Chapter 10 - ELENA
Some voices never leave your bones.
Elena’s was one of them.
I could have heard her speak through gunfire, through twenty years, through death itself.
The gym was dark.
Gabriel crouched beside me with his gun raised.
“No,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
“What?”
“That isn’t her.”
The woman stepped beneath the emergency light.
My heart stopped.
Elena.
Older.
A thin scar crossed her temple.
Her dark hair was shorter.
But it was her face.
Her eyes.
The tiny curve of her mouth when she looked at me.
“Nico.”
I stood despite Gabriel grabbing my sleeve.
“Don’t.”
The woman’s eyes filled with tears.
“You got old.”
It was exactly what Elena would have said.
I lowered my gun slightly.
Gabriel raised his.
“Stay back.”
She looked at him.
Hatred transformed her face.
“You.”
“Don’t come closer.”
“You stole my child.”
“You tried to kill her.”
“That is a lie.”
She looked at me.
“Nico, he took Sofia after the fire. He told everyone I was dead.”
My mind split between impossible versions of reality.
“Prove who you are.”
Her expression broke.
“You gave me the locket in Naples.”
“Public enough.”
“You hated olives but ate them because I liked them.”
Gabriel knew that.
“Not enough.”
She swallowed.
“Our first night together, you lied and said the scar on your ribs came from a knife fight.”
My body went still.
“It came from falling through Father Russo’s greenhouse roof when you were fifteen.”
Only Elena knew that.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Nico—”
“She knows.”
“She was told.”
“By who?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
The woman reached into her coat.
Both of us raised guns.
She stopped.
“Photograph.”
“Slowly.”
She removed a folded picture.
It showed Elena holding newborn Sofia.
Hospital room.
Date eight years earlier.
On the back were words in my handwriting.
Except I had never written them.
For our Sofia.
I looked at her.
“I didn’t write this.”
“I know.”
That answer unsettled me.
“Then why show it?”
“Because Matteo forged it.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
She turned on him.
“You forged my death.”
“To save Sofia.”
“You stole her!”
“You were screaming that she had to die!”
The gym became silent.
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
Gabriel’s face went pale.
“You don’t remember.”
“Remember what?”
He slowly lowered his gun.
“After the fire, I found you behind the house.”
Her expression changed.
“You were burned. Bleeding. You could barely stand.”
“I remember.”
“You saw Sofia.”
“Yes.”
“You said she had to die.”
“No.”
“You tried to take my gun.”
“No!”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You called her the key.”
The woman shook her head violently.
“I would never hurt my daughter.”
“Then who were you?”
Silence.
A terrible possibility entered the room.
Memory loss.
Drugging.
Impersonation.
Something worse.
Elena touched the scar on her temple.
“I woke in a hospital three weeks after the fire.”
“Where?”
“Canada.”
Gabriel frowned.
“You disappeared before paramedics arrived.”
“I don’t remember leaving.”
“Who was with you?”
“A woman named Dr. Mercer.”
I knew the name.
Dr. Helen Mercer.
Private neurologist.
Worked with wealthy clients.
Also on the microfilm ledger.
Of course.
“What did Mercer tell you?” I asked.
“That Gabriel caused the fire.”
Gabriel cursed.
“She said he killed my father, stole Sofia, and tried to kill me.”
“Richard Bell died four months ago,” I said.
Elena stared.
“What?”
“Your father died recently.”
She staggered backward.
“No.”
“He was alive?”
“Yes.”
Her face drained.
“They told me he died six years ago.”
Now we understood.
Someone had built lies for all of us.
Separate cages.
Separate histories.
Each designed to turn us against each other.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Who benefits from that?”
“My mother.”
Elena’s eyes hardened.
“Maria.”
“You knew she was alive?”
“Yes.”
I felt rage again.
“Of course you did.”
“I found out the night of the fire.”
“How?”
“She was there.”
Gabriel and I exchanged a look.
“Maria was at the safe house?”
“Yes.”
“She said she came to help.”
“Did she?”
Elena laughed without humor.
“That night ended with half the house burning and Sofia disappearing.”
Good point.
