Chapter 6 - The Night Nico Stood Again
Noah had not been kidnapped.
Not exactly.
Security footage showed him walking willingly beside a woman in hospital scrubs.
The woman was not an employee.
Elena watched the recording repeatedly.
“Pause.”
Gabriel did.
Elena leaned toward the monitor.
Noah’s face.
He wasn’t frightened.
He looked confused.
“Zoom.”
The woman held something.
A photograph.
Elena recognized it.
Her mother.
“She told him something about Mom.”
Nico stood behind her on crutches.
“Enough to make him follow.”
They traced the woman’s stolen vehicle to an abandoned outpatient clinic.
Gabriel ordered Nico to remain behind.
Nico ignored him.
Elena did too.
The clinic was empty except for Noah.
He sat in a wheelchair inside an examination room.
Alive.
Unhurt.
Elena ran to him.
“Noah!”
He burst into tears.
“I’m sorry.”
She wrapped him in her arms.
“Never do that again.”
“She said Mom left something.”
“What?”
Noah handed her a key.
Small.
Brass.
A number engraved on it.
417.
The woman had disappeared.
Noah whispered, “She told me Grandma died because she found something.”
Nico looked at Gabriel.
A locker.
Bellhaven Central Station.
Number 417.
Inside they found a flash drive, bank records and a handwritten letter.
Elena recognized her mother’s handwriting.
If Elena ever reads this, then I failed to finish what I started.
Elena’s hands shook.
The letter described stolen medical funds.
Fraud.
Bribes.
And Victor.
But another name appeared.
A name that made Nico go completely still.
MATTEO VALENTI.
His uncle.
The man currently controlling nearly half of the Valenti organization.
Nico stared at the paper.
Elena whispered, “Your family.”
Nico’s expression became unreadable.
“Yes.”
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And suddenly the war was no longer outside the Valenti mansion.
It was inside the Valenti bloodline.
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