Chapter 11 - THE FALSE PRIEST
By the time we reached Saint Anthony’s Church, it was empty.
No Father Russo.
No Sofia.
No Bear.
Only a single candle burned at the altar.
I walked down the center aisle with my weapon drawn.
“Sofia!”
My voice echoed through the sanctuary.
Nothing.
Luca checked the rectory.
“Clear.”
Gabriel searched the basement.
Also empty.
Elena sat in the SUV with a field medic treating her gunshot wound.
The bullet had passed through soft tissue.
She refused a hospital.
Apparently stubbornness was genetic.
On the altar sat an envelope.
NICO.
I opened it.
Inside was a note.
If you want your daughter back, bring Maria to the Bell estate.
Midnight.
Come without government involvement.
Uncle Daniel.
I stared at the signature.
Father Daniel Russo.
Daniel.
Maria’s brother.
My uncle.
A man who baptized me.
Heard my confessions.
Buried my supposedly dead mother.
All while playing priest.
Gabriel read over my shoulder.
“You really know how to pick family.”
“Not helping.”
Elena entered behind us.
She leaned slightly from pain.
“Daniel has Sofia?”
“Yes.”
Her face transformed.
“We go now.”
“Midnight.”
“I don’t care.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I still don’t care.”
I looked at her.
There she was.
The Elena I remembered.
Fearless when she should have been cautious.
Cautious only when love made her afraid.
“We need Maria.”
Luca called the estate.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
My chest tightened.
“Get cameras.”
He accessed the remote security feed.
The estate appeared quiet.
Then video loaded from the medical room.
Matteo’s bed was empty.
A guard lay unconscious.
Maria was gone.
Of course.
My mother and brother had both disappeared.
Together or separately, I did not know.
“Elena,” I said, “what is the Bell estate?”
“My father’s original home.”
“Location?”
“Hudson Valley.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“That place burned when you were a teenager.”
“The main house did.”
“What remains?”
“Tunnels.”
Everyone in this family loved tunnels.
“The land connects to an old monastery,” Elena continued. “Richard used it for private meetings.”
Luca searched records.
“Property still belongs to Bell Family Trust.”
“Which means Sofia technically owns it,” I said.
Elena closed her eyes.
“My father planned everything around her.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t trust any of us.”
Smart man.
We left immediately.
Two vehicles.
No federal involvement.
Evelyn Shaw sent one message asking where I was.
I ignored it.
The Bell estate sat behind rusted iron gates beneath snow-covered trees.
The ruins of the main mansion rose from the hillside.
One wing remained intact.
Lights glowed below ground.
We entered through an old wine cellar.
No guards.
That worried me.
A trap without visible protection meant whoever waited below believed they controlled the game completely.
We followed a stone corridor.
At the end stood a steel door.
It opened before we touched it.
Father Russo waited inside.
Except he wore no collar.
No black suit.
Instead he wore a gray sweater and shoulder holster.
“Welcome,” he said.
I raised my gun.
“Where is Sofia?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“Maria first.”
“She isn’t with us.”
His smile disappeared.
“Then you wasted the trip.”
I stepped closer.
“You have five seconds.”
Gabriel moved beside me.
Elena remained behind us.
Daniel looked at her.
“Elena.”
“You destroyed my life.”
He sighed.
“I saved it.”
“You helped Maria erase my memories.”
“She believed it necessary.”
I almost shot him immediately.
“Where is Sofia?”
“Downstairs.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Bear?”
Daniel looked confused.
“The dog?”
“Yes.”
“Also alive.”
Good.
“What do you want with Maria?”
His face hardened.
“To end this.”
“What does that mean?”
“She has spent forty years turning everyone into pieces on Richard’s board.”
“You’re blaming Mother?”
“Yes.”
“You helped her.”
“For too long.”
Daniel looked older than ever.
“I became a priest because Maria needed access to people who confessed secrets.”
The admission was grotesque.
“How many lives did you destroy?”
“Enough.”
“And now you grew a conscience?”
“No.”
He looked at Sofia’s hidden location somewhere below us.
“I grew tired.”
That I believed.
A sound echoed from the corridor.
Slow clapping.
Maria stepped from the shadows.
Matteo beside her.
