Chapter 8 - Saint Michael’sLuca wanted to burn the world down.
To Luca, it felt like an hour.
Dr. Ames escaped.
Two of her men did not.
One DeLuca guard was wounded, but alive.
Luca returned to the warehouse before midnight.
He carried Elena's letter inside his jacket.
And one question burned hotter than everything else.
Who was Anna Mercer?
He found her asleep in a chair beside Emilia's bed.
Emilia's hand rested inside hers.
Luca stood in the doorway for a long time.
Anna looked peaceful.
Ordinary.
Nothing like someone carrying a secret tied to Elena's murder.
He hated suspicion now.
It had poisoned every relationship around him.
But ignorance had nearly destroyed his daughter.
He touched Anna's shoulder.
Her eyes opened instantly.
"Luca?"
"We need to talk."
Something in his expression told her everything.
She looked toward Emilia.
"Downstairs."
They went to the empty office.
Luca closed the door.
"What's your real name?"
Anna became very still.
So Dr. Ames had told the truth.
Luca felt anger rise.
"You have thirty seconds."
Anna's eyes filled.
"Anna Mercer is my legal name."
"That's not what I asked."
"My birth name was Anna Bellini."
Luca knew the surname.
He stared.
"No."
She nodded.
"My father was Marco Bellini."
Luca stepped backward.
Marco Bellini had been Carlo DeLuca's accountant.
More than accountant.
Confidant.
He died in a boating accident three weeks after Carlo.
"You are Marco Bellini's daughter."
"Yes."
"And you never thought that mattered?"
"I thought it mattered too much."
Luca laughed without humor.
"So you hid it."
"I was afraid."
"Everyone is afraid."
"I had reason."
"You worked inside my home under another name."
"Because your mother hired me knowing exactly who I was."
That stopped him.
"What?"
Anna took a shaky breath.
"After my father died, I found notebooks."
"What kind?"
"Records."
Luca's pulse changed.
"Elena's third set."
"No."
Anna shook her head.
"My father's records."
She explained.
Marco Bellini had discovered Vittorio's trafficking network before Carlo did.
He had helped Carlo gather evidence.
When both men died within weeks, Anna suspected it wasn't coincidence.
She was twenty-seven.
Newly certified as a pediatric nurse.
Terrified.
She changed her surname to her mother's maiden name.
"Then Bianca found me."
"Why?"
"She said Elena needed help."
"Elena?"
Anna nodded.
"My father had mentioned Elena in his notebooks."
Luca stared.
"Elena knew you."
"Yes."
Anna's voice broke.
"That's why I was at your house."
The story shifted again.
Not a random night nurse.
Not Bianca's private hire.
Elena had wanted Anna near Emilia.
"But Elena was already dead when you started."
"Yes."
"So why did you come?"
"Because Bianca said it was Elena's final request."
Luca ran a hand over his face.
His mother had woven so many truths into lies that separating them felt impossible.
"Did Elena leave you something?"
Anna nodded.
"There was a letter."
Luca's eyes hardened.
"You still have it?"
"No."
"What did it say?"
"That if anything happened to her, I should watch Emilia."
Anna began crying.
"She said there might come a day when Emilia remembered things other people wanted forgotten."
The room went silent.
Anna continued.
"I thought she meant family stories. I didn't know about the fire."
"Did you know about the evidence?"
"Not then."
"When did you learn?"
"Three years ago."
When she returned.
When she saw Emilia outside school.
"When Vittorio threatened me, I decided to investigate."
"Alone?"
"Mostly."
"What did you find?"
"My father's old storage unit."
Luca stared.
"What's inside?"
"Nothing now."
"Anna."
"I swear. Someone cleared it out before I arrived."
"Then why did Ames say the third part was with you?"
Anna looked confused.
"I don't know."
Luca studied her.
Was she lying?
He couldn't tell anymore.
He removed Elena's letter.
Anna gasped at the handwriting.
"I found this tonight."
Luca unfolded it.
The paper was protected inside plastic.
He began reading.
Luca,
If you found this, then Emilia brought you here somehow.
That sentence made his throat tighten.
Elena had anticipated their daughter leading him.
He continued.
I divided everything because no single person can be trusted with all of it. The first copy is for you. The second belongs to the authorities when the time is right. The final part is not a document.
Luca frowned.
He read further.
It is a witness.
His pulse stopped.
Anna whispered, "What?"
Luca kept reading.
Marco Bellini survived the attack that was meant to kill him.
Anna gasped.
"No."
Luca looked up.
Her face had gone white.
"What?"
"My father died."
According to Elena, he hadn't.
The boating accident had been staged.
Marco Bellini entered hiding.
He remained hidden because Vittorio believed he was dead.
The final witness was alive.
Anna began shaking.
"No."
Luca handed her the letter.
She read.
Tears appeared almost immediately.
Elena had included a location phrase:
Where the bells ring for Saint Michael, Marco waits under another name.
Anna stared.
"My father used to take me to Saint Michael's Church."
Luca knew dozens of churches with that name.
"Which one?"
"In Pennsylvania."
Her voice cracked.
"A little town outside Scranton."
Luca checked the time.
1:14 a.m.
They could reach it by morning.
But Anna sat frozen.
"My father has been alive this whole time?"
"Maybe."
"Why wouldn't he contact me?"
"To protect you."
Anna looked angry through tears.
"I needed him."
Luca understood that anger too well.
People called secrecy protection until someone had to live with the consequences.
He crouched in front of her.
"We find him."
Anna stared at Elena's letter.
"What if Ames already knows?"
Luca thought.
If Belladonna knew Marco was alive, he would likely already be dead.
Perhaps she knew only that Anna carried some connection.
Or she had been bluffing.
"We leave before dawn."
Anna nodded.
Then a sound came from upstairs.
A scream.
Luca ran.
He reached Emilia's room and found Dr. Brooks standing beside the empty bed.
The window was open.
Curtains moved in the night air.
On the pillow lay a folded card.
Luca opened it.
One sentence.
BRING ELENA'S LETTER TO SAINT MICHAEL'S IF YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER BACK.
Anna appeared behind him.
She read the message.
May you like
Then whispered:
"They already know."
