Chapter 6 - THE BOY AT ST. AGNES
Matteo Barone did not look like a man invading territory.
He looked like a tired father.
That was my first surprise.
My second was the boy beside him.
Eight years old.
Dark curls.
Gray coat.
Both hands gripping an old photograph.
He looked at Maria before he looked at me.
“Are you Lucy’s mom?”
Maria stopped.
“Yes.”
The boy held up the photograph.
“Lucy was nice to me.”
His voice was quiet.
Natural.
No dramatic revelation.
Just a child remembering another child.
Maria knelt so they were eye level.
“What’s your name?”
“Nico.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened at the name being spoken openly.
Maria looked at him.
“Hi, Nico.”
The boy nodded.
“Hi.”
Then he asked:
“Is Lucy here?”
“No. She’s safe.”
He seemed relieved.
“Okay.”
Children accept answers adults would interrogate for hours.
Matteo placed one hand on his son’s shoulder.
“You’re Luca Santoro.”
“Yes.”
“Your men have been following mine.”
“Your trucks have been appearing near my eastern route.”
“They are following Nicholas Bellini.”
Caroline stepped from behind me.
Matteo’s expression changed.
Not hostility.
Recognition.
“Elena’s daughter.”
Caroline stopped breathing.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Matteo looked toward Nico.
Then toward the church door.
“Inside.”
Caroline nearly fell.
I caught her elbow.
She tore free immediately.
“My mother is inside?”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Caroline was already moving.
Matteo stepped in front of her.
“Wait.”
I moved between them before Caroline could.
“You have three seconds to explain why.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Because she does not know Caroline is here.”
Caroline stared at him.
“What?”
“She has not seen family in three years.”
“Why?”
Matteo answered softly.
“Because she believed Nicholas would use anyone she contacted to find Nico.”
The boy looked down.
Caroline’s anger collapsed into pain.
“My mother stayed away from me to protect him?”
Matteo nodded.
“She believed your father had chosen Nicholas.”
Caroline’s face twisted.
“He did.”
“No.”
That came from Samuel.
We turned.
He looked almost ashamed.
“Raymond searched for Elena constantly.”
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“Quietly.”
“Because Nicholas controlled too many Bellini men.”
Caroline stared.
“My father knew Nicholas betrayed him and left him in power?”
Samuel said:
“He was trying to identify everyone Nicholas had bought.”
“That took three years?”
“No.”
Samuel’s face changed.
“It took three months.”
Nobody spoke.
Caroline’s voice became dangerous.
“Then why didn’t my father bring Mom home?”
Samuel looked toward Matteo.
Matteo answered.
“Because Elena refused.”
Caroline looked shattered.
“Why?”
The church door opened.
A woman stood inside.
Late fifties.
Dark hair streaked with silver.
Camel-colored cardigan.
Thin.
Elegant despite everything.
Caroline whispered:
“Mom.”
Elena Bellini closed her eyes.
Just for a second.
Then Caroline crossed the distance between them.
No hesitation.
No pride.
She wrapped both arms around her mother.
Elena held her like someone who had been waiting three years to breathe.
I looked away.
Some moments do not belong to witnesses.
Maria cried quietly.
Even Samuel removed his glasses.
Nico watched with a small frown.
Then asked Matteo:
“Is she happy?”
Matteo looked at his son.
“Yes.”
“Why is she crying?”
“Sometimes that happens too.”
Nico seemed to consider that.
“Okay.”
When Caroline finally stepped back, she touched her mother’s face.
“You let me think you left.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“You called me.”
“Yes.”
“Dad arranged those calls?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
Then Nico.
“Because your brother was listening to you.”
Caroline went still.
“Through what?”
“Your father’s office. Your phone records. Staff.”
Her eyes moved toward Samuel.
“Not Samuel.”
That mattered.
Then Elena looked at Maria.
“You’re Teresa’s sister.”
Maria nodded.
Elena took her hands.
“Your sister saved this little boy.”
Maria’s face crumpled.
“What happened?”
Elena looked at Nico.
Matteo touched his son’s shoulder.
“Nico was sick when he was small. Breathing problems.”
The boy rolled his eyes.
“I’m not sick now.”
“No,” Matteo said. “You are loud now.”
Nico smiled.
A normal little boy.
Matteo continued.
“During the harbor dispute, I couldn’t bring him to a Barone doctor without my father learning he survived.”
I frowned.
“Your father didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Why hide your own son?”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“Because after Claire died, my father wanted me back inside the family completely. A child gave rivals leverage.”
