The Burnt Edge of a Mother’s Letter

“Out! Get out!” I screamed, grabbing Lily’s arm and shoving her toward the door.

Marco didn’t hesitate. He kicked his door open, grabbed my collar, and dragged me and Lily out onto the cold concrete of the parking garage.

Luca had already sprinted back. He scooped Lily into his arms and grabbed my hand, pulling us behind a massive concrete pillar just as the SUV erupted.

The shockwave knocked the breath out of my lungs.

Debris rained down like shrapnel, the heat of the explosion searing my face. The deafening roar echoed through the underground structure, setting off every car alarm on the level.

We huddled in the smoke.

Luca was covering Lily completely with his own body. He looked up, his face covered in soot, but his eyes were entirely calm. The calm of a man who had accepted a war.

“Are you hurt?” he asked me.

“No,” I coughed, wiping ash from my eyes.

Marco drew his weapon, scanning the smoky darkness. “They rigged it at the mansion. Before we even left.”

“They wanted us to run,” Luca said. He stood up, lifting Lily effortlessly. “They wanted us all in the car together.”

We couldn’t stay in the garage. The fire would attract the police, and Elena’s men would undoubtedly be waiting at the exits.

“There’s a service stairwell in the back,” Marco coughed, pointing through the smoke.

We ran.

The stairwell led us out to a desolate alleyway near the Chicago River. The freezing wind whipped off the water, cutting through my thin apron. Lily was shivering violently in Luca’s arms.

As we hurried toward the bridge to cross into the commercial district, a figure stepped out from the shadows of a bridge piling.

Marco raised his gun.

“Wait!” a frantic voice cried out.

It was Vanessa.

She was shivering, wearing the same red silk gown from the engagement dinner, her perfect hair ruined by the wind. She was holding a heavy black duffel bag.

“If you shoot me, you’ll never find the files,” she sobbed, backing away from Marco’s gun.

Luca handed Lily to me. He walked slowly toward the woman he had almost married.

“You rigged my car,” Luca said, his voice carrying over the wind.

“I didn’t!” Vanessa shrieked. “Elena did! She told me to delay you at the dinner so her men could plant the explosive. But she lied to me, Luca! She told me you were just going to be arrested. She didn’t say she was going to kill Lily!”

“You expected me to believe you care about my daughter?”

Vanessa dropped to her knees on the frozen pavement.

“I care about myself!” she cried. “If you die, Elena kills me next to tie up loose ends. I know too much.”

She unzipped the black duffel bag and pushed it toward him.

“This is everything,” Vanessa wept. “The hospital records. The bribes Elena paid to the doctors. The proof that Tomaso poisoned Sarah’s IV to make it look like the cancer spread faster. It’s all here. Take it to the police. Take it to the Commission. Just let me disappear.”

Luca looked down at the bag. He didn’t touch it.

“Why did you clean out Sarah’s desk yesterday?” he asked.

Vanessa sniffled, wiping her nose. “Elena told me to. She said Sarah hid a copy of her real bloodwork in there. I found it. It’s in the bag.”

Luca finally crouched down. He unzipped the bag fully.

Inside were stacks of manila folders.

But sitting right on top of the files was a small, delicate object.

Luca froze.

He reached in and pulled it out.

It was a child’s necklace. A tiny silver locket shaped like a star.

Lily gasped from beside me. “My locket.”

Luca opened it. Inside was a tiny picture of Sarah.

“Where did you get this?” Luca demanded, his voice dropping to a terrifying octave.