Chapter 9 - The Circle Breaks
The video shook.
Vittorio disappeared from view.
Machines screamed.
Thomas shouted.
Then the call ended.
No one in my room moved.
Michael stared at the black screen.
“My father just shot Vittorio.”
Vivian whispered, “He’s alive.”
Michael laughed.
It sounded terrible.
“We spent sixteen years mourning a man who was running the organization we were trying to destroy.”
Vivian covered her mouth.
“I didn’t know.”
He turned on her.
“You knew he was involved.”
“I thought he died after he helped create it.”
“You knew more than I did.”
“I was protecting you.”
“Stop saying that!”
The baby cried softly inside the incubator.
Everything stopped.
I pushed myself upright despite Dr. Shaw’s protest.
“My son.”
She checked him.
“He’s okay.”
Okay.
The most beautiful word in the English language.
Michael paced toward the window.
“Daniel killed Vittorio because the baby isn’t for him.”
I thought about the message.
Someone needs his blood.
“Then who?”
Vivian looked at me.
“The founding families.”
“What?”
“The Circle began with five families financing medical research because each carried rare inherited disorders.”
Adrian had never told me this.
Maybe he didn’t know.
“The Romano disorder was immune-based. The Mercers had a degenerative neurological condition. Another family had a blood disease.”
“And DeLuca?”
Vivian looked toward the door.
“I don’t know.”
My father might.
If he survived surgery.
Adrian returned thirty seconds later.
His shirt was soaked with blood.
Not his, I hoped.
He carried a small medical cooler.
“The vial.”
Relief hit me so hard I cried.
He placed it beside Vivian.
“Destroy it.”
She opened the case.
The tube was there.
Still sealed.
Dr. Shaw immediately emptied it into a hazardous-waste container and treated it.
Gone.
Adrian looked at our son.
Then at me.
“What happened?”
“Your father is alive.”
Adrian went motionless.
“No.”
“Was.”
He looked at me.
“Daniel Mercer just shot him.”
Michael added, “On video.”
Adrian sat down.
For several seconds, he looked almost young.
A son learning his dead father had survived the revenge meant to punish him.
“I shot him.”
“Apparently not fatally,” Michael said.
Adrian looked sick.
“I watched him stop breathing.”
“Body switched?” Vivian suggested.
“Doctor bought?”
“Probably both.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Where is Daniel?”
“We don’t know.”
I stared at my husband.
“You never checked the body?”
His jaw tightened.
“I did.”
“Then how?”
Michael answered.
“The Circle controls labs, hospitals, coroners. We already know records were manipulated around Gabriel.”
That reminded me.
Gabriel.
My real brother.
Still missing.
My father knew something.
“Dad.”
Dr. Shaw checked her phone.
“He’s in recovery.”
“Can I see him?”
“Not yet.”
“I need to.”
“Elena, you gave birth less than an hour ago.”
“I noticed.”
She crossed her arms.
“You’re impossible.”
“Family trait.”
Adrian almost smiled.
A nurse entered.
“We need to move the baby to NICU.”
“No,” Adrian said.
Dr. Shaw turned.
“He needs intensive monitoring.”
“Here.”
“We don’t have enough equipment.”
“Bring it.”
“This is not a furniture delivery.”
I touched Adrian’s arm.
“He goes where the doctors say.”
His eyes met mine.
“You trust them?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
“But I trust fear even less.”
He looked at our son.
Then nodded.
The NICU was secured.
Michael personally checked every staff member.
Vivian disabled remote access to the clinic’s medical records.
Adrian called only two people he still trusted.
One was an old driver named Nico.
The other surprised me.
My aunt Rosa.
My mother’s younger sister.
Rosa arrived at dawn carrying a shotgun beneath her coat and a bag of homemade food.
She kissed my forehead.
Then slapped Adrian.
Hard.
No warning.
He accepted it.
“That was for the mistress.”
She slapped him again.
“That was for lying to Elena.”
A third time.
“And that was for Maria.”
Adrian rubbed his cheek.
“Finished?”
“For now.”
I loved Aunt Rosa.
When I told her about the ledger, her face changed.
“Maria found it.”
“You knew?”
“She told me she had proof.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because the night she died, someone broke into my apartment.”
Rosa sat beside me.
“They left a photograph of you sleeping.”
I felt cold.
“I was fifteen.”
“Yes.”
“They threatened me?”
“They threatened anyone who tried to expose them.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
“Did Mom say where the ledger was?”
“No.”
I looked toward Michael.
“Dad said Gabriel knows where the copies are.”
Rosa’s face changed.
“What?”
“You know something.”
She looked down.
“Elena.”
“Please.”
She sighed.
“Gabriel came to me two years after he disappeared.”
I stood despite the pain.
Adrian caught me.
I ignored him.
“He’s alive?”
“He was then.”
“Where?”
“He wouldn’t say. He came at night.”
“What did he want?”
“Your mother’s rosary.”
I stared.
“My rosary?”
Maria’s silver rosary had been given to me after her funeral.
I kept it in a jewelry box.
At the Romano mansion.
“Why?”
“He said Maria hid something inside it.”
My mind raced.
The cross.
Silver.
Unusually heavy.
A hollow compartment?
“The copies.”
Rosa nodded.
“I think so.”
Adrian looked at me.
“The mansion is under federal control.”
“Then we need it before they catalog everything.”
Michael stood.
“I’ll go.”
“No,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“Thomas knows faces. The Circle knows you. Adrian’s wanted by half the government now.”
“Technically not wanted,” Adrian said.
I stared.
He corrected himself.
“Probably wanted.”
Rosa smiled.
“I’ll go.”
“No.”
She looked offended.
“I changed your diapers.”
“That does not qualify you for stealing evidence from a federal crime scene.”
“I also shot a man in 1998.”
Michael blinked.
“Context?”
“Not relevant.”
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
“We need someone agents won’t connect to this.”
A nurse entered with an envelope.
“For Mrs. Romano.”
Every person in the room went still.
“From whom?” Adrian asked.
“She said she was family.”
“Who?”
The nurse hesitated.
“An older woman. She left already.”
Rosa took the envelope first and checked it.
Inside was a photograph.
The Romano mansion, taken that morning.
On the back:
THE ROSARY IS GONE.
Beneath that:
GABRIEL HAS IT.
And an address.
An abandoned church on the south side.
Michael read it.
“Trap.”
“Obviously,” Adrian said.
I looked at the photograph.
There was something else.
In one of the mansion windows, barely visible.
A man.
Watching the photographer.
I recognized the posture.
The slight tilt of the head.
No surgery.
No imitation.
My brother.
The real Gabriel.
My breath stopped.
“He was at the house.”
Michael leaned closer.
“That’s him?”
“Yes.”
Adrian studied the image.
“If Gabriel took the rosary, he wants you to find him.”
“Or someone wants us to think that.”
A phone rang.
Not mine.
Michael’s.
He answered.
No one spoke on the other end.
Then a familiar voice came through.
A voice from my childhood.
“Elena?”
I started crying before I could stop myself.
“Gabriel?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Michael looked stunned.
The real Gabriel spoke again.
“Little sister.”
I covered my mouth.
“Where are you?”
“At the church.”
“Are you safe?”
A pause.
“No.”
“Then leave.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad isn’t the only DeLuca who helped The Circle.”
My skin prickled.
“Who?”
Gabriel took a breath.
“Aunt Rosa.”
Every head turned.
The chair beside my bed was empty.
May you like
Rosa was gone.
So was Adrian’s gun.