Both armed.
“Beautiful speech, Daniel.”
He went pale.
“Sister.”
Maria smiled.
“You always wanted absolution without consequences.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Glad you’re alive.”
“Disappointed?”
“Frequently.”
Elena raised her gun.
Maria looked at her.
“Elena.”
“You shot me six years ago.”
“No.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“I ordered Mercer to sedate you. Someone else started the fire.”
Gabriel laughed.
“Everyone in this family denies every fire.”
Maria ignored him.
Daniel pointed his gun at her.
“Enough lies.”
Maria turned to him.
“You want truth?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
She looked at all of us.
“Richard Bell was dying.”
Elena shook her head.
“He died four months ago.”
“Yes. But he was diagnosed years earlier.”
“With what?”
“Cancer.”
Elena’s face changed.
“He created the Sofia trust because he knew his empire would fracture after his death.”
“Why Sofia?”
“Because she was innocent.”
Maria smiled sadly.
“The only innocent person in any of this.”
I hated how true that sounded.
Daniel lowered his gun slightly.
“You tried to control the trust.”
“I tried to keep it from Whitmore.”
“By manipulating everyone?”
“By doing what Richard asked.”
Elena stepped forward.
“My father asked you to destroy my memory?”
Maria flinched.
“No.”
There.
Real guilt.
“That was my decision.”
“Why?”
“Because after the fire, you saw something.”
“What?”
Maria looked at Matteo.
He stared back.
“You saw Matteo kill a federal agent.”
Matteo’s face remained still.
Daniel whispered, “Thomas Reed.”
Maria nodded.
“Reed had uncovered the ledger. Matteo panicked.”
Everyone looked at him.
Matteo laughed.
“Mother, really?”
“Tell them.”
He raised his gun.
“Why?”
“Because this ends tonight.”
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
He aimed at Maria.
I aimed at him.
Gabriel aimed at Daniel.
Daniel aimed at Maria.
Elena aimed at Matteo.
It would have been funny if my daughter were not locked somewhere beneath us.
Then Sofia’s voice came through an intercom.
“Nico?”
Every weapon lowered slightly.
“Sofia!”
“I’m in a room.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Of course.
“There’s a computer.”
Maria’s face changed.
“What computer?”
Sofia continued.
“It says I need to put my hand on it.”
“No!” Maria shouted.
Too late.
A mechanical sound echoed beneath the floor.
Daniel went pale.
“What did she do?”
Maria rushed toward the stairs.
We followed.
Below the cellar was a steel vault.
The door stood open.
Inside, Sofia sat at a terminal with Bear beside her.
She had placed her hand on a biometric scanner.
A screen displayed:
BELL SUCCESSION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
Elena ran to her.
Sofia jumped into her arms.
For a moment, nothing else mattered.
Mother and daughter.
Six years stolen.
Both crying.
Gabriel looked away.
So did I.
Then alarms began sounding.
The computer changed.
AUTHORIZED HEIR CONFIRMED: SOFIA ELENA MORETTI.
TRUST CONTROL TRANSFER IN PROGRESS.
Maria stared at the screen.
“No.”
“What?” I asked.
She looked terrified.
“Richard changed the protocol.”
“To what?”
The screen answered.
ALL PROTECTED FILES WILL BE RELEASED TO FEDERAL AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES IN 59:59.
One hour.
The complete Bell archive was about to publish automatically.
Matteo swore.
Daniel went white.
Maria whispered,
“If those files release, people far more powerful than Whitmore will come for Sofia.”
Gabriel looked at the countdown.
“Can we stop it?”
Maria nodded.
“Yes.”
“How?”
She looked at Sofia.
“Only the heir can stop the release.”
Elena stepped in front of her daughter.
“Then stop it.”
Maria’s face hardened.
“Not yet.”
I stared at her.
“What are you doing?”
She looked at me.
“For forty years, men have survived because Richard’s evidence remained hidden.”
The timer reached 58:41.
Maria turned to Sofia.
“We finally have something they fear.”
A gunshot exploded.
Daniel fell.
Blood spread across his chest.
Matteo held the smoking gun.
“Enough talking.”
May you like
Then he grabbed Sofia.
And pressed his pistol beneath her chin.
