Chapter 5 - Gemma’s Real Name
“Federal agents?”
Gemma looked through the broken station window.
“Isn’t that supposed to be good?”
“No,” Leo, Raymond, and Arthur said simultaneously.
Gemma frowned.
“That’s comforting.”
The man leading the group wore no visible tactical gear.
Gray overcoat.
Dark trousers.
Professional posture.
Daniel Mercer looked more like a bank executive than someone arriving to surround an abandoned station.
He stopped outside.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Leo did not respond.
“Come out with your hands visible.”
Raymond whispered, “He doesn't want you.”
Leo looked at him.
“He wants the box.”
“Why?”
“Because his father’s name appears inside it.”
Arthur quickly searched the records.
Leo turned.
“Find Mercer.”
Arthur flipped through pages.
“Here.”
Payment entries.
Thomas Mercer.
Federal organized-crime task force.
Gemma read over his shoulder.
“Daniel’s father?”
Raymond nodded.
“Thomas fed Vittorio selective information. Vittorio believed the government was helping him dismantle the criminal part of the organization.”
Leo understood.
“But Thomas was working for you.”
Raymond smiled bitterly.
“He was working for whoever paid most.”
Gemma looked outside.
“And his son?”
“Has spent his career making sure nobody learns where his father’s fortune came from.”
Daniel called again.
“You have thirty seconds.”
Leo looked toward the rear platform.
Arthur shook his head.
“Two agents covering it.”
Raymond said, “There's another exit.”
Everyone turned.
“How do you know?” Gemma asked.
Raymond smiled faintly.
“Because unlike Leonardo, I paid attention when my father talked about family property.”
Leo’s expression hardened.
“Show us.”
A trapdoor beneath an old baggage scale revealed a maintenance tunnel.
Gemma looked down into darkness.
“Absolutely not.”
Leo gestured.
“After you.”
“You first.”
Elena grabbed Gemma’s hand.
They descended.
The tunnel smelled of rust and wet earth.
Above them, Daniel Mercer entered the station.
Leo could hear men shouting.
They moved faster.
The passage emerged behind an abandoned grain warehouse two blocks away.
Arthur called his drivers.
Five minutes later, they were moving.
Gemma looked out the window.
“Do federal agencies normally behave like this?”
Leo answered, “Real ones? Sometimes. Corrupt individuals? More often.”
“You say that from experience?”
“I’ve had an unusual career.”
“That’s one way to describe organized crime.”
He accepted the criticism.
That bothered Gemma almost more than defensiveness would have.
They returned to the safe house by a different route.
Raymond came with them.
Gemma objected.
Loudly.
Leo agreed with her emotionally but not strategically.
“He knows too much.”
“So tie him to a tree.”
Raymond gave her a tired smile.
“You truly are his.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve known him for twelve hours.”
Leo said quietly, “Fair.”
Gemma stared at him.
“Stop agreeing with me when I’m trying to be mad at you.”
“I don’t know the rules yet.”
“There are no rules.”
“That explains a lot.”
She almost laughed.
Almost.
The evidence was moved to a secure room.
Raymond sat at the dining table with Arthur opposite him.
Leo stood.
Elena remained near the windows.
Gemma took the chair beside her mother.
“Start talking,” Leo said.
Raymond sighed.
“Your father wanted out.”
“I heard the tape.”
“You heard what he wanted you to hear.”
Leo’s jaw tightened.
Raymond continued.
“Vittorio spent thirty years building something ugly and decided, near the end, that regret made him a saint.”
“No one said he was a saint.”
“He wanted to hand you the clean companies and leave me responsible for everything else.”
“You mean the crimes you were already committing behind his back?”
Raymond looked at him.
“Yes.”
The admission surprised everyone.
Raymond rubbed his face.
“I was greedy. I was angry. I believed your father had become weak.”
“You had him killed.”
Raymond’s silence lasted too long.
