Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM 214
Dora had imagined seeing her mother again thousands of times.
Never like this.
Helen Bennett sat beside a barred window in room 214, her silver-streaked hair falling over thin shoulders.
She was alive.
Dora stopped in the doorway.
“Mom?”
Helen turned.
For several seconds, there was nothing.
Then recognition exploded across her face.
“Dora?”
The sound broke something inside her daughter.
Dora crossed the room.
Helen rose.
They collided halfway.
Twelve years disappeared inside one embrace.
Dora sobbed against her mother’s shoulder.
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know, baby.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
Helen held her tighter.
“They wouldn’t let me.”
Leonardo remained outside the doorway.
He could hear everything.
He wished he couldn’t.
Carlo Costas had taken twelve years from this family.
His father.
His blood.
His legacy.
Helen eventually looked over Dora’s shoulder and saw him.
She recoiled.
“Costas.”
Dora turned.
“It’s Leonardo.”
“I know who he is.”
Leonardo stepped into the room.
“I’m not my father.”
Helen’s eyes sharpened.
“You spent years becoming exactly what he wanted.”
The words landed.
Leonardo did not defend himself.
“You’re right.”
Dora looked at him.
Helen seemed surprised too.
Leonardo continued.
“I believed his lies. I hurt people because of them. I can’t undo that.”
He glanced at Dora.
“But I can end what he built.”
Helen studied him for a long moment.
“Then you’ll need the second ledger.”
Dante entered.
“There’s another?”
Helen nodded.
“Carlo kept records on everyone. Judges. Cops. Rivals. His own captains.”
“Where?”
Helen looked at Dora.
“Rusty’s.”
Dora blinked.
“The diner?”
“I bought that property through a trust seventeen years ago.”
Dora stared.
“You owned Rusty’s?”
“Technically, you do.”
“What?”
Helen smiled weakly.
“When I disappeared, everything transferred to you.”
Dora almost laughed from the absurdity.
“I’ve been getting yelled at by a manager in a diner I own?”
Apparently.
Helen explained that Rusty’s had once been a transfer point for Atlantic Crown records. She had hidden evidence inside the building because Carlo would never destroy property containing documents he still needed.
Except someone had burned it.
Dora remembered the fire.
“Is the ledger gone?”
“No.”
Helen shook her head.
“Carlo built a fireproof compartment beneath booth 6.”
Leonardo and Dora looked at each other.
Booth 6.
His booth.
By noon, they stood inside the burned shell of Rusty’s.
The smell of wet ash filled the room.
Dora stared at the blackened counter.
Her old life looked like a crime scene.
Leonardo crouched where booth 6 had stood.
They found the compartment beneath the floor.
Inside was a steel case.
Dante opened it.
The ledger remained untouched.
So did dozens of photographs.
Leonardo turned pages.
Names.
Payments.
Murders.
Blackmail.
Then one entry stopped him.
DANTE MORELLI — MONTHLY RETAINER.
Leonardo looked up.
Dante stood across the room.
Dora saw the change instantly.
“Leonardo?”
Dante slowly reached inside his coat.
Three guards raised weapons.
“Don’t,” Leonardo said.
Dante removed his gun.
Then placed it on the floor.
“I can explain.”
“Try.”
“Your father paid me.”
Leonardo’s face became unreadable.
“For what?”
“To protect you.”
“From whom?”
“From him.”
Silence.
Dante explained.
Carlo had known Leonardo would eventually discover the truth.
So Dante had been ordered to monitor him.
But over time, loyalty shifted.
“When Isabella disappeared, I knew something was wrong. I just couldn’t prove it.”
“You let me believe she was dead.”
“I thought she was.”
“You let me kill Salerno’s son.”
Dante lowered his head.
“That’s on me.”
Leonardo crossed the distance and punched him.
Dante hit the burned counter.
He did not fight back.
Leonardo raised his fist again.
“Stop.”
Dora’s voice.
Leonardo froze.
She stepped between them.
“This is what your father wanted.”
Leonardo’s breathing was ragged.
“What?”
“You angry. Dante guilty. Isabella hiding. Everybody destroying each other.”
She touched the ledger.
“He’s been dead six years and he’s still controlling the room.”
Leonardo stared at her.
Then lowered his fist.
Dante wiped blood from his mouth.
Dora exhaled.
“Great. Personal growth. Can we focus?”
Leonardo almost smiled.
Then a bullet shattered the window.
Everyone dropped.
Gunfire erupted from outside.
Dante grabbed Dora and dragged her behind the counter.
Leonardo returned fire with his guards.
A black SUV crashed through the parking lot.
More shooters emerged.
“Back exit!” Dante shouted.
Dora grabbed the ledger.
Leonardo seized her hand.
They ran through the kitchen.
Outside, another vehicle waited.
Isabella was behind the wheel.
“Get in!”
They piled inside.
As Isabella accelerated, Dora looked back.
Rusty’s disappeared behind smoke.
Leonardo checked the ledger.
His face changed.
“What?”
Dora followed his gaze.
A page had been torn out.
Only a fragment remained.
One name was visible.
VICTOR SALERNO.
Leonardo whispered, “He wasn’t our enemy.”
Dante understood first.
“He was working with Carlo.”
“No.”
Leonardo stared at the missing page.
“He was working for someone else.”
His phone rang.
Victor Salerno’s voice came through.
“You found the ledger.”
Leonardo tightened his grip.
“What do you want?”
“Everything your father stole from me.”
“And if I refuse?”
Victor laughed.
Then another voice came through the phone.
Helen.
“Dora!”
Dora’s blood turned cold.
Victor spoke again.
“Bring me the ledger by midnight.”
May you like
A pause.
“Or this time, Dora really will bury her mother.”
