Chapter 5 - The Vault Beneath the Old Theater
The old Moretti theater had been abandoned for nearly a decade.
Its sign was broken.
Its windows were boarded.
Its backstage doors were chained.
Yet beneath the ruined building was a structure Vincent had never shown anyone outside his inner circle.
A vault.
We arrived after midnight.
Lily slept in my arms.
Vincent had insisted on bringing her because leaving her behind was too dangerous.
The entrance was hidden beneath the stage.
A metal door opened after Vincent inserted the key.
Inside were rows of documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Hard drives.
And one enormous steel cabinet.
Vincent inserted the key into a second lock.
The door opened.
Inside sat a single box.
Isabella’s handwriting was on top.
For Vincent.
He stared at it.
He didn’t touch it for several seconds.
Then he opened it.
There was a photograph.
Isabella.
A tiny baby.
And a handwritten letter.
Vincent read silently.
His face broke.
I looked away.
When he finished, he handed it to me.
I read.
My hands trembled.
Isabella had discovered that people inside Vincent’s organization had built a secret network.
They were not loyal to Vincent.
They were loyal to money.
They had sold information to politicians, rival criminal groups, corrupt police officers, and businessmen.
But the most dangerous part was the final paragraph.
Isabella had discovered that someone had been tracking a child.
Her child.
A daughter she had given birth to in secret after becoming involved with a witness protection operation.
The child had been taken from her.
Except she had escaped.
The child’s name was Lily.
I looked up.
“That’s my daughter.”
Vincent stared at me.
“No.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
He pointed to the letter.
“The dates.”
I read them again.
The child had been born two years ago.
Exactly two years ago.
My knees nearly gave way.
Mark whispered from the doorway.
“Sarah.”
I turned.
He looked destroyed.
“I never told you because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That Lily wasn’t mine.”
Silence.
“What?”
Mark looked at Vincent.
“She isn’t my biological daughter.”
I felt like someone had punched me.
“No.”
Mark cried.
“You were pregnant when we met.”
I shook my head.
“I thought she was yours.”
“So did I.”
Vincent read another page.
Then he looked at me.
“Who is Lily’s mother?”
I stared.
“My mother.”
“No.”
He showed me another photograph.
Isabella.
Holding a baby.
The baby was Lily.
The woman standing beside Isabella was my mother.
I could barely breathe.
“My mother knew her.”
“She helped her,” Vincent said.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She may have been protecting Lily.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“My mother died without telling me.”
Vincent looked away.
There was anger in his face.
Not at me.
At the dead.
At the years stolen from everyone.
Mark whispered, “I found out after Lily was born.”
“Then why did you stay?”
“Because I loved you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You disappeared.”
“I was trying to destroy the network.”
“You could have told me.”
“They would have killed you.”
Vincent suddenly looked toward the entrance.
“Someone is here.”
Nico lifted his weapon.
Footsteps echoed above.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then many.
Vincent closed the box.
“Take Sarah and Lily.”
Nico nodded.
I grabbed his arm.
“What about you?”
“I’ll handle it.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You’re not family.”
Something broke in his voice.
“Not yet.”
Then the shooting started.
Bullets tore through the floorboards.
Nico pushed us toward a hidden passage.
I ran with Lily against my chest.
We entered a tunnel.
Behind us, Vincent fired back.
At the end of the passage was another door.
Nico unlocked it.
We emerged into an alley.
A black car waited.
I turned.
Vincent was not there.
“Where is he?”
Nico’s face was grim.
“He stayed behind.”
“He’ll die.”
“No.”
Nico looked at the theater.
“He has survived worse.”
I held Lily tighter.
For the first time, I understood something terrifying.
I had entered Vincent Moretti’s world because I needed a paycheck.
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Now I was at the center of the war that had haunted him for seven years.
And somehow, the smallest person in the middle of it all was a toddler holding a stuffed rabbit.
