Chapter 9 - The Price of a DaughterCarlo DeLuca gave them one hour.
Ambulances lined the Moretti driveway.
Guests signed statements under the supervision of private attorneys before federal authorities arrived.
The official explanation was deliberately vague.
An attempted attack.
An internal security breach.
Nothing about Enzo.
Nothing about the Consortium.
Nothing about twenty-seven years of secrets.
Not yet.
Enzo had been moved into a guarded underground room.
Adrian Vale was alive, barely.
Daniel had been shot through the shoulder.
The bullet missed the artery.
Elena sat beside his hospital bed inside a private medical suite in the estate.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
There was too much to say.
Daniel finally looked at her.
“You cut your hair.”
She stared.
“Twenty-one years ago.”
“I liked it long.”
“I liked husbands who came home.”
He looked down.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“I know.”
“Stop agreeing with me.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t say okay.”
A small smile touched his face.
Elena started crying.
She hated herself for it.
Daniel reached with his good hand.
She pulled away.
His expression broke.
Twenty-seven years was not erased because someone came back alive.
“You should have found a way,” she whispered.
“I tried.”
“You could have called.”
“They watched you.”
“For twenty-seven years?”
“For most of them.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I want you to.”
Daniel swallowed.
“After Salvatore helped me escape, I drove toward Philadelphia. I got within four blocks of Sofia’s school.”
Elena went still.
“They were waiting.”
“Vale?”
“His people.”
“What happened?”
“They showed me photographs. You buying groceries. Sofia asleep beside the window. You walking into church.”
Elena’s skin went cold.
“They said if I came home, they would kill both of you.”
“Why not tell police?”
“Because some of the police were theirs.”
“Federal agents?”
“Some of them too.”
“You could have disappeared with us.”
“I thought about it every day.”
“But you didn’t.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“No.”
Elena looked away.
Love could survive anger.
That was sometimes worse than love dying.
Because if love died, grief had direction.
If love survived betrayal, it had nowhere to go.
A knock came.
Luca entered.
“Sofia’s okay.”
Elena stood immediately.
“Where?”
“With Vivienne. Doctor checked her. Just bruising.”
Elena exhaled.
“Thank you.”
Luca looked toward Daniel.
“My father says the archive is inside Elena’s sewing machine.”
Daniel nodded.
“It was.”
“Was?”
“I moved it years ago.”
Elena stared.
“When did you ever get near my apartment?”
“Twice.”
Her mouth fell open.
“When?”
“While you were asleep.”
She almost threw something.
“You were inside my home?”
“I needed to update the archive.”
“And you didn’t wake me?”
“I couldn’t.”
“I’m going to kill you myself.”
Luca almost smiled.
Daniel sighed.
“I deserve that too.”
“Stop deserving things.”
Luca interrupted.
“Where is the archive?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“In the machine.”
“You just said you moved it.”
“I moved the machine.”
Elena frowned.
“No, you didn’t.”
“The original machine.”
She stared.
The Singer machine in her apartment had belonged to her mother.
Daniel had restored it when they were newlyweds.
“What do you mean original?”
Daniel looked toward Luca.
“After I disappeared, someone replaced Elena’s sewing machine.”
“What?”
“I discovered it when I broke into the apartment twelve years ago.”
Elena’s anger vanished beneath confusion.
“Who replaced it?”
“I don’t know.”
“With an identical machine?”
“Almost.”
She thought about it.
For years, she had noticed tiny differences.
A drawer that stuck.
A brass plate slightly crooked.
She had blamed age.
Daniel continued.
“The original machine contains a data core built into the cast iron base.”
Luca frowned.
“So someone took it.”
“Yes.”
“Who knew?”
“Enzo. Salvatore. Vale. And me.”
Luca looked toward the door.
“Salvatore.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No. Salvatore thought the archive was destroyed.”
“Then Vale.”
“Maybe.”
Elena suddenly stood.
“My old landlord.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“Mr. Cohen.”
“What about him?”
“He told me someone broke into the apartment after you disappeared.”
Daniel sat straighter despite the pain.
“You never told me.”
“You were missing.”
Luca pulled out his phone.
“What was the address?”
Elena gave it.
Marco began checking property records.
Minutes later, he called.
“Building was demolished eighteen years ago.”
Elena’s hope collapsed.