“So he told everyone Nico died.”
“Yes.”
“You agreed?”
“For six months.”
His shame was real.
“I told myself it protected him.”
Maria looked at him.
“That phrase again.”
Matteo nodded.
“I know.”
He did not defend it.
“Teresa worked at St. Agnes. Elena brought supplies. They helped me keep Nico safe.”
“Then Nicholas found out,” I said.
“Yes.”
Elena continued.
“Nicholas realized a hidden Barone heir could be valuable.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
“He planned to trade Nico’s location to my uncle.”
“Why your uncle?”
“Because my uncle wanted to replace my father eventually.”
Family politics.
The oldest poison.
Elena looked at Caroline.
“I discovered Nicholas meeting his people.”
“And he took you?”
“No.”
Another reversal.
Caroline stared.
“I left.”
“What?”
“I chose to disappear before he understood how much I knew.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Raymond had spent three years searching for a wife who had deliberately gone underground.
Elena continued.
“I believed if Nicholas thought I ran away because of my marriage, he would stop looking.”
“Did he?”
“For a while.”
“Then?”
“Nico’s location was compromised eight months ago.”
Anthony Moretti.
I understood.
“Anthony found you.”
Elena nodded.
“He found us and offered to take me home.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
“Because Nicholas was watching him.”
Samuel whispered:
“That’s why Anthony disappeared.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“He stayed behind to pull Nicholas away from us.”
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Caroline covered her mouth.
Maria looked toward the church.
“What does Lucy have to do with any of this?”
Elena’s expression changed.
“More than she should.”
Maria stiffened.
Elena quickly said:
“Not because anyone targeted her.”
“Then why?”
“Teresa used Lucy as cover.”
Maria stared.
“What?”
“When Teresa picked Lucy up from preschool, she could move around the neighborhood without men wondering why she was carrying children’s clothes or food.”
Maria’s face broke.
“My sister used my child?”
“She protected Nico.”
“She used Lucy.”
“Yes.”
Elena did not soften it.
“That was wrong.”
Maria looked away.
Again.
Good intentions.
Consequences.
Every adult in this story kept learning the same lesson.
Elena reached into her cardigan pocket.
She removed a small silver rosary.
“One afternoon, Lucy gave Nico this.”
Maria recognized it.
“That belonged to Teresa.”
“Nico was crying.”
Elena looked at the boy.
“He was five.”
Nico frowned.
“I don’t remember crying.”
Matteo almost smiled.
“You cried constantly.”
“I did not.”
“You did.”
Nico looked offended.
That tiny normal argument somehow made everything worse and better at the same time.
Elena handed Maria the rosary.
“Lucy told him, ‘My aunt says hold this when you’re scared.’”
Maria closed her fingers around it.
Then Matteo looked at me.
“We have a bigger problem.”
Of course we did.
“Nicholas knows Elena is here.”
“How?”
“He followed the diverted shipment.”
“The shipment you didn’t steal.”
“No.”
“What’s in it?”
“Food.”
I stared.
Matteo almost smiled.
“Your shipment was food for St. Agnes.”
I looked at Samuel.
He frowned.
“I didn’t authorize it.”
Elena did.
“I did.”
Everyone turned.
She continued.
“Through an old Santoro charity account Teresa once used.”
My jaw tightened.
“You diverted my freight.”
“I borrowed groceries.”
Maria made a sound.
Almost laughter.
I looked at her.
She lifted both hands.
“Sorry.”
Even I saw the irony.
My household had been forcing Maria to buy groceries for me.
Meanwhile Elena Bellini had been redirecting Santoro groceries to families at St. Agnes.
Nothing about tonight was normal.
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“Nicholas followed the truck because he thought it would lead him to Elena.”
“Where is he?”
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
Samuel checked his phone.
His face changed.
“Luca.”
“What?”
“Raymond Bellini left his house thirty minutes ago.”
Caroline looked at him.
“Dad knows?”
Samuel nodded.
“He’s heading to Calumet Warehouse Four.”
Elena went pale.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
She gripped the silver rosary in Maria’s hand.
“Anthony hid something there.”
“What?”
“Proof Nicholas sold both families’ routes.”
“Then Raymond wants it.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“Nicholas wants it.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“And Raymond is going alone.”
Caroline stared at her mother.
“Why?”
Elena whispered:
“Because Nicholas sent him a photograph.”
“What photograph?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“One of Anthony Moretti.”
Alive.
Tied to a chair.
May you like
Holding today’s newspaper.
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