Chapter 6 - The Passenger He Never Mentioned
Mara turned the phone toward Dante.
He read the message.
His face changed instantly.
Elena saw it.
"What does it mean?"
Dante said nothing.
Mara stared at him.
"Who was driving?"
"We need to get out of this tower."
"Who was driving, Dante?"
He looked at the fire below.
Not her.
That answered enough.
Mara stepped closer.
"You told me you were in a highway collision."
"I was."
"You let me assume you were driving."
"I never said that."
"That's a lawyer's answer."
Marco interrupted.
"We're running out of time."
Smoke began climbing the stairwell.
Dante looked at Mara.
"Rafael was driving."
"He's alive."
"Yes."
"Then why does Alessandro want me to ask?"
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Because there was another passenger."
Elena went still.
"Who?"
Dante looked at her.
"Lucia."
Mara stopped.
"No."
"Your mother was in the car."
"My mother died eighteen months ago."
"That's what I believed."
Mara stared.
The tower disappeared around her.
"What are you saying?"
"Six hours ago, a woman contacted me using Isabella's old emergency code."
Isabella looked shocked.
"What code?"
"The one from Palermo."
Isabella paled.
"Only three people knew that."
"You. Me. Lucia."
Mara whispered, "My mother called you?"
"I met her outside the city."
"You saw her?"
"Yes."
Alive.
Lucia.
Alive.
Mara almost collapsed.
Dante reached for her.
She stepped back.
"You knew."
"For six hours."
"You knew my mother was alive and didn't tell me?"
"I was trying to understand why."
"You let me grieve her!"
"I met you tonight."
"You still knew who I was!"
"Not until I saw the letter."
Mara's eyes burned.
"You recognized Bellini."
"Because Lucia used that name."
"You should have told me."
"Yes."
The admission stopped her.
Dante didn't defend himself.
"I should have told you."
Smoke thickened.
Elena grabbed Mara's arm.
"Be angry later. Survive now."
A maintenance ladder led to the roof.
They climbed.
Dante struggled.
Elena stayed beneath him.
On the roof, a rescue cable hung from an adjacent construction crane.
Marco stared.
"That wasn't here before."
Isabella smiled.
"Lucia."
Mara looked at her.
"My mother arranged this?"
"If she knew Alessandro would use the tower, she planned an escape."
They crossed one at a time.
Dante last.
His injured leg swung dangerously over the burning gap.
Mara watched, furious and terrified at once.
He reached the opposite roof.
They descended through the neighboring building.
Outside, sirens approached.
Isabella had anonymously alerted firefighters.
Dante's vehicle waited three streets away.
Inside, Mara faced him.
"Start talking."
He nodded.
"Lucia contacted me this afternoon."
"From where?"
"A pay phone."
"What did she want?"
"Protection."
"For herself?"
"No."
"For whom?"
Dante looked at Elena.
"Elena."
Elena frowned.
"I haven't seen Lucia in months."
"She said Alessandro had found your location."
Elena's face changed.
"That's why they moved me."
"Apparently."
Mara said, "What happened in the car?"
"Lucia got in. Rafael drove. I sat beside her."
"And?"
"She gave me the orthopedic brace."
Mara stared.
"The brace came from her?"
"Yes."
"Then she planted the memory card."
"I didn't know that."
"Why were you wearing it before the crash?"
"I wasn't."
Mara frowned.
Dante continued.
"Lucia told me if anything happened, I needed to make sure the hospital used that specific brace after surgery."
"So she knew you might be hurt."
"She knew someone had been following us."
"What happened?"
"A truck hit the passenger side."
Mara's blood chilled.
"Where my mother was sitting?"
"Yes."
"What happened to her?"
"When I woke up, the car was upside down."
Dante's voice tightened.
"Rafael was bleeding. My leg was trapped."
"And Lucia?"
"Gone."
"Body?"
"No."
"Blood?"
"Some."
Mara looked at Elena.
"Alessandro took her."
Dante nodded.
"That's what I believe."
Marco checked his phone.
"We have hospital security footage."
"How?"
"I still have access to St. Aurelia's system."
He played a video.
A man in surgical scrubs pushed a wheelchair through a private corridor.
Lucia Bellini sat in it.
Alive.
Her gray hair was bloodied.
But she was conscious.
Mara touched the screen.
"Mom."
The timestamp was forty minutes ago.
The wheelchair entered Suite 900.
Mara's eyes hardened.
"We're going back."
Dante said, "No."
She looked at him.
"My mother is alive."
"Which is exactly why you don't walk into Alessandro's trap."
"You walked into a clock tower for Elena."
His face tightened.
"That's different."
"Explain."
He couldn't.
Elena spoke quietly.
"It isn't."
Dante looked at his wife.
Elena touched his arm.
"We go together."
They returned to St. Aurelia through an old service entrance Isabella knew.
Police had arrived outside, but Vittorio's influence had delayed anyone from reaching the ninth floor.
Inside, the hospital felt abandoned.
Mara changed into a white coat over her scrubs.
Elena wore borrowed medical clothing.
Dante refused anything resembling disguise.
"Your face is on every news station," Mara whispered.
"Then they'll know where I am."
"That's the opposite of disguise."
Marco muttered, "I stopped trying years ago."
They reached level eight.
The stairwell door to nine was locked.
Isabella used an override key.
They entered.
Suite 900 stood at the far end.
Door open.
No guards.
Dante raised his gun.
Mara walked beside him.
Inside, Dr. Leland remained tied to the chair.
Alive.
The bloody writing remained on the wall.
But Lucia was gone.
Mara rushed to Leland.
She removed the gag.
"Where is she?"
He coughed.
"Basement surgical theater."
Isabella frowned.
"There isn't one."
Leland looked terrified.
"There is."
Mara remembered the hidden underground floor.
"How do we reach it?"
"Private elevator."
"Which?"
Leland shook his head.
"I don't know."
Dante cut his restraints.
"Who did this?"
Leland looked at him.
"Your father."
Dante's face hardened.
Leland grabbed Mara's wrist.
"He said to give you something."
"What?"
The doctor pointed toward the hospital bed.
Under the pillow was an old cassette tape.
Mara picked it up.
Her name was written across it.
MARA — AGE 3 DAYS.
She stared.
"What is this?"
Leland whispered, "Your mother hid it in neonatal archives."
Dante found a cassette player in an old equipment cabinet.
They inserted the tape.
Lucia's younger voice.
"If Alessandro ever finds this recording, then I have failed."
Mara covered her mouth.
"There is something he believes was hidden in Mara's medical file."
Static.
"He is wrong."
Mara leaned closer.
"The evidence was never in the file."
Another pause.
"It was inside Mara."
Everyone froze.
Mara looked at Dante.
"What does that mean?"
Lucia continued.
"On the third day after her birth, I had a surgeon implant a small capsule beneath the scar Alessandro believed came from an emergency procedure."
Mara's hand moved instinctively toward her lower abdomen.
A tiny scar she had had her entire life.
"Inside that capsule is the only surviving original ledger identifying every person involved in Alessandro's network."
Dante stared.
Mara felt suddenly exposed.
The tape continued.
"If he discovers the truth, he will cut it out of her."
The cassette clicked off.
Nobody spoke.
Then the elevator at the end of the hallway chimed.
Mara turned.
The doors opened.
Lucia Bellini stood inside.
Alive.
Her face was bruised.
Her hands were tied.
Behind her, Alessandro Vescari held a gun against her head.
He smiled at Mara.
"Come downstairs, daughter."
The elevator doors began closing.
May you like
Lucia shouted one sentence before they vanished.
"Mara, don't let him take you alive!"
