Chapter 6 - The Night Luca ForgotThe memory came back in pieces.
A red carpet.
A shattered glass.
His father's voice.
A boy crying.
Someone screaming.
Then fire.
Luca sat on the safe house floor, unable to breathe.
Marco crouched beside him.
“You didn't kill him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there.”
Luca looked up.
Marco swallowed.
“You were fourteen. Your father was still alive when I found you.”
“Then who shot him?”
Marco shook his head.
“You did.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Not with a gun.”
Luca's face went blank.
Marco continued.
“You were holding the family knife.”
Luca's stomach turned.
“Your father had been stabbed.”
“By me?”
“No.”
“Then why was my hand bloody?”
Marco stared at the floor.
“Because you tried to save him.”
That one sentence shattered the nightmare.
Luca remembered.
His father lying on the floor.
Blood everywhere.
Luca pressing his hands against the wound.
His father whispering:
Protect Adrian.
Then footsteps.
A woman.
Isabella.
She entered the room.
And took something from the desk.
A black drive.
Luca's memory ended there.
He looked at Marco.
“She was there.”
“Yes.”
“Why did she say my father owed her?”
Marco didn't answer.
The sound of a door opening interrupted them.
Rachel entered.
She looked exhausted.
She stared at Luca.
“You remembered.”
“Yes.”
Rachel closed the door.
“You never should have.”
“Why?”
“Because once you remember everything, they will kill you.”
Luca stepped toward her.
“Who?”
Rachel's voice cracked.
“The Bellini family didn't build its power alone.”
She looked at Marco.
“There was another organization.”
“The Valtieri.”
“Yes.”
Luca frowned.
“They've been gone for twenty years.”
Rachel shook her head.
“They were never gone.”
She sat down.
“They infiltrated your father's empire. Judges. banks. ports. police. They wanted one thing.”
“The archive.”
“Yes.”
“And Isabella?”
“She worked for them.”
“What about Adrian?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Adrian betrayed them.”
Luca stared.
“Why?”
“Because he discovered the truth.”
“What truth?”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Your father wasn't the head of the organization.”
Luca frowned.
“Then who was?”
Rachel whispered the name.
“Your mother.”
Luca stopped breathing.
His mother had died when he was six.
A car accident.
At least that was what he'd been told.
“No.”
Rachel nodded.
“Your mother was alive for years after the accident.”
“Why?”
“She disappeared because she discovered what the Valtieri were doing.”
“Where is she now?”
Rachel looked toward the window.
“I don't know.”
A small sound came from the hallway.
Everyone turned.
It was a child's laugh.
Luca's heart stopped.
“Emma?”
He ran.
The hallway was empty.
At the end of it lay a stuffed rabbit.
Emma's rabbit.
Luca picked it up.
A tiny piece of paper was tied around its neck.
He unfolded it.
Five words.
SHE IS NOT YOUR DAUGHTER.
Luca stared.
Rachel gasped.
“What?”
Another message arrived on Luca's phone.
A photograph.
Emma.
And beside her, Isabella.
But this time Emma was smiling.
Behind them stood a man.
Tall.
Pale.
Scarred.
Luca stared at the face.
Marco whispered:
“Adrian.”
Then Luca noticed something.
Adrian was holding Emma's hand.
And Emma was wearing the silver locket.
May you like
On the back of the photograph was one final sentence:
Ask Rachel who Emma's real father is.
