Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEADLucille Moretti had been dead for nineteen years.
At least, that was the story Raphael had been told.
House fire.
Body recovered.
Funeral held.
Grave established.
But the woman on the security footage taken outside Warehouse Seven was alive.
Older.
Gray hair.
Elegant coat.
And standing beside Charles.
Raphael watched the video three times.
“I buried her.”
Gus shook his head.
“You buried someone else.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You let me grieve a fake body?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Raphael laughed bitterly.
“You keep saying that.”
Sloan stood beside him.
“This has to end.”
Raphael looked at her.
“It ends with her.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“It ends with the truth.”
He stared at her.
“The truth may destroy everything.”
“Then build something better.”
Lucille contacted Raphael herself.
A single message.
COME TO THE OLD HARBOR CHAPEL.
COME ALONE.
He intended to go alone.
Sloan followed.
“You said stay behind.”
“I lied.”
“You're impossible.”
“So are you.”
They reached the chapel after midnight.
Lucille waited inside.
She looked at Raphael for a long time.
Then smiled sadly.
“My son.”
Raphael raised his gun.
“You're not my mother.”
“I gave birth to you.”
“You abandoned me.”
“I protected you.”
“You let me believe you died.”
“Because your father was going to kill us both.”
Raphael froze.
“What?”
Lucille took a slow breath.
“Your father was not the man you believed.”
She explained everything.
The Moretti empire had been divided.
One faction wanted legitimate businesses.
The other wanted permanent control over smuggling routes.
Lucille had discovered that Raphael's father was planning to remove the criminal faction.
Charles and Victor opposed him.
Daniel helped.
Lucille helped.
Then someone betrayed them.
The betrayal came from inside the family.
Gus had known part of it.
Raphael's father had been killed.
Lucille was forced to disappear.
Daniel later discovered the truth.
And then he died.
“But why the accident?” Raphael asked.
Lucille looked at him.
“They were afraid Daniel had given you the ledger.”
“I didn't have it.”
“You did.”
Raphael frowned.
Lucille looked at Sloan.
“No.”
She corrected herself.
“He gave it to her.”
Sloan's eyes widened.
“What?”
Lucille smiled.
“Your nurse?”
Sloan went pale.
“When Margaret Ellis died, she had already received one page of the ledger.”
Sloan remembered the envelope that had disappeared from her locker.
“She gave it to me.”
“Yes.”
“Then who took it?”
“Someone at the hospital.”
Ethan.
Sloan suddenly understood.
The entire scandal.
The destroyed license.
The donation.
Everything had been designed to make her look guilty.
Because the conspirators believed she still had the evidence.
Lucille looked at Raphael.
“They didn't know she couldn't remember where she had hidden it.”
Sloan stared.
“Where?”
Lucille smiled.
“You gave it to your sister.”
Sloan's breath stopped.
Junie.
Her rehabilitation center.
The stuffed animal.
The yellow ribbon.
She remembered.
When Junie had arrived at the hospital after the accident, Sloan had hidden the envelope in the lining of her sister's old backpack.
She had forgotten.
Until now.
Raphael understood immediately.
“We need to get her.”
They arrived at Junie's rehabilitation center at 2:00 a.m.
The building was dark.
Too dark.
No staff at the desk.
No security.
Sloan ran inside.
“Junie!”
Silence.
Her sister's room was empty.
The backpack was gone.
Raphael's face became terrifyingly calm.
“Lock down the building.”
Daniel Bishop moved.
Sloan found a broken yellow ribbon on the floor.
Her hands shook.
“No.”
Raphael caught her.
“We'll find her.”
“They have her because of me.”
“No.”
“Because I remembered.”
“No.”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“They have her because they are desperate.”
“And if we don't find her?”
“We will.”
“What if—”
He stopped her.
“Sloan.”
She looked at him.
“I survived an explosion.”
His voice was steady.
“I survived losing my leg.”
His hand touched her cheek.
“I survived seven months of pain.”
His eyes held hers.
“I am not losing your sister.”
Sloan's tears fell.
She whispered,
“Why?”
“Because she matters to you.”
She stared at him.
“And you matter to me.”
For one second, the world disappeared.
Then an alarm sounded.
Daniel shouted,
“We found something!”
A security camera had captured a vehicle leaving the rear gate.
Black SUV.
No plates.
And one clue.
May you like
The driver wore a red scarf.
Lucille.
