Chapter 6 - Blood and Loyalty

Matteo laughed when Galen told him.

Not because it was funny.

Because sometimes the mind rejected pain by making the wrong sound.

“You’re saying Damian is my father.”

Elena sat on the edge of a hospital bed in a private clinic controlled by Rossi physicians.

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“My father was Antonio DeLuca.”

“Antonio raised you.”

“He was my father.”

“I’m not taking that from you.”

Matteo paced.

Damian stood on the opposite side of the room under armed guard.

He had gone white.

Galen looked at him.

“Tell him.”

Damian shook his head.

“Not here.”

Matteo crossed the room and punched him.

Damian hit the wall.

“Tell me.”

Damian wiped blood from his mouth.

“Your mother was nineteen.”

Matteo froze.

“She worked for Celeste’s father. I was twenty-four. We had an affair.”

“My mother?”

“Isabella.”

Matteo’s eyes filled before he could stop them.

“She died when I was six.”

“I know.”

“You knew where I was.”

Damian nodded.

“All my life?”

“Yes.”

Another punch.

This time Galen did not stop him.

“You stood beside me every day.”

“I know.”

“You watched me call another man Dad.”

“Antonio loved you.”

“That is not your defense.”

“No.”

Damian sagged into a chair.

“The Kensingtons used you to control me. If I refused a legal filing, they sent photographs of you. School. Football practice. Your first apartment.”

Matteo’s hands shook.

“And you helped them anyway.”

“I thought obedience kept you alive.”

Elena’s voice was quiet.

“That is the lie they built everything on.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Celeste survives because she convinces parents that submission protects children. Marco submitted for a while because of Lily. Damian submitted because of Matteo. Ainsley submitted because of Lily. Even I disappeared because of Eira.”

Galen stared at her.

“And me?”

“You buried your grief inside power because you thought control protected everyone.”

The room went silent.

Galen looked through the glass wall toward the next room.

Eira sat beside Lily.

They had met an hour earlier.

Eira had asked only one question.

“Are you really my cousin?”

Lily had said, “Apparently.”

Then both girls had started crying and laughing at the same time.

Ainsley was in surgery.

The bullet had missed her heart but damaged a lung.

Her condition was critical.

Galen returned his attention to Damian.

“Why did you give Elena up eleven months ago?”

Damian’s eyes moved to Matteo.

“Celeste sent me a photograph of him outside his apartment.”

Matteo looked disgusted.

“You should have told me.”

“I thought—”

“You thought I was still six.”

Damian closed his eyes.

“Yes.”

Matteo stepped away.

“I need air.”

Galen let him go.

Elena watched him leave.

“He will come back.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know him.”

Galen looked at her.

“You know everyone, apparently.”

Pain crossed her face.

“I deserve that.”

He immediately regretted the cruelty.

But five years had teeth.

“Why didn’t you contact me once you knew the Concord was watching from outside the house?”

“I did.”

“When?”

“Three years ago.”

Galen frowned.

“How?”

“A letter.”

“I never received it.”

Elena looked toward Damian.

Damian lowered his gaze.

Galen’s rage returned.

“What was in it?”

“I asked you to meet me alone at Saint Aurelia.”

“And?”

“You never came.”

Galen grabbed the back of a chair.

“I never knew.”

“I waited six hours.”

“Why didn’t you try again?”

“Because the next day, a man followed Eira from school.”

Galen closed his eyes.

Every missing possibility hurt more than the last.

Elena continued softly.

“I thought your silence meant Damian had turned you against me.”

Galen looked at her.

“You thought I chose him?”

“I thought you chose certainty.”

He had.

Not consciously.

But after Elena’s death he had wanted a clean enemy, a clean grave, a clean story.

He had killed men based on that story.

“Two men died because I blamed them for the explosion.”

Elena’s expression changed.

“Who?”

“Bennet and Russo.”

She looked horrified.

“They weren’t involved.”

“I know that now.”

“Galen…”

“One was armed when we found him. The other reached for Matteo.”

“That does not make the reason right.”

“No.”

He sat opposite her.

“I became someone you were afraid to come back to.”

Elena’s eyes filled.

“I was afraid of what grief had done to you.”

“What did you think it would do if I found out you chose not to return?”

She looked down.

“I knew.”

“You let our daughter visit a grave.”

“I know.”

“You let me tell her stories about you like you were gone.”

“I know.”

“Say something besides that.”

Elena’s jaw trembled.

“I woke up every morning wanting to come home.”

Galen said nothing.

“I watched Eira’s seventh birthday from a car across the street. She wore a yellow dress.”

He remembered.

“She hated that dress.”

Elena smiled through tears.

“She kept pulling at the collar.”

“She said it made her look like a lemon.”

Elena laughed.

The sound broke him.

He sat back.

For five years he had forgotten the exact shape of her laughter.

Now it was in the room again.

Eira entered.

No one had heard the door.

“Mommy?”

Elena turned.

Everything else disappeared.

Eira stood completely still.

Then she ran.

Elena slid off the bed and caught her despite the pain.

“My baby.”

“You’re real.”

“I’m real.”

“You’re warm.”

Elena sobbed.

“I’m sorry.”

