Chapter 10 - The Secret Hidden in the Purple Backpack
Their father had died four years earlier.
Official cause: heart attack.
Adrian had been in New York.
Victor found him.
Marco arrived thirty minutes later.
The funeral drew hundreds.
Luca, supposedly dead, did not attend.
At least Adrian thought he had not.
Now Luca sat in the wine cellar with his daughter asleep nearby and stared at the floor.
“You were there.”
Luca nodded.
Adrian’s anger returned.
“You came to Chicago.”
“Yes.”
“You saw Dad.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night he died.”
Adrian stood.
“Was it a heart attack?”
“Yes.”
“Did you cause it?”
“No.”
“Then why hide this?”
“Because the argument caused it.”
Silence.
Luca told him.
Their father had summoned him secretly.
He had learned Gabriel was rebuilding the old Bellandi network and using DeLuca companies to wash money.
He wanted Luca to return.
Luca refused unless Adrian was told the truth.
Their father refused.
They argued.
Luca accused him of protecting Gabriel at the expense of everyone else.
Their father became furious.
Then collapsed.
Luca called emergency services anonymously.
He stayed long enough to see paramedics arrive.
Then disappeared.
Adrian stared.
“So I buried Dad believing his last living son was me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
Adrian looked at Sofia.
Sleeping.
Small.
Innocent.
He lowered his voice.
“Gabriel wants us angry at each other.”
“Yes.”
“And he knows exactly which truths to use.”
“Yes.”
“Then we stop giving him that power.”
Luca looked up.
For the first time, Adrian saw surprise.
Adrian sat again.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“I should have made it possible.”
Luca swallowed.
“Yes.”
They did not forgive six years in one conversation.
But they stopped allowing Gabriel to decide what the truth would do to them.
That mattered.
Marco returned with new information.
Elena had been moved.
Traffic cameras caught a van registered to one of Gabriel’s shell companies heading toward Lake County.
An abandoned private school there had been purchased six months earlier.
Adrian looked at Luca.
“Gabriel’s?”
“Probably.”
Marco placed photographs on the table.
One image showed Elena being moved from a vehicle.
Alive.
Her hands appeared free.
No visible guards touching her.
Adrian frowned.
“She doesn’t look like a prisoner.”
Luca stared.
“She is.”
“Then why isn’t she restrained?”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Because Gabriel knows she won’t run without Sofia.”
That was the leverage.
Not chains.
Motherhood.
Adrian studied the property map.
“We get her out.”
Marco shook his head.
“Not by walking in.”
“Then what?”
“We give Gabriel what he wants.”
Luca stared.
“The ledger?”
“A copy.”
“He’ll know.”
“Eventually.”
Adrian understood Marco’s plan.
Use the microfilm to create a duplicate physical package.
Let Gabriel believe the evidence had been surrendered.
Then move Elena.
But Gabriel also wanted Sofia.
That part would never happen.
Unless he believed she was present.
Teresa refused immediately.
“No.”
Adrian had not even finished explaining.
“No child goes anywhere near this.”
“She won’t.”
“Good.”
“We only make Gabriel think she does.”
Teresa crossed her arms.
“That sentence already sounds dangerous.”
Sofia appeared in the doorway.
“I can help.”
Every adult turned.
“No,” Luca said.
Sofia frowned.
“You didn’t hear my idea.”
“No.”
“Daddy.”
“No.”
She put her hands on her hips.
Adrian saw Luca’s expression and nearly enjoyed the moment.
Sofia looked at Adrian.
“Uncle Adrian?”
“No.”
“You’re both annoying.”
“Family trait,” Adrian said.
Sofia went back upstairs.
Marco opened the purple backpack.
“We use the bag.”
Adrian nodded.
Gabriel expected Sofia and the ledger.
Seeing the backpack could confirm both without seeing the child.
They prepared.
A second rabbit.
A copy of the microfilm.
A tracker.
No weapons visible.
No aggressive entry.
The goal was extraction, not revenge.
At 11:40 p.m., Gabriel sent coordinates.
Abandoned school.
Midnight.
Adrian and Luca arrived together.
Marco stayed outside with a team.
The hallway smelled of dust.
Old lockers lined the walls.
A single light burned in the gymnasium.
Gabriel stood at center court.
For the first time in decades, all three DeLuca brothers occupied the same room.
Adrian recognized him slowly.
The eyes first.
Same dark shape as their father.
Gabriel looked older than both of them.
Silver at his temples.
A burn scar climbed from his collar toward his neck.
Sofia’s description.
“You.”
Adrian understood.
“You were the man following Elena.”
Gabriel smiled.
“She always was observant.”
Luca stepped forward.
“Where is she?”
Gabriel gestured.
Elena emerged from a doorway.
Alive.
Luca moved.
Gabriel raised one hand.
Two security men appeared.
No one fired.
Luca stopped.
“Elena.”
Her eyes filled.
“Sofia?”
“Safe.”
She closed her eyes in relief.
Gabriel looked at the purple backpack in Adrian’s hand.
“The ledger.”
Adrian tossed it.
Gabriel caught it.
Opened the rabbit.
Removed the cylinder.
He smiled.
“Finally.”
Adrian looked at Elena.
“Let her go.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“You still think this is an exchange.”
“You called it one.”
“I lied.”
Luca moved again.
The security men blocked him.
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“I spent thirty years outside this family while Father pretended I didn’t exist. Luca got love. Adrian got the empire. I got boarding schools and checks.”
Adrian said quietly, “You got chances.”
Gabriel’s eyes flashed.
“You don’t know what I got.”
“No. Because they erased you.”
The answer surprised him.
Gabriel faltered.
Adrian continued.
“That was wrong.”
Luca looked at Adrian.
“But punishing Sofia won’t fix it.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“She carries the claim.”
“She is six.”
“She represents everything Father stole from me.”
“No,” Adrian said. “She represents what our grandfather stole from someone else.”
That landed.
Gabriel stared at him.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You think I came to protect the money?”
Gabriel looked at the backpack.
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
Adrian reached inside his coat.
The guards tensed.
He removed legal papers.
“I signed the properties back into trust this afternoon.”
Gabriel went still.
“What?”
“The Marchetti trust.”
Luca stared at him.
“You did what?”
Adrian did not look away from Gabriel.
“Every property still controlled by DeLuca entities is being transferred.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“Those assets are worth hundreds of millions.”
“I know.”
“You would give them to a child?”
“They were never ours.”
The gymnasium went silent.
For the first time, Gabriel looked genuinely shaken.
Then one of his guards stepped toward him.
“Mr. DeLuca.”
Gabriel turned.
The guard pressed a phone into his hand.
Gabriel read the screen.
His face drained of color.
Someone had accessed his private accounts.
Someone had emptied them.
Gabriel looked up.
“You.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Luca looked equally confused.
Then Elena spoke.
“It was me.”
May you like
Everyone turned.
And for the first time, Gabriel looked afraid of the woman he thought he controlled.
