Chapter 8 - The Guard at the Gate

For one second, I could hear nothing except my own heartbeat.

Leo was alive.

That was all my mind could process.

Alive.

Afraid.

In Victor's hands.

"Don't touch him," I said.

Victor smiled through the screen.

"I have no reason to hurt him if everyone cooperates."

Bianca stepped forward.

"You said the boy was at Casa Vitali."

"He was."

"Who took him?"

Victor looked amused.

"Ask Nico."

My stomach dropped.

"No."

Bianca looked at me.

"What?"

I pressed the earpiece.

"Nico."

Static.

"Nico, answer me."

Marello's voice came through instead.

"Elena?"

"Leo is gone."

Silence.

Then his voice changed.

"What?"

"Victor has him."

Gunfire erupted through the earpiece.

Marello shouted.

"Nico!"

Someone answered breathlessly.

"Boss, we're compromised."

"Who took my son?"

"I don't know yet."

Victor's voice filled the archive.

"I do."

The screen changed.

Security footage appeared.

Casa Vitali.

11:42 a.m.

Leo walking through a hallway with Sofia, the kind woman from Marello's staff.

A guard approached.

Tall.

Dark-haired.

I recognized him.

He had stood outside Leo's room the previous night.

His name was Paolo.

He spoke to Sofia.

Then another guard called her away.

Paolo crouched beside Leo.

He held up the broken toy car.

No.

Not the original.

A second red car.

Leo followed him.

My knees weakened.

Bianca whispered, "Inside man."

The video continued.

Paolo led Leo through a service door.

A delivery van waited.

Then the footage ended.

Marello's voice came through my earpiece.

"Elena, where is Victor?"

"I don't know."

Victor heard.

"Tell him to stop pretending."

I looked at the screen.

"What do you want?"

"The same thing I asked for."

"Blood?"

"Truth."

"You kidnapped a child for truth?"

"I was kidnapped from my own family before I could speak."

"That does not make this right."

"No."

For the first time, Victor's expression changed.

"It makes it symmetrical."

I stared at him.

"You're punishing Leo for Antonio."

"I'm forcing Antonio to acknowledge what he did."

"Then take Antonio."

"I tried for thirty years."

Bianca spoke.

"Victor."

He looked at her.

"You were not supposed to betray me."

She laughed bitterly.

"You planned to kill Marello and Leo."

"I planned to end the Vitali line."

"That includes me."

"You are a Valenti."

"I was going to become a Vitali."

"Exactly."

Bianca flinched.

So she finally understood.

Victor had never intended to share the empire with her.

She had been a tool.

Just as I had been leverage.

Just as Marello had been a target.

Just as Leo was now bait.

I looked at the empty charter case.

"Where is the document?"

"With me."

"And the ledger?"

"With me."

"Then you have what you need."

"Not yet."

"What else?"

"Antonio's public confession."

I understood.

"You want him to admit he erased your father."

"On camera."

"And then?"

"Then the files release."

"And Leo?"

"He goes home."

"Alive?"

Victor smiled sadly.

"That depends on Marello."

My fear turned to anger.

"Stop making other people responsible for your choices."

He went still.

I continued.

"Antonio hurt you. Sofia helped him. Victor, I believe that. But you killed my mother."

His jaw tightened.

"She would have exposed everything."

"Yes."

"She gave me no choice."

"There is always a choice."

He laughed.

"Your own disappearance proves otherwise."

"No."

I surprised myself.

"I had choices. Terrible ones. I chose wrong in some ways and right in others. I chose Leo. But I never pretended the men who threatened me pulled my feet onto the road. I ran. I did that."

Victor stared at me.

"You think confession cleans blood?"

"No."

"Then what is your point?"

"My point is that you keep calling murder inevitable because you are afraid to admit you wanted revenge."

His face hardened.

The screen went black.

Bianca whispered, "That was either very brave or very stupid."

"I have a seven-year-old. Those categories merged years ago."

Marello came through the earpiece.

"Elena."

"I'm here."

"We have Paolo."

My heart jumped.

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Where did he take Leo?"

"Warehouse district near the river. Old Saint Vincent maternity hospital."

Bianca stared.

"That's Victor's clinic."

I looked at her.

"You know it?"

"Yes."

Marello heard.

"Coordinates."

She gave them.

Marello said, "I'm leaving the church."

Nico interrupted.

"Boss, Victor's men are still inside."

"Then arrest whoever surrenders."

"You are not law enforcement."

"Call the people who are."

Nico paused.

Marello continued.

"Send everything we have to the federal prosecutor."

Antonio's voice appeared in the background.

"No."

Marello shouted, "Do it."

I smiled despite the fear.

He was burning the empire to save Leo.

Exactly as promised.

Bianca looked at me.

"He really changed."

"Yes."

"Because of you?"

"No."

I thought of the graves.

