Chapter 7 - THE GRAVE EMPTY
The papers slipped from my hands, scattering across the bedroom floor.
"What?" Luca breathed. The powerful mafia boss staggered backward as if he’d been physically struck. "What did you just say?"
My mother fell to her knees, weeping into her hands.
"Caroline isn't dead," my mother sobbed. "I faked her death."
The room spun. I grabbed the edge of the dresser to keep from collapsing.
"Mom, you told me Vanessa injected her with poison," I stammered.
"Vanessa thought she did," my mother cried, looking up at Luca. "Vanessa brought a syringe of potassium chloride to stop her heart. But Caroline knew they were coming for her. She knew her mother, Eleanor, was trying to kill her."
Luca dropped to his knees in front of my mother. He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently.
"Mary. Tell me everything. Right now."
My mother swallowed hard, trying to catch her breath.
"Caroline found out Eleanor was working with the Bellinis," my mother explained. "But she also found out Vanessa was her half-sister. She knew that if she exposed them, the Bellinis would start a war, and you and Sophia would be caught in the crossfire."
"So she faked her death?" Luca asked, his voice cracking. "She left us?"
"She left to protect you," my mother said. "The night Vanessa came to the hospital, Caroline had already swapped her IV bags. She paid me to switch the syringe Vanessa brought with a heavy sedative. When Vanessa injected her, Caroline just went to sleep. Her heart rate dropped enough to fool the monitors. Vanessa thought she was dead and left."
"But the funeral," Luca whispered, his eyes wide with a desperate, agonizing hope. "I buried her."
"You buried an empty casket filled with weights," my mother confessed. "I helped the mortician smuggle her out the back of the hospital that night. She transferred her personal trust funds to an account in my name so I could slowly wire her the money to survive in hiding."
I stared at my mother. "You lied to me for two years?"
"I had to, Hannah," she cried. "If the Bellinis knew she was alive, they would have hunted her down. They would have killed you and me to get to her."
Sophia sat up on the bed. "Mommy is alive?"
Luca looked at his daughter, tears streaming down his face. He nodded slowly. "I think so, baby."
He turned back to my mother. "Where is she, Mary? Where is my wife?"
My mother reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, tarnished silver locket.
She opened it and handed it to Luca.
Inside wasn't a picture. It was a set of GPS coordinates carved into the metal.
"She’s been hiding in a cabin in upstate New York," my mother said. "She told me she would wait there until it was safe to come home."
Luca stood up, his energy returning in a fierce, overwhelming wave.
"Daniel and Eleanor are gone," Luca said, his voice trembling with emotion. "Vanessa is in custody. The threat is over."
He looked at me. "Hannah. Pack a bag for Sophia. We’re going to get her."
An hour later, the black SUV tore through the heavy rain, heading north out of the city.
Marco was driving. My mother sat in the passenger seat, guiding him.
I sat in the back with Luca and Sophia. The little girl was asleep, her head resting on her father's lap, clutching the little blue gift bag her grandmother had brought.
Luca stared out the window into the dark woods, his hand gently stroking his daughter's hair.
"Two years," he whispered to himself. "Two years in hell."
I watched him, my heart aching for the pain he had endured, but swelling with hope for the reunion that was coming.
As dawn began to break, the rain stopped. The first rays of sunlight pierced through the pine trees.
Marco turned the SUV onto a hidden dirt road.
We drove for another ten minutes before a small, wooden cabin came into view beside a quiet lake.
Smoke was rising from the chimney.
Luca’s breath hitched.
Before the car even fully stopped, Luca threw the door open and sprinted toward the cabin.
"Caroline!" he yelled, his voice echoing across the water.
The front door of the cabin slowly opened.
A woman stepped out onto the porch.
She was wearing a thick wool sweater. Her hair was longer than in the photos, and she looked tired, but her eyes were exactly the same.
Caroline.
Luca collapsed onto his knees in the dirt at the bottom of the porch steps, burying his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Caroline ran down the steps and threw her arms around him, crying just as hard.
"I'm sorry," she wept, kissing his face, his hair, his hands. "I'm so sorry I had to leave you."
"You're alive," Luca kept repeating, pulling her tightly against his chest. "You're alive."
I gently woke Sophia up.
"Look, sweetie," I whispered, pointing out the window.
Sophia rubbed her eyes, looking toward the cabin.
Her eyes went wide.
She unbuckled her seatbelt, pushed the car door open, and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her.
"MOMMY!"
Caroline looked up. When she saw Sophia, she let out a cry of pure, agonizing joy.
She caught Sophia in her arms, spinning her around, covering her face in kisses.
Luca wrapped his arms around both of them.
The family was whole again.
I stood by the car with my mother, crying happy tears.
"We did good, Mom," I whispered, hugging her.
"We did," she smiled, wiping her eyes.
But as we watched the beautiful reunion, Marco walked around to the back of the SUV and opened the trunk.
He didn't pull out luggage.
May you like
He pulled out a suppressed rifle.
And he aimed it directly at Caroline's back.
