Chapter 13 - The Woman in the White CoatDr. Marco Rossi was seventy-three and dying.
Lorenzo found him in a private hospice outside Albany.
Vivian came with him.
Rossi looked at them and laughed weakly.
“Took you long enough.”
Lorenzo placed the photograph on his blanket.
“Who cut my brakes?”
Rossi’s smile disappeared.
“Your father knows.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
“Salvatore told me Carlo was behind everything.”
“Carlo approved it.”
“Who did it?”
Rossi looked at Vivian.
“Ask your wife what happened the night before the crash.”
Vivian froze.
She remembered a hospital corridor.
Her mother.
That was impossible.
Vivian’s mother, Sofia Bellini, had supposedly died of an aneurysm when Vivian was nineteen.
Rossi whispered, “She wasn’t in that hospital because she was sick.”
Elena had never told Vivian this.
Sofia had discovered that Anthony’s files survived.
She tried to retrieve them.
Carlo’s people caught her.
She escaped badly injured and reached Rossi because Anthony had once trusted him.
Rossi hid her for forty-eight hours.
During those hours, Sofia learned about the planned attack on Lorenzo.
She sent a warning through Elena.
Then she disappeared.
Vivian gripped the chair.
“Disappeared?”
Rossi looked ashamed.
“She didn’t die that night.”
Vivian stood.
“What?”
Lorenzo caught her elbow before she fell.
Rossi’s eyes filled.
“I signed the death certificate.”
Vivian stared at him in horror.
“Why?”
“To keep Carlo from finding her.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Vivian shook her head violently.
“You expect me to believe my mother survived and never contacted me?”
“She contacted you once.”
Rossi looked at Lorenzo.
“Your wedding day.”
Vivian’s breath stopped.
A bouquet had arrived that morning with no card.
White gardenias.
Her mother’s favorite flowers.
Rossi reached beneath his blanket and removed a key taped to an old prayer card.
“She told me to give you this if Anthony’s archive ever resurfaced.”
The key belonged to a locker at Grand Central Terminal.
Before they left, Lorenzo asked one final question.
“Why did Sofia care whether I lived?”
Rossi closed his eyes.
“Because Anthony Bellini didn’t die protecting only Vivian.”
May you like
Lorenzo waited.
Rossi whispered, “He died protecting you too.”
Related Stories