“Who owned it?”
“A holding company.”
“Name?”
Marco paused.
“Bellini Development.”
Everyone looked toward the door.
Marco Bellini entered at that exact moment.
Silence.
He frowned.
“What?”
Luca held up the phone.
“Your family owned Elena’s old apartment building.”
Marco’s expression shifted.
“My father.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What was your father’s name?”
“Gianni.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Gianni Bellini.”
Marco nodded.
“You knew him?”
Daniel sat back.
“Your father was the man who helped me hide the archive.”
Marco’s mouth opened.
“My father died when I was nine.”
“When?”
“1999.”
Daniel calculated.
“That was three years after I disappeared.”
Marco’s hands tightened.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Daniel and Elena exchanged a look.
Nobody needed to say it.
Luca asked, “Where did he live?”
“Brooklyn.”
“Any property still in the family?”
Marco shook his head.
“My mother sold everything.”
“Anything she kept?”
Marco thought.
“One storage unit.”
Elena stood.
“Where?”
They drove there after dark.
Daniel insisted on coming.
Elena protested.
He ignored her.
“You’ve spent twenty-seven years without listening to me,” she said.
“I’m making up for lost time.”
She glared.
He smiled.
For one second, she saw the man she had married.
Then she remembered everything and looked away.
The storage facility stood beneath an elevated highway in Brooklyn.
Marco opened the unit.
Dust covered old furniture.
Boxes.
Tools.
A bicycle.
Christmas decorations.
Then Elena saw it.
Under a gray sheet.
A sewing machine.
Her sewing machine.
She walked toward it slowly.
Her fingers touched the wooden cabinet.
A scratch near the hinge.
Sofia had made that scratch with scissors when she was five.
Elena began crying.
“This is it.”
Daniel knelt despite his injured shoulder.
He removed the base plate.
Hidden inside was a black metal cylinder.
Luca stared.
“The archive.”
Daniel nodded.
“Every Consortium transaction from the beginning.”
Marco whispered, “That could send hundreds of people to prison.”
“Or get hundreds killed.”
Elena looked at Daniel.
“What do we do with it?”
Before he could answer, lights flooded the storage unit.
Cars screeched outside.
Marco drew his weapon.
Luca pushed Elena behind the sewing cabinet.
A voice came through a loudspeaker.
“Put the archive on the ground.”
Daniel went pale.
“That’s not Enzo.”
Elena recognized the voice too.
Carlo DeLuca.
Vivienne’s father.
Luca shouted toward the door.
“You’re surrounded, Carlo.”
Carlo laughed.
“No, Luca.”
Gunmen appeared on the catwalk above.
“You are.”
Marco looked around.
“We’ve got maybe six.”
Daniel whispered, “Archive casing is armored.”
Luca glanced at him.
“Meaning?”
“Throw it.”
“What?”
“Trust me.”
Luca grabbed the cylinder.
Carlo shouted again.
“Last warning!”
Luca hurled the archive across the concrete floor.
Carlo’s men instinctively tracked it.
Marco fired at the lights.
Darkness exploded.
Everyone moved.
Elena crawled behind boxes.
Gunfire echoed.
Someone screamed.
A vehicle crashed through the side gate.
Then silence.
Emergency lights flickered.
Luca stood with his weapon raised.
Marco was bleeding from his forehead.
Daniel protected Elena with his body.
Carlo DeLuca was gone.
So was the archive.
Elena stared at the empty floor.
“We lost it.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
He reached beneath his shirt.
A small black drive hung from a cord around his neck.
Luca stared.
Daniel smiled.
“The cylinder was a decoy.”
Elena blinked.
“You’ve been carrying the real archive?”
“For twelve years.”
She slapped him.
Everyone froze.
Daniel touched his cheek.
“I probably deserved that.”
Elena grabbed his face and kissed him.
It lasted only two seconds.
Then she shoved him away.
“That does not mean I forgive you.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“I understand.”
“Good.”
Luca’s phone rang.
Vivienne.
He answered.
Her voice was screaming.
“Luca, he took her!”
“Who?”
“My father.”
Elena’s stomach dropped.
Vivienne sobbed.
“He took Sofia again.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Carlo had never wanted the decoy archive.
May you like
He wanted leverage.
And this time, he knew exactly what Daniel was carrying.
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