Chapter 9 - THE DEAD WOMAN’S SHADOW
For one terrible second, I wondered whether madness ran in my family.
Elena was dead.
Father Russo confirmed it.
Gabriel told Sofia the same thing.
Her safe house burned six years ago.
Yet my supposedly dead mother stood in my hallway claiming Gabriel was hiding from Elena.
Sofia gripped the back of my shirt.
“Mom is alive?”
Maria looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t what you just said,” I snapped.
My mother raised both hands.
“You’re still impatient.”
“You’ve been dead twenty-three years. I think I’ve been patient enough.”
Luca almost smiled.
Maria did not.
“I need to show you something.”
“No.”
“Nico—”
“You don’t walk into my house after two decades and start giving orders.”
“I’m trying to keep Sofia alive.”
“So was everyone else who lied to me.”
Maria looked older suddenly.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Like she carried twenty-three years of things she could not put down.
“Then let me earn five minutes.”
I stared at her.
“Three.”
She nodded.
We moved to my study.
Sofia refused to leave.
I did not force her.
Maria placed a file on the desk.
Inside were photographs of a woman entering hotels, banks, and train stations over the past six years.
Every image was grainy.
Every face partially obscured.
But the posture.
The hair.
The shape.
Elena.
My heart began hammering.
“When were these taken?”
“The most recent was three months ago.”
Sofia leaned over the photograph.
“That looks like Mom.”
I could not breathe.
“Who took them?”
“My people.”
“You have people?”
Maria raised an eyebrow.
“You thought Matteo inherited all his bad habits from your father?”
Despite everything, Luca coughed to hide laughter.
I ignored him.
“Why would Gabriel say Elena died?”
“Because someone using Elena’s identity has hunted him for six years.”
That distinction mattered.
“Using her identity?”
Maria nodded.
“We don’t know if it is actually Elena.”
My hope collapsed back into suspicion.
“Plastic surgery?”
“Possibly.”
“A decoy?”
“Possibly.”
“Then why say Gabriel is hiding from Elena?”
“Because that’s what he believes.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No. Daddy loved Mom.”
Maria’s face softened.
“I’m sure he did.”
“You don’t know him.”
“No.”
Sofia stepped closer to me.
Good.
She did not trust Maria.
Neither did I.
“What does the woman want?” I asked.
“The Bell ledger.”
“Everyone wants the ledger.”
“Not for the same reason.”
Maria sat.
“Richard Bell kept three ledgers.”
Luca swore.
Of course.
“The microfilm is one,” she continued. “It contains the names.”
“What do the others contain?”
“Transactions and evidence.”
“And the third?”
“Insurance.”
“What kind?”
Maria looked at me.
“The kind that can put people in prison for life.”
“So where are they?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be here.”
I studied her.
“You came because of Anthony Vale.”
“Yes.”
“He worked for you?”
“For years.”
I nearly reached across the desk.
“He kidnapped Sofia.”
“No.”
“He helped someone enter my house.”
“Yes.”
“Difference?”
“He believed the intruders were mine.”
“Convenient.”
Maria’s jaw tightened.
“He made a catastrophic mistake.”
“That nearly got my daughter killed.”
“I know.”
“No.”
My voice hardened.
“You don’t get to say that.”
She looked at me.
“You abandoned two sons.”
“I protected you.”
“Enough.”
The word echoed.
Sofia flinched.
I lowered my voice.
“You left us with Father.”
Maria’s expression broke slightly.
“He was the only person powerful enough to make my death believable.”
“He became an alcoholic.”
“I know.”
“Matteo became what he is.”
“I know.”
“And I became this.”
I gestured around the room.
The empire.
The guards.
The blood.
Maria’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
For a moment, I saw my mother.
Not the strategist.
Not the ghost.
The woman who used to sit beside my bed when I had fever.
Then she said the wrong thing.
“You became strong.”
I laughed bitterly.
“This is what you call strong?”
Silence.
Sofia touched my hand.
A small anchor.
I breathed.
“Three minutes are over.”
Maria stood.
“Then one last thing.”
She removed a photograph from her pocket.
Gabriel.
Taken yesterday.
Alive.
Walking into a train station in Newark.
Alone.
Sofia grabbed the photo.
“Daddy.”
