Chapter 13 - MRS. BELLINI’S REAL NAME
The address led us to an abandoned theater in downtown Chicago.
Victor objected to almost every part of the plan.
No visible guards.
No surveillance vans.
No police.
No Dominic.
Mrs. Bellini—Evelyn Salazar—had demanded four people.
Victor.
Adrian.
Mateo.
Me.
“We’re not going alone,” Victor said.
“She has Caleb.”
“We’ll have men two blocks away.”
“She said—”
“I read the message.”
His voice softened.
“I am not gambling with your brother.”
That stopped me.
He had started calling Caleb my brother.
Not “the patient.”
Not leverage.
Not an expense.
My brother.
“We go in four,” Adrian said. “Support stays outside range.”
Mateo nodded.
Victor looked at him.
“If this is a trap—”
“It is a trap.”
I sighed.
“Wonderful.”
Mateo looked at me.
“You don’t have to come.”
“She asked for me.”
“You’re not part of this.”
I laughed without humor.
“My mother apparently had a secret child with you, your mother worked in Victor’s mansion for twenty-five years, my brother was kidnapped and my blood was deliberately spilled in a mafia estate.”
I looked at all three men.
“I think I’ve been promoted to part of this.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
Definitely my brother.
The theater doors were unlocked.
Inside, emergency lights illuminated rows of dusty seats.
Caleb sat on the stage.
I ran toward him.
Victor caught my arm.
“Wait.”
Mrs. Bellini stepped from the shadows.
“Let her.”
Victor stared at the woman who had raised him.
“You.”
Her eyes softened.
“Hello, Vittorio.”
He flinched.
Nobody called him that.
His mother had.
Victor released me.
I reached Caleb.
His wrists were tied loosely.
He looked terrified but unharmed.
“Elise?”
“I’m here.”
“What the hell is happening?”
“Long story.”
“Are these mobsters?”
Mateo raised an eyebrow.
Adrian said, “Technically.”
I cut Caleb free.
Then turned toward Evelyn.
“Why kidnap him?”
“To guarantee attendance.”
“You could have called.”
“You would have brought forty armed men.”
Victor said, “I still might.”
Evelyn smiled sadly.
“You always did hate being told what to do.”
“Who killed Sofia?”
Straight to the wound.
Evelyn’s smile vanished.
“I did not.”
“Who?”
“Anthony’s final heir.”
Victor frowned.
“My father had two sons.”
“No.”
She looked toward the balcony.
“You had three.”
A man stepped into the light.
Maybe forty.
Tall.
Dark suit.
Scar through one eyebrow.
Victor stared.
I had never seen him before.
Mateo had.
His face changed.
“Gabriel.”
The man smiled.
“Uncle.”
Mateo stepped backward.
“No.”
Adrian looked between them.
“Who is he?”
Evelyn answered.
“My eldest grandson.”
Mateo’s voice cracked.
“My brother’s son.”
I remembered my mother only having one known brother.
Apparently family records in this world were suggestions.
Evelyn continued.
“Gabriel’s father was Rafael Salazar.”
Mateo’s older brother.
Killed decades earlier.
Gabriel walked downstairs slowly.
“Anthony Romano raised me.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“To make me useful.”
“Against whom?”
“Everyone.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Romanos. Salazars. Whoever survived.”
The pieces began falling into place.
“You bought my cleaning agency,” I said.
“Yes.”
“You used Caleb’s identity.”
“Yes.”
“You arranged for me to work at the estate.”
“Yes.”
Victor stepped forward.
“You ordered the attack.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
“You fired at Leo.”
“I ordered my men not to hit the child.”
“You shot me three times!”
“An unfortunate variable.”
Victor moved.
Adrian grabbed him.
“Not yet.”
Gabriel looked amused.
“You see? Exactly as predicted.”
Victor froze.
“What?”
“You are predictable.”
Gabriel pointed toward me.
“When someone threatens what you love, you stop thinking.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“What I love?”
Gabriel smiled.
“I didn’t create that either.”
My heart hammered.
“You arranged the engagement.”
“No.”
“You knew he would propose.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because he proposed to Sofia for the same reason.”
Victor went still.
Gabriel continued.
“Protection.”
I looked at Victor.
His face confirmed it.
Sofia had once been in danger.
Victor had married her to protect her.
History repeating.
Gabriel had counted on it.
“Why?” I demanded.
He looked at me.
“Because marriages merge loyalties.”
“Whose loyalties?”
“Yours.”
He gestured toward the three men.
“Victor Romano. Adrian Romano. Mateo Salazar.”
His smile widened.
“All three would burn this city for you now.”
“No.”
“They would.”
I looked around.
Victor said nothing.
Neither did Adrian.
Mateo’s expression was answer enough.
Gabriel continued.
“And you brought them into one room.”
My blood went cold.
Victor looked toward the exits.
Locked.
Adrian swore.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Gabriel, enough.”
He glanced at her.
“You wanted truth, Grandmother.”
“Not this.”
“You spent your life trying to end the war.”
“Yes.”
“So am I.”
“By murdering everyone?”
“By removing the men who keep inheriting it.”
Victor’s hand moved beneath his jacket.
Gabriel smiled.
“I wouldn’t.”
Red laser dots appeared across Victor’s chest.
Then Adrian’s.
Then Mateo’s.
Shooters hidden in the balcony.
I stood frozen.
Gabriel looked at me.
“You survive.”
“Why?”
“Because Marisol wanted her children free.”
“You didn’t know my mother.”
“I knew enough.”
“You know nothing about her.”
Gabriel’s smile faded.
“She wanted peace.”
“She wanted us safe.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
I stepped toward him.
“Peace built on four bodies isn’t peace.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
Then Caleb spoke.
“Elise.”
I looked at him.
His eyes were fixed beneath the stage.
“Smoke.”
A faint trail curled upward.
Fire.
Victor saw it too.
“Everyone down!”
An explosion tore through the rear entrance.
Chaos erupted.
Lights shattered.
Gunfire cracked from the balconies.
Victor threw me behind a row of seats.
Adrian tackled Caleb.
Mateo fired upward.
Evelyn screamed Gabriel’s name.
Through the smoke, I saw Gabriel running toward the side exit.
Victor aimed.
I grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“He did this.”
“Caleb first.”
For one second, rage fought instinct.
Then Victor lowered the gun.
He chose us.
We escaped through a backstage loading door.
Outside, Dominic’s men rushed forward.
Caleb collapsed into my arms.
Adrian stood beside us bleeding from a cut above his eye.
Mateo looked back at the burning theater.
“Where’s my mother?”
No one answered.
Then the doors opened.
Evelyn emerged through the smoke.
Alone.
Victor stepped toward her.
“Gabriel?”
She shook her head.
“Gone.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Evelyn held something in her hands.
Sofia’s digital recorder.
She offered it to him.
“He killed her.”
Victor froze.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she discovered what he was building.”
Victor took the recorder.
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“Sofia died trying to protect all of you.”
May you like
Then she looked at me.
“And she left one final message.”