Eira pulled back.

“Why didn’t you come home?”

The adults looked away.

Elena did not.

“Because I thought staying away kept you alive.”

“Did it?”

Elena closed her eyes.

“I don’t know.”

Eira’s face crumpled.

“I needed you.”

“I know.”

“I cried at your grave.”

“I know.”

“I talked to you there.”

“I heard about that.”

“From who?”

“Mara.”

Eira looked angry.

“So everyone knew except me?”

“No. Very few people knew.”

“Daddy didn’t.”

“No.”

Eira stared at Elena.

“Are you going away again?”

Elena answered immediately.

“No.”

“Even if it’s dangerous?”

“No.”

“Promise?”

Elena looked at Galen.

Then back at Eira.

“I promise I will never disappear from you again by choice.”

Eira climbed into her arms.

Galen looked away, giving them privacy he did not really have.

His phone vibrated.

Matteo.

“Boss, we found Celeste.”

“Where?”

“A private airfield outside White Plains.”

“Stop her.”

“We can’t.”

“Why?”

“She has federal agents with her.”

Galen frowned.

“What?”

“Real credentials. She’s claiming witness-protection status.”

Elena lifted her head.

Galen put the call on speaker.

Matteo continued.

“Someone high up just ordered local police to stand down.”

Elena swore.

“Concord protection.”

Damian stood.

“The attorney general’s office has a deputy director named Warren Pike.”

Elena went still.

“Pike is in the ledger.”

Galen looked at her.

“The real ledger?”

“I don’t have the original.”

“Who does?”

Elena hesitated.

Galen stared.

“Elena.”

“Marco hid it.”

“He died.”

“Before he died, he mailed one object to a place no one connected to him.”

“What object?”

She looked at Eira’s hand.

The locket.

Galen slowly opened it.

Photo.

Glass.

Folded paper.

Nothing else.

Elena reached for it.

“Give me the pin.”

He handed her a small safety pin from the medical tray.

She pressed it into a tiny hole beneath the hinge.

The back plate opened.

Inside sat a wafer-thin memory card.

Galen stared.

“Elena.”

“I didn’t know Marco put it there until the day before the explosion.”

“And you left it with Eira.”

“It was the safest place I knew.”

Eira looked at the locket.

“All this time?”

Elena nodded.

“You carried the truth.”

Eira held it tighter.

Galen took the memory card.

“What’s on it?”

“The master ledger.”

Damian whispered, “Then Celeste does not know.”

Elena shook her head.

“She thinks the copy I gave her is real.”

Matteo’s voice came through the phone.

“Boss, her plane is preparing to depart.”

Galen looked at Damian.

“You know Pike?”

“Yes.”

“Can you get him to call Celeste?”

Damian understood.

“A recorded call.”

“More than recorded.”

Galen looked at Elena.

“We let her think she escaped.”

Elena’s eyes sharpened.

“You want her to confess.”

“I want her to explain the structure while she believes she is protected.”

Damian shook his head.

“She is too careful.”

A voice came from the doorway.

Ainsley.

She stood in a wheelchair, pale and breathing through an oxygen cannula.

Lily pushed her.

“She’ll talk to me.”

Galen stared.

“You should be in recovery.”

“I signed myself out of the room.”

“You were shot four hours ago.”

Ainsley’s mouth twitched.

“I noticed.”

Lily looked at Galen.

“She won’t stay in bed.”

Ainsley lifted her phone.

“My mother will talk to me because she thinks I am still weak enough to come back.”

Elena looked at her.

“Are you?”

Ainsley’s face tightened.

“No.”

Elena held her gaze.

“Then prove it.”

Later that night, when Eira finally slept beside Elena, Galen found Matteo alone on the clinic roof.

The city below them looked distant.

Matteo did not turn.

“You knew my father.”

“I thought I did.”

“Did he ever talk about children?”

“No.”

“Good.”

Galen leaned against the railing.

“That makes you feel better?”

“No. I just don’t want to find out I missed a hundred obvious clues.”

“You didn’t.”

Matteo laughed quietly.

“You missed Ainsley hurting Eira.”

The words were sharp.

Galen accepted them.

“Yes.”

Matteo turned, immediately regretting it.

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You should have.”

“Boss—”

“Stop protecting me from things that are true.”

Matteo stared.

Galen continued.

“Elena is right about one thing. Half of this happened because people decided truth was too dangerous for someone else to hear.”

Matteo looked toward the clinic windows.

“Damian says he watched me because Celeste threatened me.”

“Yes.”

“That means every time he stood beside us, he was deciding whether I was worth another betrayal.”

Galen did not answer.

Matteo swallowed.

“I don’t know what to do with that.”

“You don’t have to know tonight.”

“I hate that answer.”

“So do I.”

Matteo finally smiled.

“Therapy is going to make you unbearable.”

“Elena already is.”

“Careful. She survived a bombing.”

“She will survive my opinion.”

Behind them, the roof door opened.

Elena stood there wrapped in a coat.

“I heard that.”

Galen looked at Matteo.

“You see?”

For the first time since the ballroom, Matteo laughed for real.

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The sound did not fix anything.

But it reminded Galen that not every consequence had to be grief.