“Where was he going?” I asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“My surveillance team vanished.”
All three?
“How?”
“Two cars found abandoned. Phones destroyed.”
“Bodies?”
“None.”
“That sounds like Gabriel.”
Maria nodded.
“Exactly.”
Sofia stared at the image.
“He looks hurt.”
Gabriel’s shirt hung loosely.
His face was bruised.
But he was moving under his own power.
“What time?”
“Sixteen hours ago.”
He had survived the attack on the safe house.
He had survived whoever held him.
Or escaped.
“Why didn’t he come here?”
Maria looked at Sofia.
“Maybe because he thinks bringing himself near her will expose her.”
That sounded like Gabriel.
Or maybe he did not trust me.
Also Gabriel.
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A text.
NICO. COME ALONE. OLD BOXING GYM. ONE HOUR.
Then another.
DON’T TRUST THE WOMAN CLAIMING TO BE YOUR MOTHER.
I showed Luca.
Maria could not see.
“Gabriel?” he asked.
“Maybe.”
I looked at Maria.
She was watching us.
I slipped the phone away.
“You’re staying here.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
She almost laughed.
“You really are your father’s son.”
“No.”
I walked toward the door.
“I’m Sofia’s father.”
That silenced her.
The old boxing gym stood beneath an abandoned elevated rail line.
Gabriel and I trained there as teenagers.
The owner died years ago.
No one used it now.
I entered alone.
Dust covered the ring.
One overhead bulb glowed.
“Gabriel.”
No answer.
I moved deeper.
Then a man stepped from behind the heavy bags.
Thin.
Bearded.
Bruised.
Alive.
Gabriel Santoro.
For six years, I believed I buried him.
For twelve years, I believed he helped Elena betray me.
Now he stood ten feet away.
Neither of us spoke.
Then I crossed the distance and punched him.
Hard.
Gabriel hit the floor.
He touched his bleeding mouth.
“Fair.”
I hit him again.
“Also fair.”
Then I grabbed him and pulled him into an embrace.
For several seconds, two men who had ordered hundreds of acts of violence stood in an abandoned gym holding each other like boys.
Gabriel laughed painfully.
“You still hit like an angry nun.”
“You still deserve worse.”
“Yes.”
I released him.
“Sofia is alive.”
He closed his eyes.
His whole body sagged with relief.
“Thank God.”
“She thinks you’re her father.”
“I am.”
The answer came too quickly.
My jaw tightened.
He saw it.
“I raised her, Nico.”
“She’s biologically mine.”
“I know.”
“You knew every day.”
“Yes.”
I nearly hit him again.
“Why?”
“Elena made me promise.”
“Elena is dead.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“No.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“You think she survived?”
“No.”
He looked toward the dark windows.
“I know she did.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“She disappeared after the fire.”
“Why?”
“Because she discovered the truth.”
“What truth?”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“The person who ordered the fire wasn’t Matteo.”
“Then who?”
He looked at me.
“Your mother.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She says Elena is hunting you.”
“She is.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Gabriel reached into his coat.
I raised my gun.
He froze.
“Slow.”
He removed a flash drive.
“Elena recorded this two days after the fire.”
My heart hammered.
“You’ve had it for six years?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t show me?”
“She ordered me not to.”
“Everyone seems very comfortable making decisions for me.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“Some things never change.”
I snatched the drive.
“Why is Elena hunting you?”
His expression became haunted.
“Because six years ago, I took Sofia away from her.”
My hand tightened around the flash drive.
“You kidnapped my daughter?”
“I saved her.”
“From Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Gabriel looked me directly in the eyes.
“Because the woman who came out of that fire looked like Elena.”
A chill moved through me.
“But she wasn’t.”
Before I could ask what he meant, a red dot appeared on Gabriel’s chest.
Sniper.
I slammed him down.
The window exploded.
Glass rained over us.
A second shot punched into the ring post.
We crawled behind concrete.
Gabriel drew a pistol.
“Still think your mother came to help?”
I looked toward the shattered window.
“No.”
Then the gym lights went out.
And a woman’s voice came from the darkness.
“Nico?”
My entire body froze.
That voice.
I had heard it in dreams for twelve years.
Elena.
May you like
“Nico,” she whispered again.
“I finally found you.”
