on the chair.
It rang.
Dante answered.
Alessandro's voice.
"Hello, son."
Dante's expression became lethal.
"Where is she?"
"You sound exactly like me when you're angry."
"I am nothing like you."
"We both know that's not true."
"Elena."
"Alive."
"Let me hear her."
A pause.
Then Elena:
"Dante."
He closed his eyes.
One word nearly broke him.
"Elena."
"I'm okay."
"Where are you?"
"Dante, don't give him the—"
A sound.
Her voice disappeared.
Dante clenched the phone.
Alessandro returned.
"Bring the card to the top."
"If you hurt her—"
"You'll what? Kill me?"
"Slowly."
Alessandro laughed.
"There's my son."
The line ended.
They continued upward.
At level five, Isabella stopped.
A symbol had been painted beside the staircase.
Three intersecting circles.
"Lucia."
Mara recognized it too.
Her mother drew that symbol on recipe cards whenever she wanted Mara to remember something important.
Mara pressed the center.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside sat a small recorder.
She pressed play.
Lucia's voice filled the stairwell.
"Mara, if you found this, Alessandro has forced you into the tower."
Mara's eyes filled instantly.
Her mother's voice.
Alive again.
"Dante may be with you. If he is, tell him his wife did not betray him."
Dante went still.
"Elena agreed to disappear because Alessandro threatened the children."
Dante frowned.
"What children?"
Mara looked at Isabella.
She didn't know either.
Lucia continued.
"Not her children. The children Alessandro had been moving through the medical network."
Dante's face changed.
Elena had sacrificed herself for strangers.
"Alessandro's network uses St. Aurelia and three private clinics to erase identities. Some victims are protected. Others are sold to people who pay to make someone vanish."
Mara felt sick.
"Elena gathered the names."
The recording crackled.
"The memory card contains them all."
Dante looked at the card in his hand.
Evidence.
Enough to destroy the entire network.
"If Alessandro gets it, he will erase the last proof."
The recording ended.
Marco said, "We can't give it to him."
Dante looked upward.
"He has Elena."
"We make a copy."
"No time."
Mara held out her hand.
"Give it to me."
Dante frowned.
"Why?"
"Trust me."
He handed it over.
Mara removed her hospital ID badge.
Inside the plastic casing was a tiny NFC storage chip used for encrypted access credentials.
She opened it with a safety pin.
"What are you doing?"
"The hospital's secure badges hold emergency access certificates."
Isabella understood.
"You can duplicate files?"
"Not normally."
"Normally?"
Mara looked at Dante.
"I once dated someone in IT."
Despite everything, Marco laughed.
Dante shook his head.
"This night continues to surprise me."
Using the recorder's USB port and an adapter Isabella carried, Mara began copying the memory card.
Progress.
31%.
Footsteps above.
Marco raised his weapon.
46%.
Dante took position beside the stairs.
62%.
A shadow appeared.
Marco aimed.
"Stop."
The person descending raised her hands.
"Dante?"
He froze.
Elena.
She stood ten feet above him.
Alive.
Dante dropped his weapon.
For three years he had imagined this moment.
Mara saw it in his face.
He climbed one step.
Elena rushed down.
They collided halfway between floors.
Dante wrapped both arms around her.
She buried her face against his neck.
Neither spoke.
There was nothing to say.
Isabella cried openly.
Marco looked away.
Mara watched two people reclaim three stolen years.
Then Elena whispered something into Dante's ear.
His expression changed.
He slowly released her.
"What?"
Elena looked terrified.
"That's not Alessandro upstairs."
Dante frowned.
"Whose voice was on the phone?"
"A recording."
"Then where is he?"
Elena looked at Mara.
"At St. Aurelia."
Mara's stomach dropped.
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't care about the card anymore."
"Then what does he want?"
Elena looked directly at her.
"You."
Mara stopped breathing.
Elena continued.
"Lucia hid something inside your medical records when you were born."
"What?"
"I don't know. Alessandro has spent thirty years trying to find it."
The file transfer completed.
100%.
Mara removed the original memory card and gave the copy to Dante.
"Take this."
Elena stared.
"What did you do?"
"Insurance."
An explosion shook the tower.
Dust rained from above.
Marco shouted.
Another blast hit lower down.
The staircase buckled.
Someone was destroying the exits.
Dante grabbed Elena.
Isabella pulled Mara back.
Marco checked the window.
"Fire below!"
The tower had become a trap.
Then Mara's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Alessandro spoke.
"Come back to the hospital, daughter."
Mara's blood went cold.
"Why?"
"Because Lucia left you one final gift."
"What gift?"
Alessandro laughed softly.
"The truth about why Dante's accident happened tonight."
The call ended.
A message appeared.
A photograph.
Suite 900.
Dr. Leland sat tied to a chair.
Beside him was Mara's hospital file.
May you like
And written across the wall behind him in blood were five words:
ASK DANTE WHO WAS DRIVING.
