Chapter 8 - The Match That Burned a Family
Antonio lunged.
Marco grabbed him.
“You liar!”
Elena didn’t move.
“Let me go!”
Antonio struggled.
“My father saved people his whole life.”
Elena shouted back.
“Your father was paid to destroy one room.”
Antonio stopped.
“What room?”
“Hospital archives.”
Father Matteo closed his eyes.
Riccardo whispered, “Birth records.”
Elena nodded.
“Isabella planned to expose Vittorio.”
She looked at Sofia.
“She had hidden documents inside St. Vincent because she believed nobody would search a maternity ward.”
Riccardo rubbed his forehead.
“And Antonio’s father?”
“Luca Bellini worked maintenance.”
Antonio shook his head.
“No.”
“Vittorio paid him to start a small electrical fire in records storage.”
“Small?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“The fire hit an oxygen line.”
Nobody spoke.
“Everything spread in minutes.”
Antonio stumbled backward.
“My father killed thirty-one people.”
“He didn’t know it would happen.”
“That doesn’t change it.”
Riccardo looked at Antonio.
“No.”
His own words from minutes earlier came back to him.
“It doesn’t.”
Elena continued.
“Luca found me carrying Chiara down the stairs. Isabella had gone back for the ledger.”
Sofia whispered, “She went back?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she thought that ledger could protect you forever.”
Elena wiped her face.
“She never came back.”
Riccardo looked toward the burning warehouse behind them.
“All these years I thought Isabella was trapped by accident.”
“She was murdered.”
Elena’s voice shook.
“Vittorio locked the stairwell door.”
Riccardo went completely still.
Marco looked away.
Sofia saw something in Riccardo change.
Not anger.
Something colder.
“Where is the ledger?”
Elena stared at him.
“You still think revenge fixes this?”
“No.”
Riccardo looked at Sofia.
“It keeps it from happening again.”
Elena hesitated.
Then nodded toward Sofia’s bracelet.
“It has been with her the whole time.”
Sofia looked down.
“What?”
“The plaque.”
Elena took Sofia’s wrist.
“Isabella designed it.”
She pressed a thumbnail against the edge.
A tiny seam appeared.
Sofia stared.
Elena twisted the plaque.
The back opened.
Inside was a thin metal key.
Riccardo whispered, “Jesus.”
Sofia removed it.
“This opens what?”
Elena answered.
“A safe deposit box.”
“Where?”
“First Lake Bank.”
Antonio frowned.
“That branch closed ten years ago.”
“The vault still exists.”
Riccardo looked at Marco.
“Who owns the building?”
Marco checked his phone.
Then stopped.
“Salvatore Greco.”
Elena nodded.
“Exactly.”
Sofia almost laughed.
“So the proof that can destroy these people is inside a bank building owned by one of them?”
“Isabella hid it there before Greco owned the property.”
Riccardo looked at the key.
“We go tonight.”
Father Matteo grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
Riccardo looked down.
“You don’t understand.”
The priest’s eyes were sharp despite the pain.
“The ledger is not just a list of crimes.”
“What else is it?”
Father Matteo looked at Sofia.
“It proves who ordered the hit on Isabella.”
Riccardo frowned.
“We already know.”
“No.”
Father Matteo shook his head.
“Vittorio set the fire.”
He swallowed.
“But someone else ordered Isabella killed.”
Sofia’s voice became quiet.
“Who?”
May you like
Father Matteo looked at Riccardo.
“Your father.”
