Chapter 5 - The Men Who Had Been Waiting Seven Years
There were six of them outside.
Maybe more.
Elias watched the security feed on Gideon’s phone as another vehicle stopped near the entrance.
Juniper stood behind him.
“This happened because of me.”
“No.”
“They followed us.”
“They followed me.”
“That’s not better.”
Elias looked at her.
“You’re new to this family. We specialize in making things unnecessarily complicated.”
Juniper stared.
Then, despite the situation, she almost smiled.
Gideon checked the rear corridor.
“Service exit.”
“Clear?”
“For now.”
Elias looked at the micro-storage wafer.
“Take Juniper.”
Gideon frowned.
“You?”
“I’ll delay them.”
Juniper immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Elias stared at her.
“What?”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You’ve known me less than a day.”
“You’re apparently my brother.”
“Half.”
“That correction makes you sound annoying.”
“I am.”
Gideon muttered, “Can confirm.”
Elias gave him a look.
Juniper crossed her arms.
“If the storage piece is what they want, separating us gives them two targets.”
“She’s right,” Gideon said.
Elias disliked when people were right against him.
Especially two at once.
They moved through the rear service corridor.
Otto stayed beside Juniper.
The hallway ended at a steel emergency door opening toward an abandoned loading yard.
Rain had stopped.
The sky remained dark.
Gideon exited first.
Clear.
They crossed toward a second fence.
Then headlights exploded across the yard.
A vehicle blocked the far exit.
Juniper stopped.
A man stepped out.
Mid-fifties.
Gray hair.
Expensive overcoat.
No visible weapon.
Elias recognized him.
Dominic Bellandi.
Supposedly a real estate consultant living in Florida.
Apparently Philadelphia’s climate had improved.
“Elias,” Dominic called.
Elias positioned himself slightly ahead of Juniper.
“Dominic.”
“You found her.”
Juniper whispered, “He knows me.”
Dominic smiled.
“I’ve known about you longer than you’ve known about yourself.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
Dominic raised both hands.
“I didn’t come for violence.”
Gideon almost laughed.
“Then you brought too many people.”
Dominic looked toward Juniper.
“Your mother was smarter than Vittorio.”
Juniper’s expression sharpened.
“You knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Maybe too quickly.
“My father did terrible things,” Dominic continued. “So did yours.”
Juniper glanced at Elias.
Dominic noticed.
“You’ve told her already.”
“We learned together,” Elias said.
“Rosalie always did enjoy controlling the timing.”
“Don’t say her name.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“There he is.”
Elias stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
Juniper spoke.
“I don’t have it.”
“You do.”
Dominic pointed toward her old hospital badge.
“Or you did.”
Elias wondered how he knew.
Dominic saw the question.
“St. Brendan had more than one employee who owed my family favors.”
Juniper’s face changed.
“The fentanyl.”
“Yes.”
“You framed me.”
Dominic’s expression became almost regretful.
“I ordered someone to search your locker. They chose a more destructive method.”
“You ruined my life.”
“I needed you frightened enough to disappear.”
“Why not kill me?”
Elias’s gaze hardened.
Dominic looked toward him.
“Because despite what your family believes, not everyone solves problems that way.”
Juniper almost laughed.
“You made me homeless for six years.”
“I expected you to leave Philadelphia.”
“I had nowhere to go.”
For the first time, Dominic’s expression shifted.
A flicker of discomfort.
Juniper saw it.
“You didn’t even check.”
Dominic said nothing.
That silence revealed more than denial could have.
Elias stepped closer.
“You destroyed her life because you were afraid of a ledger.”
“I was afraid of what the ledger could restart.”
“What’s on it?”
“Enough history to destroy people who had nothing to do with our fathers.”
“Then why keep chasing her?”
“Because other people are chasing it too.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Dominic looked toward the road.
“You think I’m the biggest problem?”
Elias hated questions that sounded like warnings.
Dominic continued.
“The three men at Bellerto last night weren’t stealing from you.”
“They admitted it.”
“They were moving money.”
“For whom?”
“To protect themselves.”
“From whom?”
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“Councilman Warren Vale.”
Elias froze.
Vale was not just a councilman.
He was likely to become mayor.
He had spent twenty years cultivating a clean public image.
Youth programs.
Neighborhood redevelopment.
Anti-corruption speeches.
