Chapter 7 - The Church With No PriestSt. Agnes Church had been abandoned for eleven years.
At least, not under its old name.
Nora learned that at 9:00 the next morning while sitting in the back seat of Matteo's SUV.
“Why does a dead woman hide documents in a bank that supposedly closed?” Nora asked.
Matteo looked at the brass key.
“Because private banking rarely disappears. It changes names.”
“You say that like you've hidden things in banks that don't exist.”
“I have lawyers for hiding things.”
“Comforting.”
Dominic drove.
Detective Hale followed in an unmarked car.
Nora had insisted on involving police.
Matteo had objected.
Nora had reminded him that one of his relatives had already been nearly murdered.
Matteo stopped arguing.
The bank occupied the lower level of an old financial building downtown.
No sign outside.
No public entrance.
A manager met them underground.
The moment he saw Matteo, his face tightened.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
“Box 317.”
The manager glanced at Nora.
“The box belongs to someone else.”
Nora placed the key on the counter.
“Apparently she wanted me to have it.”
Ten minutes and several legal threats later, they entered the vault.
Nora inserted the key.
The box slid open.
Inside was a blue folder.
A flash drive.
A sealed envelope.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Mara Vale holding newborn Isabella in a hospital room.
Beside her stood Sofia DeLuca.
Matteo's late wife.
Both women were smiling.
On the back, Mara had written:
Two mothers. One little girl. Protect her from the men who think love can be owned.
Matteo sat down.
Nora had never seen grief arrive so visibly on someone's face.
“Sofia never told me.”
Nora sat beside him.
“Maybe she was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of the truth.”
He looked at the photograph.
“I would have understood.”
“Would you?”
His gaze lifted.
Nora continued gently.
“You're a powerful man who controls almost everything around him. People may not always know which truths you're safe to tell.”
That hurt him.
She saw it.
But he didn't argue.
Dominic opened the folder.
Inside were trust documents.
Property records.
A private agreement signed by Matteo's grandfather.
The DeLuca family fortune was divided through a complicated inheritance structure.
One clause mattered more than the rest.
Control of the family's legitimate shipping empire would pass to the first biological grandchild of Matteo's branch on her twenty-fifth birthday.
Until then, the child's legal guardian controlled voting rights worth billions.
Nora looked at Matteo.
“Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“If she dies?”
Dominic read.
“The controlling shares revert to the senior surviving male trustee.”
Matteo's face hardened.
“Victor.”
Everything became clear.
Victor didn't merely want Isabella gone.
He needed her gone.
But one question remained.
“Why dump her instead of killing her outright?” Nora asked.
Hale answered.
“Plausible deniability.”
Matteo shook his head.
“No. Victor doesn't hesitate.”
“Then maybe he wanted her found,” Nora said.
Everyone looked at her.
She continued.
“If Isabella dies, suspicion eventually leads to whoever benefits. But if she almost dies and Luca is framed, Matteo destroys his own brother.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Victor removes Luca without touching him.”
“And makes Matteo unstable,” Hale said.
Nora nodded.
“Then maybe Victor gets control another way.”
They examined the flash drive.
It contained twenty years of financial transactions.
Bribes.
Offshore accounts.
Payments to judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
And one recurring payment to a fertility specialist.
Dr. Elias Grant.
The same physician who had managed Sofia's pregnancy arrangement.
Matteo stared at the ledger.
“He's still alive.”
Hale checked.
“Retired. Lives in Vermont.”
“Not anymore,” Dominic said.
Everyone looked at him.
He held up his phone.
Dr. Grant's house had burned down the previous night.
One body had been recovered.
Nora felt sick.
“Victor is erasing everyone.”
Matteo stood.
“Then we move faster.”
Inside the sealed envelope was one final letter.
This one addressed to Nora.
She unfolded it.
Dear Nora,
You probably don't remember me.
But you were kind to me when I was frightened, and kindness becomes unforgettable when you haven't received much of it.
I chose you because no one in the DeLuca world knows you.
If I'm dead, someone eventually came looking.
The evidence in this box is only half.
The rest is somewhere no DeLuca man can enter without causing questions.
Go to St. Agnes Church.
Ask Father Michael for Sofia's confession.
Nora stopped reading.
Matteo stared.
“My wife made a confession?”
Hale looked uneasy.
“A priest won't disclose confession.”
“Then why tell Nora to ask?”
Nora read the final sentence.
Because Father Michael is not a priest.
The vault went silent.
Dominic's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
Matteo stood.
“What's happening?”
Dominic lowered the phone.
“Hospital security.”
“What about Luca?”
“He disappeared.”
Matteo's face turned white.
“They moved him?”
“No.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Someone dressed as a nurse walked into his room seventeen minutes ago.”
“And?”
“The cameras went dark.”
“Where is my brother?”
Dominic looked at the surveillance still sent to his phone.
“Gone.”
Nora moved beside him.
The image showed the fake nurse pushing a wheelchair.
Luca sat inside it.
Behind them stood a man in a hospital maintenance uniform.
Nora recognized him.
She had seen him at Matteo's mansion.
Serving Victor coffee.
“That's one of your uncle's men.”
Matteo stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
Luca tied to a chair.
A gun against his head.
Below it were six words.
BRING THE GIRL TO ST. AGNES.
Nora's heart stopped.
“The girl?”
Matteo looked at her.
May you like
His expression was colder than death.
“He doesn't mean Isabella.”
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