“Why would Mother save Sofia now?”
“Because Sofia is the legal key to Bellweather.”
We told Elena about the trusts.
She sat on the edge of the ring.
For the first time, she looked exhausted.
“All these years…”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought Sofia was dead for three weeks.”
Gabriel lowered his gaze.
“When I learned she wasn’t, I spent six years looking for her.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“You moved her every time I got close.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because every location you found was followed by armed men.”
Elena stared at him.
“They weren’t mine.”
“I know that now.”
She covered her face.
The tragedy of it was almost unbearable.
Three adults trying to protect one child.
Manipulated into believing the others were threats.
I sat beside her.
Not touching.
Not yet.
“Elena.”
She looked at me.
Twelve years of grief lived between us.
“You should hate me,” she whispered.
“I tried.”
A tiny smile appeared.
“You were always bad at letting go.”
“You were worse.”
Her eyes dropped to the locket around my neck.
“Sofia gave you that?”
“Yes.”
Elena began crying.
“She has it.”
“She protected it.”
“I thought it was lost.”
I removed the chain.
She touched it but did not take it.
“What is she like?”
The question destroyed the last wall between us.
“Stubborn.”
Elena laughed through tears.
“Yours.”
“Suspicious.”
“Yours.”
“She likes dogs more than people.”
“Mine.”
“She burns me every time I lie.”
Elena smiled.
“Definitely mine.”
Gabriel leaned against the ropes.
“She also likes terrible pancakes.”
We looked at him.
He raised his hands.
“That part is mine.”
For one fragile moment, we were almost a family.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Too many.
Gabriel looked through the broken window.
“Police.”
“No,” I said.
“Federal?”
“Worse.”
Armored vehicles surrounded the gym.
A loudspeaker activated.
“Nicolas Moretti. Gabriel Santoro. Elena Bell. Exit with your hands visible.”
Elena went pale.
“They know I’m here.”
A second announcement.
“You are surrounded under authority of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Evelyn Shaw had never mentioned Homeland Security.
Gabriel looked at me.
“The ledger reaches further than we thought.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Luca.
DO NOT COME OUT.
Then another.
THE AGENT IN COMMAND IS ON THE MICROFILM.
I looked through the cracked wall.
A tall man in federal tactical gear stood behind an armored vehicle.
Deputy Director Samuel Kane.
Name number seventeen on Elena’s list.
He lifted the loudspeaker again.
“You have sixty seconds.”
Gabriel checked the rear exit.
“Blocked.”
Elena looked at the basement stairs.
“There used to be a coal tunnel.”
I remembered.
When we were boys, Gabriel and I had used it to sneak into the gym.
“If it hasn’t collapsed.”
“We’re about to find out.”
We reached the basement as federal agents breached upstairs.
The tunnel entrance was hidden behind an old boiler.
Gabriel pulled the grate aside.
Darkness.
We crawled.
Behind us, boots thundered down the stairs.
Then a shot rang out.
Elena cried out.
I turned.
Blood covered her side.
“Go!” Gabriel shouted.
I grabbed her.
We crawled deeper.
The tunnel shook as explosives detonated behind us.
Twenty feet ahead, moonlight appeared through a drainage opening.
Luca waited outside.
He pulled Elena free.
I followed.
Then Gabriel.
A black SUV accelerated toward us.
We piled inside.
“Drive!”
Luca hit the gas.
Bullets struck the rear window.
Elena pressed her hand against her wound.
Sofia’s face filled my mind.
“We go home.”
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Estate is compromised.”
My blood froze.
“Sofia?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
Luca looked in the mirror.
“With Father Russo.”
That gave me little comfort.
Then Elena whispered,
“No.”
I turned.
“What?”
Her face had gone white.
“Never take Sofia to Father Russo.”
“Why?”
She struggled to breathe.
“Because Russo was the one who introduced Maria to Richard Bell.”
Gabriel stared.
“So?”
Elena looked at me.
“Because Father Russo isn’t a priest.”
My stomach dropped.
“What is he?”
Elena closed her eyes.
May you like
“Maria’s brother.”
And Sofia was alone with him.
