Chapter 5 - THE BRASS BIRD
“Mom!” Luca roared, dropping to his knees on the Persian rug of the library.
He laid Teresa flat on her back. Her breathing was shallow, erratic, like a bird trapped in a cage. Her lips were already taking on a terrifying blue tint.
Vanessa hadn't just planned to send Teresa to an asylum.
When she realized the forged paperwork might fail, she had poisoned her.
“Hannah, get the medical kit from the safe room!” Luca barked, his hands frantically checking his mother’s pulse.
I scrambled into the steel vault, grabbing the heavy red trauma bag off the shelf. I threw it onto the floor beside him, unzipping it with shaking hands.
“There’s no antidote in here,” Luca swore, throwing bandages and syringes aside. He looked up, his dark eyes filled with absolute terror. “If it’s a Romano poison, it acts in minutes. I need to know what she gave her.”
Downstairs, the sound of heavy gunfire escalated. Matteo’s men were holding the line, but the mansion was breaking apart.
“I have to go back down,” Luca said, his voice cracking. He touched his mother’s pale cheek. “I have to get it out of Vanessa.”
“You can’t leave her!” I cried.
“I have to!” Luca stood up, pulling his gun. He looked at me, shedding the mafia boss persona entirely. He just looked like a terrified son. “Hannah, keep her awake. Do whatever you have to do, just don't let her close her eyes.”
He turned and bolted out of the library, locking the heavy oak door behind him to keep us safe.
I was alone with Teresa.
“Mrs. Moretti,” I begged, grabbing her cold hands and rubbing them. “Please, open your eyes. Teresa, look at me.”
Her eyelids fluttered. She looked up at me, her vision cloudy.
“Thomas,” she whispered deliriously.
“No, it’s Hannah. Thomas was my dad.”
“Thomas saved us,” she coughed, more blood speckling her chin. “He hid the ledger. He promised Giovanni… he would keep it safe.”
“Where is it?” I asked, trying to keep her talking. “Where did my dad hide it?”
Teresa’s trembling hand reached out, grabbing my wrist.
Her fingers brushed against the cheap silver bracelet I always wore. The one my mother had given me for my sixteenth birthday, telling me my father had bought it before he died.
Teresa’s eyes suddenly focused on the bracelet.
“The key,” she gasped, her grip surprisingly strong. “He hid the key… in plain sight.”
I looked down at the silver bracelet. It had a thick, rectangular charm in the center. I had always thought it was just a clunky design.
“Inside,” Teresa wheezed.
I fumbled with the clasp, ripping the bracelet off my wrist. I squeezed the edges of the silver charm.
It popped open.
A tiny, perfectly cut safe deposit key fell into the palm of my hand.
I stared at it, my heart hammering against my ribs.
My father hadn't left me jewelry. He had left me the key to the Moretti empire. And he had died protecting it from Silvio and the Romanos.
“My cane,” Teresa whispered, her voice fading.
I grabbed the wooden cane from the floor and placed it in her hands.
Teresa’s trembling fingers moved to the heavy brass bird on the handle.
“Giovanni… built it,” she said, struggling for air. “Not just for my knees.”
She twisted the brass bird to the left, then twice to the right.
There was a soft click.
Teresa pulled the bird upward. The top four inches of the wooden cane slid out, revealing a hollow tube inside the wood.
Teresa turned it over.
A small, rolled-up piece of parchment fell out.
I unrolled it. It was a list of names. A ledger of bank accounts. And a physical address in downtown Chicago.
The location of the master vault.
“Silvio never knew,” Teresa smiled faintly, her eyes drifting shut. “My husband… let me carry the empire… every day.”
“Teresa, no!” I shook her shoulders. “Wake up! You have to stay awake!”
Her head lolled to the side. Her breathing stopped.
“Teresa!” I screamed.
The library door burst open.
Luca sprinted in, covered in dust and blood that wasn't his. In his hand, he held a small glass vial filled with clear liquid.
He slid across the floor, jamming a syringe into the vial and drawing the liquid out.
“Vanessa had it in her lipstick case,” he panted, stabbing the needle directly into Teresa’s thigh.
He pushed the plunger down.
We waited in agonizing silence.
One second. Two seconds.
Suddenly, Teresa’s chest heaved. She took a massive, shuddering breath, coughing violently as the antidote shocked her system.
Luca collapsed forward, burying his face in his mother’s neck, wrapping his arms around her as she gasped for air.
“I’ve got you, Mom,” he sobbed, the ruthless mob boss completely broken. “I’ve got you.”
Teresa weakly lifted her hand and stroked his dark hair.
“I know, sweetheart,” she whispered.
Luca pulled back, wiping his eyes. He looked at the floor.
He saw the open silver bracelet. He saw the hollow cane. And he saw the parchment with the vault address.
He looked up at me.
“Your father didn't just work for mine, Hannah,” Luca said quietly, awe in his voice. “They were partners. They built this family together.”
Before I could answer, Matteo ran into the library.
“Boss!” Matteo shouted. “The police are swarming the perimeter. The Romanos are pulling back! We have Vanessa and Silvio secured in the basement.”
Luca’s expression hardened back into stone.
He stood up, towering over the room.
“Matteo, call the private doctor for my mother. Then, get the cars ready.”
“Where are we going, Boss?”
May you like
Luca looked down at the key in my hand.
“We are going to finish what our fathers started.”