“Yes.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Leo remained motionless.
Gemma watched him.
This was the moment she feared.
The mafia boss.
The murderer.
The man the city whispered about.
Leo approached Raymond.
Arthur stood.
Gemma said, “Dad.”
Again, the word escaped.
Leo stopped instantly.
Raymond noticed.
So did everyone else.
Gemma swallowed.
“Don't.”
Leo stared at her.
She shook her head.
“Your father told you not to become him.”
Leo looked at Raymond.
Then backed away.
Raymond exhaled.
“You just saved my life.”
Gemma said coldly, “Don't make me regret it.”
Raymond almost smiled.
Leo leaned against the table.
“You killed my father. You threatened Elena. You arranged their disappearance.”
“Yes.”
“The bodies.”
Raymond’s eyes changed.
“One belonged to a woman named Rebecca Sloan.”
Elena whispered, “Who?”
“A woman Mercer had been using as an informant.”
Leo asked, “And the child?”
Raymond closed his eyes.
“There was no child.”
Gemma frowned.
“What?”
“The medical examiner was bribed. The second body was never recovered. The report was fabricated.”
Leo stared.
“So I buried an empty coffin.”
“Yes.”
Gemma looked at her father.
Something broke across his face.
Relief.
Rage.
Grief.
Twenty-one years spent imagining his baby daughter dying in flames.
All built from paper.
Raymond continued.
“I needed you to stop looking.”
“Why?”
“Because Mercer wanted Elena found.”
Elena turned.
“Why me?”
“The ring.”
Raymond pointed at the evidence.
“Vittorio had told Thomas Mercer enough to make him dangerous. Thomas knew there was a backup archive but not where. He assumed Vittorio had entrusted it to Elena.”
“So you helped me escape from Mercer?” Elena asked incredulously.
“I threatened you because I needed you gone before he found you.”
“You put a gun on the table in front of my baby.”
“I said I was not a good man.”
Elena stood.
“You told me you'd kill her.”
“I needed you to believe I would.”
Gemma saw Leo step forward again.
She lifted a finger.
“Sit.”
Leo looked at her.
“Gemma—”
“Apparently I'm the only person in this family preventing murders today.”
Arthur stared very seriously at the wall.
Leo sat.
Raymond continued.
“Anthony approached me after helping Elena escape. I realized then that he had discovered enough of the accounts to know what I’d done.”
“You killed him too?” Leo asked.
“No.”
“Don't lie.”
“I didn't.”
“He died in a car accident.”
“Yes. Twelve years later.”
Raymond looked at Elena.
“Anthony kept contact with you?”
Elena hesitated.
“For a while.”
“How long?”
“Until Gemma was six.”
Raymond frowned.
“Then something happened.”
Elena nodded.
“He sent one final letter.”
“What did it say?”
“That someone was looking for us again.”
Gemma turned.
“You never told me.”
“I never told you many things.”
“Clearly.”
Elena looked ashamed.
“I changed our names again after that.”
Leo asked, “What was Gemma’s original name?”
Elena went still.
Gemma suddenly realized she had never considered this.
“Mom?”
Elena whispered, “Gianna.”
Gemma blinked.
“Gianna what?”
“Gianna Moretti.”
Leo looked away.
His daughter’s real name.
A name he had probably spoken at a grave.
Gemma felt strange hearing it.
As if it belonged to another girl.
A baby in photographs.
Someone who had died so Gemma Hayes could survive.
“Why Gemma?”
Elena smiled sadly.
“You called yourself that.”
“When?”
“You were barely two. You couldn't pronounce Gianna properly. You kept saying Gemma.”
Leo's eyes filled.
“I missed that.”
Elena looked at him.
“Yes.”
No accusation.
Somehow that hurt more.
Raymond cleared his throat.
“If Anthony warned you when Gemma was six, Mercer must have discovered he was still alive.”
Leo looked over.
