Chapter 11 - The Mother in Room 317
Luca gave Salvatore an address.
St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation Hospital.
Room 317.
No guards.
No police.
No tricks.
Salvatore ignored all three instructions.
By midnight, Carmine had six men positioned around the hospital.
Isabella came too.
“You don’t need to be here,” Salvatore told her.
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because someone needs to tell you when you’re being stupid.”
“That position is already filled.”
“By Carmine?”
“Usually.”
Carmine, two steps ahead, said, “I charge more.”
They reached Room 317.
Salvatore stopped outside.
For eight years, he had imagined finding Elena.
Sometimes angry.
Sometimes married.
Sometimes dead.
He had never imagined being afraid to turn a door handle.
Isabella quietly moved back.
Salvatore entered alone.
A woman lay in the bed.
Thin.
Bruised.
A bandage around her head.
Her dark hair was shorter now, threaded with silver near the temples.
But it was Elena.
Alive.
Salvatore forgot how to breathe.
Her eyes opened.
For several seconds, they simply stared.
Then Elena whispered:
“You got old.”
Salvatore laughed.
It broke halfway out.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
He crossed the room.
Stopped beside the bed.
He wanted to touch her and did not know whether he still had that right.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I was unconscious until yesterday.”
“Eight years, Elena.”
Her face changed.
“Not those eight years.”
“Where were you?”
“Hiding Matteo.”
“He isn’t mine.”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“I know.”
“Why tell him he was?”
“Because if Luca found us, the only name he feared enough to avoid was yours.”
Salvatore absorbed that.
“You used me as a ghost.”
“I used the only shield I had left.”
“You could have come to me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
Salvatore went still.
“Three?”
“The first letter disappeared.”
“Who took it?”
“Marcello.”
“The second?”
“Vittorio intercepted it because your father’s old people were still watching.”
“And the third?”
Elena looked toward the window.
“Alexander Crane.”
Salvatore’s jaw tightened.
“What happened the night Matteo ran?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Luca found us.”
“He attacked you?”
“Yes.”
“Did he kill anyone?”
“My neighbor. A man named Peter.”
She swallowed.
“I hid Matteo in the wall. Luca dragged me out before Matteo came out.”
“Then how did he escape?”
“I told Luca I had sent the archive to you.”
“But you hadn’t.”
“No.”
“He believed you?”
“For five minutes.”
“What happened?”
“Crane’s men arrived.”
Salvatore frowned.
“Luca and Crane are enemies?”
“Yes.”
Everything shifted.
“Why?”
“Luca wants the archive to destroy Crane. Crane wants it destroyed.”
“And you?”
“I want both men stopped.”
Salvatore stared at her.
“Where is it?”
Elena smiled weakly.
“You still ask questions like a prosecutor.”
“Where?”
“I don’t have it.”
“Who does?”
She looked at him.
“Matteo.”
Salvatore went still.
“He doesn’t know.”
“Exactly.”
“What did you give him?”
“His stuffed bear.”
“He didn’t have one.”
Elena’s expression changed.
“What?”
“He arrived with nothing.”
“No.”
She tried to sit up.
Pain crossed her face.
“I put it in his backpack.”
“There was no backpack.”
Fear entered her eyes.
“Then someone took it.”
Salvatore’s phone rang.
Carmine.
He answered.
“We have movement.”
“Where?”
“Your house.”
Salvatore’s blood chilled.
“Matteo?”
“With Russo and six guards.”
“Check.”
“We already did.”
A pause.
Salvatore knew.
“What?”
“Matteo is gone.”
The room tilted.
Elena tried to rise.
“No.”
Salvatore caught her shoulders.
“Stay down.”
“No, Luca found him.”
“Maybe.”
“He’ll kill him.”
“No.”
Salvatore’s voice turned hard enough to cut glass.
“He won’t.”
Elena stared at him.
“How can you know?”
“Because Luca called me.”
Salvatore’s phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Matteo sat in the back seat of a car.
Alive.
Terrified.
Beside him was the one-eyed stuffed rabbit Salvatore had never seen before.
A message followed.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
BRING CRANE.
TRADE HIM FOR THE BOY.
Elena stared at the screen.
“That rabbit.”
“What?”
“That isn’t Matteo’s.”
Salvatore looked closer.
“Then whose is it?”
Elena’s face went pale.
“His sister’s.”
Silence.
Salvatore slowly turned toward her.
“Sister?”
May you like
Elena whispered:
“Luca has our daughter too.”
