Chapter 5 - THE SCARRED PHOTOGRAPH
The rhythmic hum of the dialysis machine felt deafening in the sudden, suffocating silence.
Luca’s gun wavered for a fraction of a second. He stared at his wife, then at the mistress who had destroyed his home.
“Your sister?” Luca repeated, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. “Cath, what are you talking about? You told me your family died in a fire.”
“They did,” Catherine said, her voice eerily calm as she stared at the photograph of her father. “A fire you set, Luca. To wipe out the Rossi family and take their territory.”
My mother let out a quiet whimper from the hospital bed. I grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly, terrified by the ghosts filling the room.
Sabrina let out a bitter, jagged laugh. Her hand, still holding the silver pistol, trembled with twenty years of repressed hatred.
“You believed her?” Sabrina spat at Luca. “You really thought Catherine Rossi fell in love with the low-level thug who burned her house down? You thought she married you because you bought her dinner in the back of a cheap restaurant?”
Luca looked at his wife. The twenty years of marriage, the quiet loyalty, the soup she sent upstairs when he was tired—he was searching through all of it, looking for the lie.
“Cath,” Luca pleaded, his voice breaking. “Tell me she’s lying.”
Catherine didn't look at him. She couldn't.
“I married you to survive, Luca,” Catherine whispered, a single tear slipping down her cheek. “I was eighteen. My family was dead. You were the rising boss. It was the only way to stay alive long enough to find out if my baby sister had survived the fire.”
Sabrina sneered. “And I did survive. The orphanage changed my name. I grew up in the dirt while you lived in a mansion with the man who murdered our father.”
“I didn't know you were alive until you showed up at my door pregnant with Matteo’s child!” Catherine cried, her stoic facade finally cracking. “Sabrina, I spent years looking for you! But you came back poisoned. You didn't just want Luca dead. You wanted to destroy everything. Even my son.”
“He was Luca’s son!” Sabrina screamed. “He had Moretti blood! He deserved to die!”
The words hung in the air, toxic and heavy.
Luca’s face went completely slack. The realization hit him like a physical blow.
“The motorcycle crash,” Luca breathed, stepping toward Sabrina. “Matteo was a perfect rider. The police said his brakes failed. But it wasn't an accident. You killed my son.”
Sabrina smiled, a dark, triumphant look in her eyes.
“He was so easy to manipulate,” Sabrina purred. “Just like his father. He loved me so much he trusted me to fix his bike.”
A roar of pure, animalistic agony ripped from Luca’s throat. He didn't fire the gun. He lunged forward, grabbing Sabrina by the throat and slamming her against the hospital wall.
Sabrina’s pistol went off.
BANG.
The gunshot deafened the small room. The bullet shattered the window, sending glass raining down onto the wet pavement below.
“Luca, no!” Catherine screamed, grabbing his arm. “She wants you to kill her! She wants you to ruin everything!”
Luca pinned Sabrina to the wall, his hands choking the life out of her. His eyes were wild, consumed by grief.
“You killed my boy!” Luca roared.
The heavy hospital door suddenly burst open.
Two armed men in black tactical gear stormed into the room. Sabrina’s backup had arrived.
“Drop him!” one of the men shouted, aiming an assault rifle at Luca.
Luca didn't let go.
I didn't think. I grabbed the heavy metal IV pole next to my mother’s bed and swung it with all my might, striking the first gunman in the side of the head.
He grunted, stumbling sideways.
Luca immediately dropped Sabrina, spun around, and fired twice. Both gunmen hit the floor, dead before they realized what happened.
Sabrina slumped against the wall, gasping for air, rubbing her bruised throat.
Alarms began to blare throughout the hospital ward. Nurses were screaming down the hallway.
“We have to go,” Catherine said, grabbing Luca’s arm. “The police will be here in two minutes.”
Luca looked at my mother, then at me.
“Take her off the machine,” Luca ordered.
“I can’t!” I panicked. “She needs her treatment! She’ll die!”
“I have a private medical suite at the safe house,” Luca said, his voice instantly switching back to the cold, calculating mafia boss. “I have a doctor waiting. She comes with us, Emily. If you stay here, Sabrina’s men will kill you both.”
I looked at my mother. She nodded weakly.
I quickly and carefully unhooked the dialysis lines, wrapping bandages tightly around my mother’s arm. Luca hoisted my mother up, carrying her frail body as easily as a child.
Catherine grabbed Sabrina by the hair, hauling her sister to her feet.
“You’re coming with us,” Catherine hissed. “Because you’re going to tell me exactly where the Rossi syndicate is hiding.”
We ran out into the chaotic hallway, taking the emergency stairwell down to the underground parking garage.
Luca’s loyal captains were waiting with two armored SUVs.
They threw Sabrina into the back of the first vehicle. Luca gently placed my mother into the second, and I climbed in beside her.
As Luca went to close the door, Catherine grabbed his lapel.
Her hands were covered in his blood from the head wound.
“Luca,” Catherine whispered, the rain from the garage entrance whipping her hair. “Sabrina didn't just come to kill you. If she knows about the safe house, she knows where I sent the baby.”
Luca froze.
Catherine reached into her trench coat and pulled out a small, blood-stained white coat.
A baby’s christening coat.
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“I found this on the floor of the nursery before we left the mansion,” Catherine sobbed. “Luca… she already has him.”
TITLE: THE CHRISTENING COAT
