Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Refused to Beg|
My mother had given us the clue we needed.
She hadn't shouted.
She hadn't struggled.
She had simply lifted her head enough for the camera to capture the photograph behind her.
I knew she had done it deliberately.
Growing up, she'd taught me to notice things other people ignored.
The color of a car.
The name on a building.
The direction sunlight entered a room.
She used to call it paying attention to the world.
Now that habit might save her life.
Maya examined the video.
“Seventeenth floor,” she said.
“Possibly the suite Vanessa identified.”
She turned toward her team.
“We move.”
Luca reached for his coat.
Maya stopped him.
“No.”
“My men know that building.”
“And mine have authority to conduct a rescue.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
I could almost see the old version of him preparing to argue.
Then he looked at me.
He stepped back.
“Tell me what you need.”
Maya nodded.
“Keep your people away from the hotel.”
“Do not alert Victor.”
“Let us do our jobs.”
For the next forty minutes, I sat in a government vehicle parked several streets away from the Harrington Hotel.
Luca sat beside me.
Neither of us spoke much.
My fingers were wrapped around my mother's scarf.
Every minute felt like an hour.
Then Maya's voice came through the radio.
“Entry team in position.”
I closed my eyes.
Luca reached for my hand.
I held on.
Inside the hotel, agents approached the seventeenth-floor suite.
Security cameras showed two men standing outside the door.
One carried a concealed weapon.
The agents detained them.
Then they entered the room.
My heart stopped when the radio fell silent.
Seconds passed.
A minute.
Then another.
I could hear someone speaking urgently.
A door slammed.
And finally Maya's voice came through.
“We have Evelyn Sullivan.”
I burst into tears.
Luca squeezed my hand.
“She's alive.”
I shook my head, unable to speak.
Maya continued.
“She is conscious.”
“Medical personnel are examining her.”
“Victor Bellini is not in the suite.”
My relief became complicated by fear.
He was still free.
He could still hurt someone.
But my mother was alive.
And for that moment, it was enough.
When they brought her downstairs, I ran so fast that I nearly fell.
“Mom!”
She turned.
Her face crumpled.
“Claire!”
I threw my arms around her.
She held me as tightly as she had when I was a little girl frightened by thunderstorms.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
I couldn't stop crying.
“I'm so sorry.”
She pulled back.
“Don't you dare apologize.”
“He did this.”
“Not you.”
I pressed my forehead against hers.
“I thought I'd lost you.”
She wiped my cheeks.
“You haven't.”
Luca approached slowly.
My mother looked at him.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Evelyn.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I'm sorry my family's problems endangered you.”
She studied him for a long moment.
Then she surprised us both.
“You don't get to call this a family problem.”
Luca looked up.
“This is what happens when powerful men believe ordinary people are worth less than their secrets.”
Her voice was steady.
“If you mean what you say about changing, prove it.”
Luca nodded.
“I will.”
My mother looked at me.
I could see that she wanted to ask questions.
But she was exhausted.
A medical team helped her into an ambulance for a precautionary examination.
Before she left, she held my hand.
“Claire, listen.”
“What is it?”
“Victor kept talking about a restaurant.”
My heart quickened.
“Saint Anthony's?”
She nodded.
“He said Dominic had hidden something there.”
“He told another man to make sure nobody reached it before him.”
“Did you hear the other man's name?”
My mother closed her eyes.
Then she whispered it.
“Sal.”
Luca's expression went cold.
The betrayal was no longer a suspicion.
It was real.
Maya approached.
“We recovered surveillance footage showing Victor leaving the hotel through a service entrance before our team arrived.”
“His driver is in custody.”
“We're working to locate him.”
Luca looked toward the street.
“Salvatore knows every property my father ever owned.”
“He knows Saint Anthony's.”
Tomas joined us.
“And he knows how to enter through the basement.”
Luca's hands curled into fists.
For a second, I thought he might abandon everything he had promised.
Then he looked at my mother being helped into the ambulance.
His expression changed.
“Call Maya's evidence team.”
He turned to Tomas.
“Nobody goes near that restaurant without her knowing.”
I felt myself breathe again.
Later that night, we returned to the hospital.
Dominic was sitting upright when we entered.
Luca told him Evelyn was safe.
The old man closed his eyes in relief.
Then he asked about Salvatore.
Luca didn't answer immediately.
Dominic understood.
“He's still helping Victor.”
Luca nodded.
His father looked toward the window.
“Sal was like a brother to me.”
His voice trembled.
“I trusted him with everything.”
Luca sat beside him.
“Why didn't you tell me about Leonard Price when you wrote the letter?”
Dominic looked ashamed.
“Because I wanted you to love me.”
Luca was silent.
Dominic continued.
“I was afraid that if you knew the things I had done, you would think I deserved what happened.”
Luca took his hand.
“You made terrible choices, Dad.”
Dominic lowered his head.
“But Victor still had no right to take thirty years of your life.”
The old man began crying.
Then he looked at me.
“Claire, there's something else you need to know.”
I moved closer.
“The box beneath the third stair contains more than financial records.”
“What else?”
Dominic's face tightened.
“Names.”
“Names of men Victor paid.”
“Men who helped him steal, threaten, and kill.”
Luca frowned.
“Who?”
Dominic looked directly at his son.
“Some of them still work for you.”
May you like
And then he whispered a sentence that made everyone in the room go silent.
“Salvatore isn't the only traitor in the Moretti family.”