Elias knew him socially.
Had donated to two of his charities.
Dominic smiled without humor.
“Now you understand.”
“Vale is in the ledger?”
“His father is. And possibly more.”
Juniper looked confused.
“What does he want with me?”
“He wants every copy destroyed.”
“Copy?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Elias caught it.
“There’s more than one.”
“No.”
“You hesitated.”
Dominic looked at Juniper.
“Mara made two copies.”
Juniper stared.
“My mother?”
“One disappeared after her death.”
“Who took it?”
“I don’t know.”
Elias thought of Rosalie.
Dominic saw the realization.
“Exactly.”
Before anyone could speak, a phone rang.
Dominic checked his.
His face drained of color.
“What?”
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Elias.
“We need to leave.”
Elias did not move.
“Why?”
Dominic turned the phone so Gideon could see an alert.
Fire.
St. Brendan Hospital.
Seventh floor archival wing.
Juniper’s expression went blank.
“They’re destroying records.”
Dominic nodded.
“And that means they know Rosalie left something behind.”
Elias immediately called one of his men.
No response.
He called another.
Nothing.
Then Gideon’s phone buzzed.
A photograph.
The apartment.
Elias’s apartment.
The wall of glass was shattered.
The living room had been searched.
And on the glass table, someone had left a handwritten message.
Gideon zoomed in.
Elias read it.
BRING MARA’S DAUGHTER TO ROOM 714. MIDNIGHT.
Juniper whispered, “Why there?”
Dominic’s face had gone grim.
“Because Vale believes the second copy is hidden inside the hospital.”
Elias checked the time.
8:46 PM.
Three hours.
Gideon said, “It’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
Juniper looked at Elias.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“They want me.”
“No.”
“If I don’t—”
“No.”
“Stop saying no.”
“You’ve been my sister for less than six hours. You’re already exhausting.”
“And you’ve been my brother for less than six hours. You’re already controlling.”
Dominic stared at them.
Gideon said quietly, “Definitely related.”
Elias ignored him.
“We do this my way.”
Juniper’s eyes hardened.
“Your way left your mother alone forty-one nights.”
The words hit.
Instantly, Juniper regretted them.
Elias’s face became unreadable.
She opened her mouth.
“I—”
“No.”
Elias looked away.
“You’re right.”
Juniper went silent.
Elias stared toward the dark building.
“For years I told myself I was protecting everyone by controlling everything.”
He looked at her.
“I’m not making the same mistake.”
Juniper’s expression softened.
“So we go together.”
“Yes.”
Dominic cleared his throat.
“And me?”
Elias looked at him.
“You get one opportunity to prove you’re useful.”
Dominic smiled.
“Your father used to say that.”
“That’s unfortunate for both of us.”
At 11:38 PM, they arrived near St. Brendan.
Fire crews were leaving.
The blaze had been contained to an administrative storage wing.
Room 714 remained intact.
Too intact.
The seventh-floor hallway smelled of smoke and disinfectant.
Juniper stopped outside the room.
Seven years disappeared from her face.
Elias saw the young nurse she had been.
She touched the door.
“This is where she was.”
“I know.”
“No. I mean…”
Juniper looked at him.
“This is where your mother asked me if I believed animals could recognize sadness.”
Otto sat beside her.
Then the dog turned toward the bathroom.
He walked inside.
Elias followed.
The bathroom was tiny.
Exactly as Juniper remembered.
Otto smelled the wall behind the toilet.
Then scratched.
Gideon crouched.
“There’s something behind the tile.”
They removed a loose ceramic square.
Inside the wall was a waterproof envelope.
Juniper stopped breathing.
Rosalie’s handwriting covered the front.
FOR MY TWO CHILDREN.
Juniper began crying.
Elias could not move.
Two children.
Rosalie had claimed her.
Not biologically.
Not legally.
But deliberately.
My two children.
Elias opened the envelope.
Inside was another storage wafer.
And a letter.
Before he could unfold it, the hospital room lights went out.
Darkness.
Juniper inhaled sharply.
Then the bathroom light turned on.
A narrow strip crossed the floor.
Exactly as it had for Rosalie.
A voice came from the doorway.
“Mrs. Marquetti always hated the dark.”
Elias turned.
Councilman Warren Vale stood in room 714.
May you like
And he was holding Rosalie’s missing second bracelet in his hand.
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