Chapter 12 - My Dead Wife Opened the Door
The helicopter lifted above the Hudson.
Seven minutes.
That was all that separated my daughters from the woman Julian claimed was Isabella.
I replayed his words until they became unbearable.
Isabella survived the bridge.
Impossible.
I had identified her body.
I had buried her.
Marco sat across from me, face pale.
“You saw her in the car,” I said.
“She was alive when I left to pursue the second attacker.”
“And when you returned?”
“The vehicle had sunk deeper. Rescue divers recovered a body.”
“You identified her.”
“Her face was damaged. She wore Isabella’s clothes and jewelry.”
The Crown had used bodies before.
Teresa had faked her death the same way.
“Why would Isabella stay away from her children?”
Elena answered.
“She may not have had a choice.”
Lucia held the microdrive tightly.
“Or she believed the children were safer without her.”
I looked at the monastery feed.
The masked woman struck the bell-tower door again.
Lily and Sofia huddled behind Gabriel.
If that woman was Isabella, she was terrorizing her own daughters.
Unless she did not know who was inside.
The helicopter landed in a field behind the monastery.
We moved through the tree line.
Two attackers guarded the rear entrance.
Marco eliminated one.
Elena struck the second with the stock of his weapon before he could turn.
Inside, smoke filled the corridors.
Father Gabriel had triggered an old fire system to reduce visibility.
We climbed the west stairs.
A woman’s voice echoed from the bell tower.
“Open the door. I only want the drive.”
Not distorted.
Not disguised.
Isabella.
My knees nearly failed.
I had heard that voice in dreams for two years.
I reached the top landing.
The masked woman stood ten feet away.
“Isabella.”
She froze.
Slowly, she turned.
Her gun remained pointed toward the floor.
I removed my weapon and set it down.
“Take off the mask.”
“Adrian, you should not have come.”
“Take it off.”
Her hand trembled.
Then she pulled the mask away.
Scars crossed the left side of her face, but I knew every line of the right.
The dark eyes.
The mouth that used to smile before she admitted she was amused.
My wife.
Alive.
Rage arrived before joy.
“You left them.”
Pain filled her expression.
“I protected them.”
“You allowed me to bury you.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
“No,” she whispered. “That is the one thing you still do not understand.”
The bell-tower door opened behind her.
Gabriel stood there holding a shotgun.
Lily ran into the corridor.
“Mommy?”
Isabella’s weapon fell from her hand.
She looked at our daughter as though the world had opened beneath her.
Lily stopped several feet away.
Children remembered more than adults believed.
“Mommy,” she repeated.
Isabella dropped to her knees.
Lily ran into her arms.
The sound Isabella made did not resemble a word.
Sofia appeared in the doorway, holding the frame for support.
She stared at the scarred stranger embracing her sister.
Then she took one step.
Another.
Another.
“Mommy?”
Isabella opened one arm.
Sofia walked into it.
I watched my dead wife hold our daughters, and every emotion inside me collided.
Love.
Hatred.
Relief.
Betrayal.
Elena turned away, crying.
Marco lowered his head.
For one fragile moment, the Crown disappeared.
Then Lucia spoke.
“Why did you attack the monastery?”
Isabella looked up.
“I did not.”
“You were outside the door with a gun.”
“I followed the attackers here.”
“Julian said you wanted the ledger.”
Her expression changed.
“Julian is alive?”
“Maybe.”
A tremor rolled beneath the building.
Far away, beyond the trees, an orange glow lit the horizon.
Saint Agnes.
The laboratory had exploded.
I looked at the device Julian had given me.
No signal.
My brother was gone.
Isabella held the girls tighter.
“He saved me after the bridge.”
“Tell me everything,” I said.
“Not here. Teresa has a second command network.”
“Teresa is dead.”
“Did you see the body?”
I had not.
The explosion might have destroyed the facility, but Teresa had survived death once before.
Isabella stood.
“We must move.”
“No one moves until I understand who attacked my daughters.”
Her eyes met mine.
“The Crown did.”
“Teresa’s Crown?”
“No.”
She looked at the microdrive in Lucia’s hand.
“The organization split after Sofia was injured. Teresa controlled the old network. Someone else built a faction that believed she had become reckless.”
“Who?”
“I never saw the leader.”
“But you worked for them.”
“I infiltrated them.”
“For two years?”
“Yes.”
“Without contacting me?”
“They had people inside your home.”
“My mother.”
“Others too.”
“Who?”
She looked at Marco.
His hand moved toward his gun.
Isabella shook her head.
“Not Marco.”
“Then who?”
Footsteps sounded below us.
Many footsteps.
Gabriel checked the stairwell.
“Vehicles are entering the courtyard.”
Isabella retrieved her weapon.
“They found us.”
We moved the girls through the bell tower to the roof.
A maintenance ladder led down to an old cemetery behind the monastery.
As Marco carried Sofia, she reached for Isabella.
My wife followed close behind.
At the bottom, a convoy blocked the eastern road.
Men in federal tactical uniforms surrounded the property.
A voice announced through a loudspeaker:
“Adrian Moretti, surrender the stolen biological database and release Isabella Vale.”
Vale.
Teresa’s surname.
I looked at my wife.
“Why did they call you Isabella Vale?”
She closed her eyes.
“Because Isabella Moretti was never my real name.”
The federal team advanced.
Isabella raised her gun.
Then the lead officer removed his helmet.
Dr. Nathaniel Shaw.
The physician who had injured Sofia.
The man who had supposedly retired.
He smiled at us.
“Welcome back, Isabella.”
May you like
Then he pointed at Elena.
“Bring me my daughter.”
