Chapter 10 - The Church on Bell StreetThe church had been abandoned for nineteen years.
Broken windows.
Collapsed roof.
Water dripping through the nave.
Cora entered behind Dante.
Elena was tied to a chair near the altar.
Victor stood behind her.
Two men with rifles guarded the doors.
Cora whispered.
"Where's Adrian?"
"Probably watching."
"That makes me feel better."
"Don't."
Victor laughed.
"You finally brought her."
Dante raised his gun.
"Let Elena go."
Victor looked at Cora.
"Do you know why your father hid her?"
"Who?"
"Your memory."
Cora frowned.
Victor smiled.
"That's what everyone has been fighting over."
Dante stepped forward.
"Enough."
Victor pulled out a small recorder.
Pressed play.
Cora's father's voice filled the church.
"Lucien has begun moving money through the foundation."
Victor laughed softly.
"He knew."
"He also knew his son would eventually learn the truth."
Dante went still.
Victor looked at him.
"Your father wasn't just laundering money."
"Stop."
"He was selling names."
Dante's face hardened.
"Names of informants."
Victor nodded.
"Police."
"Politicians."
"Judges."
"Everyone."
Cora looked at Dante.
"You knew?"
"I knew some."
Victor laughed.
"Not enough."
He turned toward Cora.
"Your father kept the complete ledger."
"Why do you want it?"
"Because half the city would burn if it became public."
"And the other half?"
"Would belong to whoever controls the information."
Dante stepped forward.
Victor raised a gun to Elena's head.
"One more step."
Dante stopped.
Cora noticed something.
Victor's right hand.
Silver ring.
But there was a scratch across the surface.
A tiny diagonal line.
She remembered her father's warning.
Not the ring.
The scratch.
She whispered,
"You're not Victor."
The church went silent.
The man behind Elena smiled.
Dante looked at Cora.
The impostor laughed.
"How clever."
Then a gunshot exploded.
The real Victor appeared from the balcony.
He shot the impostor in the shoulder.
Chaos erupted.
Dante dragged Cora behind a stone pillar.
Elena kicked her chair backward, breaking the legs.
Gunfire filled the church.
The impostor fled through the side door.
Victor helped Elena to her feet.
"Run!"
Dante fired at one of the guards.
Cora crawled toward the altar.
There was something hidden beneath the old wooden cross.
A metal box.
She remembered the code.
Three.
Seven.
Nine.
She entered the numbers.
The box opened.
Inside was a single envelope.
She opened it.
A letter.
From her father.
Cora,
If you are reading this, then everyone I trusted failed.
Her hands shook.
There is one person Dante must never trust.
She looked at him.
Dante was fighting beside Victor.
It is not Victor.
Cora continued.
It is the person who taught him to survive.
Her eyes widened.
Elena.
The letter continued.
I kept the final name inside her protection network.
Cora looked at Elena.
Elena was standing beside Dante.
Watching him.
Too calmly.
Cora realized something.
The ledger had never been the final secret.
It was the key to finding the final secret.
And the final secret was a name.
She folded the letter.
Victor approached.
"What did you find?"
Cora looked at him.
Then at Dante.
Then at Elena.
"I know who betrayed your family."
"Who?"
Before Cora could answer, Elena raised her gun.
Not at Victor.
Not at Cora.
At Dante.
She pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
Cora screamed.
"DANTE!"
He fell backward.
Elena looked at Cora.
Her expression was almost sad.
"I told you."
Cora stared.
"Protected him from his father."
May you like
Elena stepped closer.
"Now I have to protect the world from him."
