The Empty Frame On The Floor

The grand marble foyer of the Moretti mansion was freezing cold.

The heavy front doors were standing wide open, letting the rain and wind whip through the space, making the crystal chandeliers above us sway and chime like funeral bells.

I stood frozen in the entryway, my parents directly behind me.

Dr. Harris, the quiet, unassuming physician who had stitched my hand just hours ago, was standing beneath the portrait of Elena Moretti. He looked completely out of place in his tweed suit, holding a matte black pistol with a long, heavy suppressor screwed onto the barrel.

Little Leo sat on the marble floor at his feet, clutching his stuffed bear, his wide, terrified eyes locked on the gun.

“Dr. Harris?” I breathed, my mind refusing to process what I was seeing.

The doctor didn’t look at me. His eyes were fixed on Luca, who had just stepped through the open doorway.

Luca stopped. He didn’t reach for his weapon. He didn’t yell.

He just stared at the man who had been the Moretti family doctor for twenty years.

“Harris,” Luca said, his voice lethally calm. “Take the gun off my nephew.”

“I’m sorry, Luca,” Dr. Harris said. His voice was shaking slightly, but his grip on the weapon was terrifyingly steady. “I truly am. I delivered this boy. I stitched his mother’s scraped knees when she was a child. But I cannot let you walk away with the ledger.”

Answer one: Daniel and Vanessa weren’t the only Romano plants in the house.

Open two: Why would a wealthy, respected physician sell out the family he had served for decades?

“The Romanos bought you too?” Luca asked, taking a slow, microscopic step forward.

“The Romanos didn’t buy me,” Dr. Harris laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. “The Romanos own me, Luca. They have for ten years. My gambling debts in Atlantic City were... astronomical. Your father wouldn’t loan me the money to pay it off. He said I needed to learn a lesson.”

The doctor’s eyes grew dark, haunted by a decade of regret.

“The Romanos paid the debt,” Dr. Harris said. “And in exchange, I became their inside man. I gave them the layouts of your safehouses. I gave them the medical records of your capos. And three years ago... I gave them the autopsy report.”

My blood ran cold.

“Isabella,” Luca whispered, the pieces finally snapping together in his mind.

“She survived the crash,” Dr. Harris confessed, a tear slipping down his face. “She was severely injured, yes, but she would have lived. Vanessa didn’t kill her on the riverbank, Luca. Vanessa just stole the necklace and ran.”

I gasped, covering my mouth.

“It was me,” Dr. Harris sobbed. “When the ambulance brought her to my private clinic... the Romanos called me. They knew she had the ledger. They knew she was going to the FBI. They told me if she woke up, my family would be slaughtered.”

Dr. Harris looked at the gun in his hand, then back at Luca.

“I injected her with a lethal dose of potassium,” he whispered. “I stopped her heart. And I signed the death certificate stating she died of internal bleeding from the crash.”

A horrifying, suffocating silence fell over the foyer.

Luca’s face was completely devoid of humanity. He looked like a statue carved from black marble. The man who had murdered his sister wasn’t a rival gangster in a dark alley. It was the doctor who had sworn an oath to protect her.

“I need the necklace, Luca,” Dr. Harris said, leveling the gun directly at Leo’s head. “I know Vanessa failed. I know you have it. Hand it over, and I will walk out that door. The boy lives.”

Luca didn’t move. He didn’t have the necklace.

I did.

I felt the heavy weight of the sapphire pendant in my Kevlar coat pocket.

If I handed it over, Dr. Harris would run. He would give the ledger to the Romanos. My father’s sacrifice, Isabella’s sacrifice, would mean absolutely nothing. The Romanos would hunt us down the second the doctor was clear.

But if I didn’t hand it over... he would pull the trigger.

I looked at Leo. The little boy was staring at me, his lip quivering, trusting me to save him just like I had in the basement.

I couldn't let him die.

I slowly reached into my pocket.

“I have it,” I said loudly, stepping out from behind Luca.

Dr. Harris’s eyes snapped to me.

“Emma, don’t,” Luca warned, his voice tight.

“I have to,” I said, pulling the heavy sapphire pendant into the light. The crushed diamonds sparkled under the chandeliers.

I took a step toward the doctor.

“Stop right there,” Dr. Harris barked. “Toss it.”

“It’s heavy,” I lied, gripping the pendant tightly in my good hand. “If I toss it on this marble floor, the casing will shatter. You’ll destroy the drive inside. Let me hand it to you.”

Dr. Harris hesitated. He knew I was right about the delicate nature of the micro-SD card.

“Slowly,” he warned, keeping the gun trained on Leo.

I walked forward. My boots clicked against the marble.

Five feet.

Four feet.

Three feet.

I held the necklace out.

Dr. Harris reached for it with his free hand. His eyes flicked down to the jewel for a fraction of a second.

That was all I needed.

I didn't drop the necklace. Instead, I drove my fist forward, driving the heavy, platinum point of the teardrop sapphire directly into Dr. Harris’s right eye.

He screamed, a horrific, agonizing sound, dropping the gun as his hands flew to his face.

Before the gun even hit the marble, Luca was there.

He moved like lightning, grabbing Dr. Harris by the throat and slamming him violently against the wall, right beside his mother’s portrait.

I dove to the floor, wrapping my arms around Leo and pulling him away, shielding his body with mine.

Luca didn’t shoot the doctor. He didn’t need to. He drove his knee into the man’s stomach, then delivered a devastating strike to his jaw, knocking Dr. Harris completely unconscious.

The doctor crumpled to the floor, out cold.

The foyer fell silent, except for the sound of the rain outside and the heavy, ragged breathing of the men in the room.

I sat on the floor, holding Leo tightly to my chest. The boy buried his face in my coat, crying softly, finally releasing the terror of the night.

Luca stood over the unconscious doctor for a moment.

Then, he turned around.

He walked over to where I was sitting on the floor. He knelt down beside me.

He reached out and gently rested his hand on the back of Leo’s head. Then, his eyes met mine.

“You gave them back their future, Emma,” Luca whispered, his voice thick with an emotion I had never heard from him before.

He reached out and gently took my bloodstained, bandaged hand in his.