"Because he got tired."

We left the archive through the tunnel.

Nico met us at the cemetery with two vehicles.

Marello arrived from the church two minutes later.

He crossed the grass toward me.

I ran into him.

For a second, we held each other.

Then he pulled back.

"How did Victor get Leo?"

"Paolo."

"We found him unconscious in the delivery van."

"Victor abandoned him?"

"No. Paolo tried to leave after realizing Victor planned to kill the child."

Bianca looked surprised.

"Paolo changed sides?"

Nico nodded.

"He says Victor has six men at Saint Vincent."

Marello looked at Bianca.

"Entrances."

"Three."

"Security?"

"Old system. Victor upgraded cameras, not doors."

"Underground access?"

She hesitated.

"Ambulance tunnel from the river road."

Nico nodded.

"We can use it."

Antonio arrived in another car.

Marello turned.

"I told you to stay."

Antonio stepped out.

"Victor wants me."

"So?"

"So I go."

"No."

"This began with me."

Marello laughed coldly.

"It began before I was born and apparently everyone decided that justified ruining everyone born after."

Antonio stood straighter.

"If my confession gets Leo back—"

"It won't."

I looked at him.

"Victor is not asking for truth anymore."

Antonio met my eyes.

"What is he asking for?"

"Permission."

He frowned.

"To do what?"

"To become the thing he says you made him."

Marello looked at me.

I continued.

"If you confess and he kills Leo anyway, he will say it was necessary. If you refuse and he kills Leo, he will say you forced him. Either way, he gets to blame you."

Antonio's face aged ten years.

"What do you suggest?"

"We stop giving him the ending he wrote."

Marello looked at Nico.

"Can we cut power to Saint Vincent?"

"Yes."

"Do it after we enter."

Bianca said, "There are backup generators."

"Where?"

"Basement east wing."

Marello looked at me.

"You stay in the vehicle."

I stared.

He held up a hand.

"Elena."

"No."

"Please."

That word stopped me.

Marello did not say please easily.

His eyes were terrified.

Not for himself.

For me.

"I already failed to protect seven years with you."

"You didn't fail alone."

"I cannot walk into that building wondering whether both of you will die."

I swallowed.

"And I cannot wait in a car while my son calls for me."

He closed his eyes.

Then nodded once.

"Beside me."

"Beside you."

Antonio stepped forward.

"And me."

Marello looked at his father.

"Behind us."

Antonio almost smiled.

"Progress."

We drove toward the river.

Saint Vincent had been abandoned for fifteen years.

Its brick facade rose above warehouses and rusted rail lines.

Broken windows.

Boarded doors.

A faded stone statue of Mary above the main entrance.

We entered through the ambulance tunnel.

Nico's team moved first.

The corridor smelled like dust and antiseptic.

Bianca whispered directions.

"Left. then stairs."

Marello held Leo's broken toy car in his pocket.

I knew because his hand touched it twice.

At the basement landing, the lights shut off.

Nico's team switched to night vision.

We moved in darkness.

Then a child's voice came through the building speakers.

"Mama?"

I stopped.

"Leo!"

Marello grabbed my arm.

"Recording."

I listened.

The voice repeated exactly.

"Mama?"

Same breath.

Same fear.

He was right.

Victor was moving us.

Bianca pointed toward a security camera.

"He wants us upstairs."

Nico whispered, "Then we go down."

We descended another level.

A steel door stood open.

Beyond it, I saw laboratory lights.

And heard Victor speaking.

Not through speakers.

In person.

"Antonio should have told you about your grandfather."

Leo answered.

"My grandpa is mean."

My hand flew to my mouth.

He was close.

Marello's eyes filled with something fierce.

Victor laughed softly.

"You're not wrong."

Leo said, "Mama says mean people can stop being mean if they choose."

Victor went silent.

Leo continued.

"Do you want a marshmallow?"

I almost cried.

Marello whispered, "That's my son."

We reached the doorway.

Victor stood with his back to us.

Leo sat at a table.

No restraints.

A juice box in front of him.

Victor held the original trust charter.

Antonio stepped forward before anyone could stop him.

"Victor."

Victor turned.

For thirty years of hatred, the room became completely still.

"Uncle."

Antonio lowered his weapon.

"Let the boy go."

Victor smiled.

"Say my father's name."

Antonio's face tightened.

"Matteo Vitali."

"Again."

"Matteo Vitali."

"Say who I am."

Antonio looked at Leo.

Then at Marello.

Finally at Victor.

"You are Matteo Vitali's son."

Victor's eyes filled.

"And?"

Antonio swallowed.

"You were wrongfully erased from this family."

Victor trembled.

I thought, for one impossible moment, that confession might be enough.

Then he raised a gun toward Leo.

Marello moved.

I screamed.

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A shot exploded.

And Bianca threw herself between Victor and my son.