Chapter 10 - The Enemy Inside the FamilyCecilia fell against the wall.
Blood spread across the white coat near her ribs.
Damian fired at Marco.
The corridor erupted.
I dragged Raphael behind a medical cart as bullets shattered lights and windows.
Cecilia crawled toward us, one hand pressed against her wound.
Vittorio remained inside the elevator until Marco’s men forced Damian backward. Then he stepped out as calmly as though arriving for dinner.
“Bring Raphael,” he ordered.
Marco approached.
I grabbed a steel instrument tray and struck his injured wrist. His gun fell.
Raphael began to wake.
“Elena?”
“We need to move.”
His eyes focused on Cecilia.
She lay several feet away, bleeding.
Despite everything, he reached for her.
Vittorio saw it and smiled.
“Always sentimental.”
Raphael raised Marco’s fallen gun.
The first shot struck the elevator control panel.
The doors closed between us and Vittorio.
Damian pulled Cecilia toward the stairwell.
I helped Raphael stand.
We moved through the west corridor as clinic security clashed with Vittorio’s men below.
Cecilia’s face had turned gray.
“The bullet is still inside,” I said.
“Can you treat her?” Raphael asked.
“She needs surgery.”
Cecilia laughed weakly.
“You still want to save me?”
Raphael did not look at her.
“I want my children to decide whether they forgive you. Dead parents steal that choice.”
We reached a private examination room and locked the door.
Damian barricaded it with a cabinet.
I cut open Cecilia’s coat. The bullet had entered below the ribs. There was no exit wound.
“Liver or spleen,” I said. “We cannot fix this here.”
Raphael used a secure phone to contact his remaining captains.
One by one, the calls failed.
Vittorio had blocked the network.
Then Sabine answered.
“We have Micah and Sofia in the underground garage,” she said. “Freddy is with us.”
“Leave the clinic.”
“The gates are sealed.”
Raphael closed his eyes briefly.
“Keep them hidden.”
Micah’s voice sounded over the speaker.
“Is Elena there?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Is he?”
Raphael looked at me.
“He has been shot, drugged, and ignored every medical instruction I gave him.”
“So normal?”
Raphael almost smiled.
“Micah,” he said, “listen carefully. Sabine will take you somewhere safe.”
“No.”
“This is not a debate.”
“You don’t know me well enough to order me around.”
The words landed hard.
Raphael accepted them.
“You are right.”
Micah fell silent.
“But I am asking you to trust Elena,” Raphael continued. “She will tell you when it is safe.”
Micah answered quietly.
“I already trust her.”
The call ended.
Raphael looked at me.
“He should hate me.”
“He does not know you.”
“Those may become the same thing.”
“Do not decide for him.”
Cecilia heard the words.
Her eyes closed.
“I decided for everyone.”
“Yes,” Raphael said.
For the first time, she did not defend herself.
Damian moved toward the door.
“They are coming.”
Raphael examined the room.
A narrow window opened toward the roof of the adjoining laboratory.
“We cross there.”
Cecilia could barely stand.
Damian lifted her.
We climbed through the window one at a time.
Rain had returned, turning the roof slick beneath our feet.
Below us, vehicles surrounded the clinic.
At the center of the courtyard, Vittorio’s men dragged Sabine, Freddy, Micah, and Sofia from the underground garage.
Raphael stopped.
Vittorio stepped into the rain.
He looked up at us.
“Bring me the evidence,” he shouted, “or I begin with the boy.”
Marco placed a gun against Micah’s head.
I felt Raphael’s body change beside me.
His entire life had become a series of impossible choices.
The organization or Cecilia.
Sofia or Micah.
Justice or family.
Vittorio believed love made Raphael weak because love created something to lose.
He did not understand that love also created something worth destroying an empire to protect.
Raphael looked at Damian.
“Do you still control the council broadcast system?”
“Yes.”
“Can you reach every captain?”
“For perhaps thirty seconds.”
Raphael removed the signet ring from his hand.
Inside the band was a tiny data chip.
He gave it to Damian.
“Upload Daniel’s files.”
Damian stared at him.
“That will expose everything. Accounts, judges, police contacts. The organization will collapse.”
“Yes.”
“Your father built it.”
“My father built a machine that fed children to Vittorio.”
Raphael looked down at his uncle.
“Burn it.”
Damian connected the chip to his phone.
Across Chicago, confidential files began reaching every Orsini captain, federal investigator, journalist, and prosecutor Daniel had listed.
Vittorio’s phone rang.
Then Marco’s.
Then every device in the courtyard.
Their faces changed as the evidence spread beyond their control.
Raphael called down.
“You wanted my organization.”
Vittorio looked up.
Raphael’s voice carried through the rain.
“It no longer exists.”
Sirens began sounding in the distance.
Federal vehicles approached from three directions.
Vittorio seized Sofia and pressed a gun beneath her chin.
“Then I will take your bloodline with me.”
Sofia did not cry.
She looked up at Raphael.
Then she drove her heel down on Vittorio’s foot exactly as Freddy had taught her ten minutes earlier.
The gun shifted.
Micah threw himself against Marco.
Sabine moved.
Freddy moved.
Everyone moved at once.
A shot rang out.
May you like
Vittorio stumbled backward.
And Sofia disappeared over the edge of the loading platform.
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