Chapter 3 - The Child in the PhotographSerena barely slept.
At 5:12 a.m., she called Lorenzo.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“I found another photograph.”
“I’m coming.”
“You don't even know what it is.”
“I know your voice.”
She went quiet.
“You sound scared.”
“I am.”
“Open the door only when I arrive.”
Thirty minutes later, he stood outside her apartment.
She handed him the photograph.
Lorenzo stared.
His jaw tightened.
“Where did you get this?”
“Under my door.”
He turned it over.
His expression became unreadable.
“That's your mother.”
“And you.”
“And Arthur.”
“And the baby.”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
Lorenzo looked at Serena.
“I think you already know.”
Her fingers went cold.
“No.”
“I need to confirm something.”
“How?”
He called Marco.
“Bring me the old Saint Vincent records.”
Marco arrived two hours later.
The records were incomplete.
But one document survived.
A birth certificate.
The mother's name was Elizabeth Bennett.
The father's name was blank.
The child's name was listed as Sophie Bennett.
Serena stared.
“I was born in March.”
“This says November.”
She shook her head.
“I don't understand.”
Lorenzo looked at the date.
The birth took place twenty-two years before Serena’s official birth.
Serena's mother had lied about the date.
She had changed Serena's age.
Why?
Marco found another file.
A death certificate for a baby girl named Sophie Bennett.
Cause of death:
Respiratory failure.
Serena stared.
“That baby died.”
“No,” Lorenzo said.
“How do you know?”
“Because my mother told me the baby survived.”
Serena looked at him.
“What?”
“My mother knew Elizabeth.”
“She knew my mother?”
“Yes.”
“And the baby?”
“She told me there was a child hidden from the Duca family.”
“Why?”
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
“Because my father wanted leverage against my uncle.”
Serena felt sick.
“You’re saying I was leverage?”
“No.”
“You don't get to say no.”
She stepped back.
“My mother spent my entire life hiding things from me.”
“And now I’m going to find out why.”
He looked at her.
“With you.”
The words were gentle.
That mattered.
They returned to Bellvita.
Arthur and Rose were in a secure room.
Serena entered.
Arthur looked at her and started crying.
“I’m sorry.”
She stopped.
“You knew?”
Arthur nodded.
“Your mother saved us.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew who was coming.”
“Who?”
Arthur looked at Lorenzo.
Then back at Serena.
“Your mother's father.”
She frowned.
“My grandfather?”
Arthur shook his head.
“Not your grandfather.”
“Then who?”
He whispered a name.
“Salvatore Vieri.”
Lorenzo's face became hard.
Serena had never heard it.
Lorenzo had.
Salvatore Vieri had once controlled half of Chicago's underground operations.
He had disappeared twenty years earlier.
Officially, dead.
Unofficially, feared.
“He wanted the baby,” Arthur said.
“Why?”
“Because your mother had stolen something from him.”
“What?”
Arthur looked at the receipt.
“The Black Ledger.”
Serena frowned.
“What is that?”
“A list of every official, businessman, judge, police officer, and criminal who had taken money from him.”
Lorenzo understood.
“If that ledger survived, it could destroy half the city.”
Arthur nodded.
“Elizabeth hid it.”
“Where?”
Arthur looked at Serena.
“She hid it in your mother's favorite place.”
“Where?”
“Bellvita.”
Serena blinked.
“This restaurant?”
“Before it was Bellvita.”
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
“What was here before?”
“A private club.”
Arthur paused.
“Saint Vincent's private dining room.”
Serena remembered something.
Her mother used to tell her that some places remembered people even after the walls changed.
She had thought it was sentimental.
Now it felt like a warning.
Lorenzo turned to Marco.
“Search the original floor plans.”
Marco left.
Serena sat beside Arthur.
“Why did you help my mother?”
Arthur smiled sadly.
“Because she helped my wife.”
Rose took his hand.
“And because some debts can't be paid with money.”
A crash came from the hallway.
Marco shouted.
“Down!”
The door exploded inward.
Men stormed the room.
Lorenzo pushed Serena behind him.
Gunfire erupted.
Marco fired back.
Arthur dropped to the floor.
Rose screamed.
One attacker reached Serena.
She swung a metal tray.
The man staggered.
Lorenzo took him down.
For several seconds, the room was chaos.
Then silence.
Serena stared at the fallen gun.
Lorenzo turned to her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked at her hands.
They were shaking.
He gently took them.
“You did well.”
“I hit a man with a dessert tray.”
“It worked.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Lorenzo smiled.
And the moment lasted only a second.
Then Marco found something in the attacker's pocket.
A key.
Stamped with a single number.
17.
Lorenzo stared.
“Saint Vincent Hotel.”
Serena swallowed.
“Room Seventeen.”
Arthur nodded weakly.
“The ledger.”
May you like
Lorenzo looked at Serena.
“Then that's where we go.”
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