Chapter 9 - The Secret Beneath Saint Jude’s Chapel
The photograph was real.
Elena admitted it immediately.
Kora wanted to scream.
Every time they uncovered one secret, another appeared beneath it.
“Why was Daniel with you?”
“He came to us for help.”
“You knew him before he died.”
“Yes.”
“Did Anthony know?”
“No.”
Mateo looked toward Elena.
“Then Anthony thinks you caused it.”
“He may.”
“What happened?”
Elena sat.
Daniel Rizzo had discovered his girlfriend, Sofia, was being transported through a Dominico-controlled employment agency.
He stole documents.
Contacted Elena.
Mateo’s father arranged to move both teenagers out of Chicago.
But Sofia disappeared before they could reach her.
Daniel refused to leave.
Two days later he was found dead.
Anthony never knew Project Lantern tried to help him.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Mateo asked.
“Your father wanted to.”
Elena’s voice hardened.
“I stopped him.”
“Why?”
“Because Anthony was working security for Dominic.”
Silence.
“We didn’t know whether Daniel had discovered Dominic because Anthony told him—or despite Anthony.”
Mateo understood.
They suspected Anthony.
Anthony believed they betrayed Daniel.
Two decades of tragedy built on silence.
Kora rubbed her temples.
“No more secrets.”
Nobody answered.
“I mean it.”
She looked at every person in the room.
“If there is anything else that can destroy us, say it now.”
Samuel spoke first.
“Saint Jude’s.”
Kora looked at him.
“What about it?”
“The vault beneath the exchange building contains financial evidence.”
Samuel paused.
“But Project Lantern’s original archive was beneath the chapel.”
Mateo leaned forward.
“The chapel Leo destroyed.”
“Yes.”
Kora remembered the stone angel in the photograph.
The tunnel.
“Did the explosion destroy it?”
Samuel shook his head.
“The archive room is below the crypt.”
“Fireproof?”
“Designed to survive building collapse.”
Mateo stood.
“So the evidence still exists.”
“If Dominico hasn’t reached it.”
Gino checked news footage.
Firefighters were still working at Saint Jude’s.
Police barriers surrounded the block.
“There’s no way inside.”
Elena pointed to an old sewer map.
“There is.”
Of course there was another tunnel.
Kora almost laughed.
At 4:20 that afternoon, Kora, Mateo, and Gino entered through a storm-drain access point six blocks away.
Samuel refused to allow Mateo underground without medical supervision.
Kora reminded him she was technically a doctor.
Samuel responded that “technically” was not reassuring.
They went anyway.
The tunnel smelled of wet stone.
Mateo moved slowly.
Kora stayed beside him.
“You’re enjoying proving everybody wrong, aren’t you?”
“Immensely.”
“You’re going to reopen the wound.”
“I have a doctor.”
“You have a woman who may eventually push you into the sewer.”
Mateo smiled.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
Their banter disappeared when they reached the chapel foundation.
The explosion had cracked part of the tunnel.
Smoke seeped through gaps above.
Gino found the iron door.
The key Samuel provided opened it.
Beyond was a crypt.
Stone tombs.
Dust.
Emergency lights still glowing.
Kora walked toward the angel symbol carved into one wall.
She pressed the stone.
A hidden panel released.
Inside was Project Lantern.
Boxes.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Years of evidence.
Mateo stared.
“This could destroy half the people protecting Dominico.”
“That’s the idea,” Kora said.
Gino opened the first file.
Police officers.
Judges.
Port officials.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Then Mateo found a folder bearing his father’s name.
Inside were letters.
One addressed to Anthony Rizzo.
Never delivered.
Mateo opened it.
Anthony,
Daniel came to us because he believed you would try to stop him from helping Sofia. I don’t know if he was right. But I know this: his death is on Dominic’s hands, not yours. I failed your son because I moved too slowly. If I survive what comes next, I will tell you myself. If I do not, Elena has the proof.
Mateo closed his eyes.
His father had tried.
Anthony simply never received the letter.
Kora touched his arm.
“We can show him.”
“If he still cares about truth.”
Gino called from the back.
“Boss.”
They approached.
Another file.
KORA VOSS.
Inside were dozens of documents.
Birth records.
School records.
Hospital records.
Dominic had tracked her whole life.
Then Kora found a document dated three months earlier.
AUTHORIZATION FOR ASSET TRANSFER UPON MARRIAGE.
Her name.
Her bakery property.
Her inheritance.
Her medical license.
Everything would have been transferred into a trust controlled by Leo after their marriage.
Kora’s face burned.
“He was stealing my entire identity.”
Mateo read the final clause.
“Not just that.”
Upon death of Kora Elena Voss Dominico, all controlling interest assigned under bloodline succession shall revert to Dominic Dominico or designated heir.
Kora stared.
“What controlling interest?”
Mateo looked at the document.
Then at her.
“You own something.”
“I own a bakery.”
“Apparently you own more.”
Gino found another folder.
Inside was a corporate structure chart.
Dominico Maritime.
Bellini Logistics.
Thirty-two shell companies.
At the center sat a holding company.
VOSS LANTERN TRUST.
Beneficiary:
KORA ELENA VOSS.
Forty-one percent.
Kora sat down.
“My mother put criminal money in my name?”
Elena had not told her.
Again.
Mateo kept reading.
Then realization struck.
“No.”
“What?”
“This isn’t criminal money.”
He showed her the dates.
“The trust predates the trafficking network. These are original legal family assets your mother and my father moved away from Dominic.”
Kora controlled forty-one percent of the legitimate shipping infrastructure Dominico believed he owned.
That was why her marriage mattered.
With Kora legally tied to Leo, Dominic could reclaim it.
With Kora dead afterward, the assets moved permanently to the Dominico heir.
Mateo laughed softly.
“The bad investment.”
Kora looked at him.
“What?”
“Leo called you a bad investment.”
He shook his head.
“You may own more of his father’s company than Leo does.”
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Kora laughed.
Actually laughed.
It echoed strangely through the crypt.
Then Gino’s smile disappeared.
Footsteps came from the tunnel.
Not one person.
Several.
Mateo switched off the archive light.
Kora reached for the nearest metal bar.
A voice echoed through the darkness.
“Kora?”
Anthony.
He had found them.
Mateo stepped forward.
“Anthony.”
Silence.
Then Anthony answered.
“You should have died in the chapel.”
Mateo’s face hardened.
“I missed you too.”
Anthony emerged holding a weapon down by his side.
His eyes looked old.
Tired.
Behind him stood three men.
Kora held up the letter.
“We know about Daniel.”
Anthony’s expression changed.
“Don’t say his name.”
“Your son came to Project Lantern.”
“Liar.”
“Mateo’s father wrote you a letter.”
“Another dead man’s convenient story.”
Kora stepped closer.
“Then read it.”
Anthony’s hand trembled.
For one second Kora thought he might accept it.
Then a shot cracked somewhere behind him.
Anthony stumbled.
Everyone ducked.
Leo’s voice came from the tunnel.
“Family therapy over.”
Anthony looked down at his shoulder.
Leo had not come to help him.
Just as Mateo predicted.
Leo emerged from the smoke.
And behind him walked Dominic Dominico himself.
Kora saw her biological father for the first time knowing exactly what he was.
Dominic smiled.
“My daughter.”
Kora tightened her grip on the letter.
“No.”
Dominic’s smile vanished.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Kora looked around the archive.
“No.”
May you like
Then she looked him directly in the eyes.
“I think you’ll find you’re standing in something that belongs to me.”
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