Chapter 5 - THE TICKET TO A GHOST TOWN
The shotgun clattered across the concrete floor, spinning out of reach.
Luca pinned my mother to the ground, his forearm pressing firmly against her collarbone. She thrashed wildly, screaming in the darkness, but he was far too strong for her.
“Stop!” Luca ordered, his voice echoing in the pitch-black warehouse. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
“Liar!” she spat, clawing at his arms.
I crawled out from behind the pallets, keeping Noah tucked tightly behind me. I found the burner phone in the pocket of my mother’s coat and turned on the flashlight.
The harsh white beam cut through the dark, illuminating Luca holding my mother down.
“Mom, please stop,” I begged, my voice breaking. “You’re terrifying the boy.”
My mother froze. She looked past the blinding light of the phone, squinting until she saw Noah’s terrified, tear-streaked face.
The fight instantly drained out of her. She went limp against the concrete, closing her eyes.
Luca slowly stood up, keeping himself between her and the discarded shotgun.
“Where is Thomas Reed?” Luca demanded, his chest heaving.
My mother sat up slowly, wiping dirt from her cheek. She looked defeated, older than I had ever seen her.
“He’s at the old Bellini shipyard,” she whispered, staring at the floor. “Adrian is holding him in the dry dock office.”
“And Vanessa’s child?” Luca asked.
My mother hesitated. She looked at me, a deep shame flooding her eyes.
“Adrian has the boy,” she said softly. “He took Vanessa’s son three years ago to ensure her loyalty. That’s why she agreed to marry you, Luca. She was trying to get close to your accounts, to steal enough money to pay the ransom Adrian demanded.”
The pieces finally clicked together. Vanessa hadn’t been plotting to steal the empire out of greed. She was a mother trying to buy back her child.
“If Adrian already has what he wants,” Luca said, his brow furrowing, “why keep Thomas alive this long?”
My mother reached into the inner pocket of her sweater.
Luca tensed, ready to move, but she slowly pulled out a small, rectangular piece of paper.
She held it out to him.
Luca took it, holding it under the beam of my phone’s flashlight.
It was an old, faded train ticket.
The date stamped on it was from twenty-nine years ago.
“Adrian isn’t holding Thomas to torture him,” my mother said quietly. “He’s holding him because Thomas is the only living person who knows the combination to your father’s primary offshore vault. And Thomas won’t give it up until Adrian hands over that train ticket.”
I frowned, confused. “Why would Thomas care about an old train ticket?”
Luca stared at the faded paper in his hand. His face had gone completely pale.
“Because of the name printed on it,” Luca whispered.
He turned the ticket so I could see it.
The passenger name was Adrian Vale.
“My father didn’t abandon Adrian,” Luca said, his voice trembling with a realization that shattered his entire worldview. “He bought this ticket to smuggle Adrian out of Chicago. He was trying to save him from a rival family who wanted the infant dead.”
“Yes,” my mother said bitterly. “Your father loved Adrian. He sent him away to protect him. And he paid Thomas Reed to make sure the boy was safely raised in hiding.”
Noah gasped. “Daddy protected him?”
“Your daddy was a hitman, but he had a soft spot for kids,” my mother said, looking at Noah with a strange pity. “Thomas checked on Adrian every month for twenty years. He was the only father figure Adrian ever actually had.”
Luca looked at the ticket, then at my mother.
“If Thomas raised him,” Luca asked, “why is Adrian trying to destroy Thomas now?”
“Because Adrian found out the truth last week,” my mother said.
“What truth?”
My mother stood up slowly, dusting off her knees. She looked Luca dead in the eye.
“Adrian found out that your father didn’t die in a random car bombing fourteen years ago, Luca.”
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The warehouse went dead silent.
“Thomas Reed planted the bomb,” my mother whispered. “Thomas killed your father.”
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