Chapter 8
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## THE UNCLE WHO NEVER DIED
Richard Sterling stood beneath the terminal's broken floodlight as though he had been waiting for Luca his entire life.
He wore a charcoal overcoat and carried no visible weapon.
Behind him, two men dragged a third figure from a dark vehicle.
Luca recognized the bound man immediately.
Marco's younger brother, Daniel.
Richard smiled.
"You've grown into a formidable man, nephew."
Luca kept his gun trained on him.
"Let them go."
"Which ones?"
"My daughter. Marco's brother. Everyone you've dragged into this."
Richard glanced toward Sophie.
"She's a beautiful child. Isabella always said she'd inherit your eyes."
"Don't say my wife's name."
"Still emotional. Just like your mother."
Luca's jaw tightened.
His mother had died when he was twelve. Richard had vanished shortly afterward, supposedly killed during a business trip to Europe.
Anthony had never discussed the circumstances.
Now Luca understood why.
"You financed my father's operation," Luca said.
Richard shrugged.
"I financed several operations. Your father was a useful man, but he became sentimental in his later years."
"Isabella found the records."
"She found fragments. I allowed her to find them."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted Anthony distracted. Your father was becoming an obstacle, and Isabella was the perfect weapon to turn his own family against him."
"You threatened Sophie."
"I made certain Isabella believed I would."
"She ran because of you."
"She ran because she loved her daughter more than she trusted her husband."
The words struck a nerve.
Richard noticed.
"There's the truth, Luca. Your wife never believed you could protect her. She knew what kind of man you were."
Luca took a step forward.
"You're wrong."
"Am I? You built your empire on fear. You surrounded your daughter with armed men. You called it protection. Isabella saw a prison."
Luca said nothing.
For the first time, Richard's smile widened.
"Now give me the files."
Luca glanced at the drive in his hand.
"You'll destroy them."
"Of course."
"And the people named in them?"
"Some will disappear. Others will be dealt with quietly."
"Children included?"
Richard's expression cooled.
"Don't pretend you can save everyone."
A siren sounded in the distance.
Richard looked toward the road.
"You brought the police."
"No," Luca said. "I brought people who know what you did."
Richard laughed.
"People who owe you money? Men whose families depend on your protection? You think they'll testify against me?"
A second vehicle arrived.
Vanessa stepped out, accompanied by the federal investigator she had contacted before leaving the estate.
Richard's smile vanished.
Vanessa held up a phone.
"The original recordings are already with investigators. So are the financial records, the shipping manifests, and the footage from your meeting with Marco."
Richard turned toward her.
"You ungrateful little fool."
"Maybe," Vanessa said. "But I'm done being afraid of you."
The investigator ordered Richard to raise his hands.
For a moment, it appeared he might surrender.
Instead, Richard pulled a small remote from his pocket.
A warning light blinked on the dashboard of the vehicle behind him.
Luca saw the wires beneath the rear bumper.
"DOWN!" he shouted.
The explosion threw everyone to the ground.
Glass rained across the terminal.
When Luca looked up, Richard was gone.
The vehicle burned near the entrance. The investigators moved to help the injured while Luca ran to Sophie.
She clung to him, sobbing.
"Is Mommy coming home now?"
Luca held her tightly.
"I'm going to find her."
Later that night, Marco was taken into custody after surgery. Daniel survived. Under questioning, Marco admitted that Richard had paid him to monitor Isabella and Sophie, but he insisted he had not known about the planned explosion.
Luca wanted to believe him.
He wasn't sure he could.
Near dawn, the investigator called with news.
A woman matching Isabella's description had been seen boarding a train outside Albany two nights earlier.
There was no proof she was still alive.
But the investigator had something else.
A photograph recovered from Richard's abandoned vehicle.
It showed Isabella standing beside a young man Luca had never seen before.
On the back, someone had written:
She knows what happened to your first child.
Luca stared at the photograph.
His first child.
Sophie had been born six years ago.
But Isabella had once been pregnant before Sophie.
May you like
Luca remembered the miscarriage they had endured early in their marriage. They had never spoken about it afterward.
Now he wondered whether the child had ever died at all.
