Chapter 7 - THE ROSARY'S SECRET
The men hesitated, lowering their rifles slightly at Sophia’s frantic command.
Luca stared at the little boy holding the stuffed bear.
For three years, he had visited an empty grave. He had mourned a son he thought had burned in a twisted metal wreck. Now, his child was standing ten feet away, staring back at him with wide, frightened eyes.
“Leo,” Luca whispered, taking a slow step forward.
“Stay back!” Sophia shrieked, aiming her silver revolver directly at my mother’s chest. “Nobody moves, or the old woman dies!”
I jumped in front of my mother, spreading my arms wide. “Don’t you touch her!”
“Sophia, you don’t need to do this,” Luca said, his voice eerily calm as he calculated the distance between them. “You have the money. You have the connections. Leave the boy, and I’ll let you walk away.”
“Walk away?!” Sophia laughed, a manic, desperate sound. “Without the boy, I have nothing! The other families will never follow me if the true heir to the Moretti empire is alive! I need him to legitimize my claim!”
“You’re a monster,” Matteo spat, clutching his side where an old wound flared with pain.
“I’m a survivor,” Sophia sneered. She looked at Matteo with pure hatred. “I should have made sure Marcus put a bullet in your head that night, Matteo. How did you even survive the river?”
“He didn’t survive it alone,” my mother suddenly spoke up.
Everyone froze.
My mother, who had been staring blankly at the floor, slowly looked up at Sophia. Her dementia, usually a thick fog over her mind, suddenly parted in a moment of crystal-clear lucidity.
My mother reached into her cardigan pocket and pulled out a heavy, dark wooden rosary.
Luca gasped. “Elena’s rosary.”
“She gave it to me,” my mother said, her voice steady and surprisingly strong. “The night of the crash. Elena brought the boy to the clinic. She was terrified. She knew you were trying to kill her, Sophia.”
Sophia’s face drained of color.
“She begged me to hide him,” my mother continued, gripping the cross tightly. “When the car crashed, I went down to the riverbank. I found Matteo washing ashore, bleeding to death. I hid him in the abandoned wing of the clinic. I stitched him up. I kept them safe.”
I stared at my mother in absolute shock.
For three years, while I thought she was losing her mind, she had been carrying the most dangerous secret in the city. She had sacrificed her own peace to protect an innocent child.
“Shut up!” Sophia screamed, pointing the gun at my mother. “Shut up, you crazy old bat!”
“You can’t kill the truth, Sophia,” my mother said peacefully.
Sophia’s finger tightened on the trigger.
“Take me!” I yelled, stepping fully in front of the gun, my heart hammering violently. “Take me as a hostage, Sophia! You need leverage to get out of the city! My mother is slow, she’ll hold you back. Take me, and let them go!”
Sophia stared at me, her eyes darting between Luca, the armed men, and the open doorway. She was losing control of the situation.
“Fine,” Sophia snarled. “Grab the maid!”
Two of her massive guards stepped forward, grabbing my arms and dragging me roughly toward Sophia.
“Mia, no!” Luca roared, lunging forward, but the remaining guards instantly raised their rifles, aiming directly at his chest.
“Hold your fire!” Sophia commanded her men, grabbing me by the hair and pressing the cold barrel of her revolver against my temple. “If anyone moves, I blow her brains out!”
I squeezed my eyes shut, tears slipping down my cheeks.
“Luca,” I whispered, “protect my mom.”
Sophia began to back away toward the loading doors, dragging me with her.
“I’m leaving with the girl,” Sophia announced to her men. “Kill Luca and Matteo. Bring the boy to the extraction point.”
The guards raised their weapons, preparing to execute Luca and his brother.
But Sophia made one fatal mistake.
She forgot about the heavy gold bracelet Luca had picked up on the ferry.
As Sophia backed into the shadows near the doorway, Luca didn’t look at the men aiming guns at him. He looked directly at me.
He raised his left hand, holding the heavy gold bracelet in the air.
He pressed a small, hidden button embedded in the lion’s eye on the clasp.
Instantly, the warehouse was flooded with blinding, piercing tactical strobe lights from the high windows.
A deafening explosion blew the rear doors of the warehouse entirely off their hinges.
“Federal Agents! Drop your weapons!”
Dozens of FBI SWAT agents poured into the warehouse from every direction, laser sights cutting through the smoke.
Luca hadn’t come to the shipyard alone. He had activated a federal distress beacon hidden in his father’s bracelet—a failsafe he had arranged months ago in secret when he began working with the FBI to legitimize his empire.
Sophia’s men panicked, dropping their rifles and throwing their hands in the air.
But Sophia didn’t surrender.
Screaming in rage, she shoved me violently to the concrete floor and aimed her revolver directly at little Leo.
“If I can’t have him, nobody will!” Sophia shrieked.
Time slowed down.
May you like
I watched her finger pull the trigger.
BANG.