“What do you mean still alive?”
Raymond did not answer immediately.
Everyone sensed another door opening.
“What?” Elena asked.
Raymond looked at her.
“You said Anthony died twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
“He didn't.”
Leo stood.
Arthur swore softly.
Raymond continued.
“The accident was staged.”
“Where is he?” Elena asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I helped arrange his disappearance.”
Leo stared.
“Why?”
“Because by then Thomas Mercer had died, and Daniel had begun asking the same questions.”
Gemma whispered, “This family really loves fake deaths.”
No one laughed.
Raymond said, “Anthony knew where Elena was. Daniel knew that.”
Elena became pale.
“You hid him.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Initially Canada.”
“And afterward?”
“He stopped contacting me fifteen years ago.”
Arthur frowned.
“That timeline doesn't work.”
Raymond looked toward him.
“What?”
“Gemma was six sixteen years ago.”
Gemma nodded.
“Right.”
Elena looked at Raymond.
“You said you lost contact fifteen years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Anthony supposedly died twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
Leo understood first.
“Then the accident wasn't Anthony’s idea.”
Raymond’s expression shifted.
“No.”
“Someone used his identity three years after you lost him.”
Silence.
Arthur immediately opened a laptop.
“I’ll pull the death certificate.”
Gemma watched him type.
Twenty seconds later he froze.
“What?”
Arthur turned the screen.
The accident victim listed as Anthony Russo had undergone dental identification.
The dentist who confirmed it was named Samuel Krell.
Leo recognized the name.
“Elena?”
She shook her head.
Raymond did not.
“Samuel Krell worked for Mercer.”
Leo stared at him.
“So Daniel manufactured Anthony’s death.”
“Or Thomas did before he died.”
Gemma looked at the old records.
“Why?”
Raymond slowly turned toward her.
“To make everyone stop looking for Anthony.”
“Which means?”
Raymond’s eyes darkened.
“The one person who knows every detail about how you disappeared may have been in Mercer’s custody for more than a decade.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Gemma felt suddenly cold.
Leo looked at Arthur.
“Find him.”
“Anthony?”
“Everything. Properties Mercer owns. Companies. Old task-force sites. Anything connected to Krell.”
Arthur nodded.
Leo turned toward Raymond.
“And you’re going to help.”
Raymond gave a humorless laugh.
“You think twenty years of hatred disappears because we share an enemy?”
“No.”
Leo’s face became unreadable.
“I think you spent twenty years protecting yourself. Now you're going to spend whatever time you have left protecting my daughter.”
Raymond looked at Gemma.
Something like regret appeared.
“I already tried once.”
Gemma shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“You scared my mother into running. You fabricated my death. You stole my father from me.”
Raymond lowered his gaze.
“You don’t get to call that protection.”
She stood.
“If you want to help now, help.”
Her voice hardened.
“But don't rewrite what you did into something noble.”
Raymond nodded once.
“Fair.”
Arthur's laptop chimed.
Everyone turned.
He had found something.
A property had been purchased through a shell corporation tied to Daniel Mercer.
An abandoned private medical facility three hours north.
Its utility bills had remained active for fourteen years.
Leo looked at the address.
“Why would an abandoned hospital need electricity for fourteen years?”
Arthur's expression answered.
Gemma whispered, “Anthony.”
Leo stood.
But Elena suddenly grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
She was staring at the facility's original name.
St. Gabriel Behavioral Institute.
Her face drained of color.
“I know that place.”
Gemma frowned.
“How?”
Elena looked at Leo.
“Anthony sent me one photograph before he disappeared.”
Her hands shook.
“It was a picture of a hallway.”
She looked back at the address.
“St. Gabriel was printed on the wall.”
Leo understood.
Anthony had not merely been taken.
He had known where he was going.
And before vanishing, he had left Elena a clue.
May you like
A clue she had kept hidden for sixteen years.
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