Chapter 5 - The Consigliere's Betrayal
Lorenzo ordered Giovanni to step away from the doorway.
The older man obeyed, but his face remained composed.
“She's been dead for fourteen years,” Giovanni said. “Rebecca was frightened. She made enemies everywhere she went.”
Sarah held the letter against her chest.
“Did you know my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she had a daughter?”
Giovanni hesitated.
“That isn't the question you should be asking.”
“Then answer the one I asked.”
His expression hardened.
“Your mother was involved in matters she didn't understand.”
Sarah took a step forward.
“And you understood them?”
Lorenzo intervened.
“Enough. Giovanni, you're coming with me.”
“Lorenzo, think carefully.”
“I am.”
The two men left with Marco.
Sarah remained with Eleanor, who finally told her the story she had carried for fourteen years.
Rebecca had been a nurse at a private clinic that treated members of the Valenti organization. Through her work, she discovered that confidential patient records were being used to identify informants, witnesses, and police sources.
Someone inside the family was selling that information.
Rebecca copied the files and tried to escape.
Three days later, her car was found burned beside an abandoned road.
No body was recovered.
The family declared her dead.
Eleanor had taken Sarah out of Chicago before anyone could ask questions.
“Why didn't you go to the police?” Sarah whispered.
“Because the police officer who came to question me knew what Rebecca had copied before I told him. Someone was feeding information to both sides.”
Eleanor gripped her granddaughter's hand.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Sarah wanted to be angry.
She was angry.
But she also understood what it meant to live for years with fear as the price of protecting someone you loved.
At the Obsidian, Lorenzo locked Giovanni in a private office.
“Tell me about Anthony.”
Giovanni remained silent.
“Tell me why you recognized Rebecca's name.”
“Your father was a dangerous man.”
“I know that.”
“No. You know the story I helped tell you.”
Lorenzo's expression turned lethal.
Giovanni looked toward the closed door.
“Anthony didn't die in prison. He was transferred under a sealed federal agreement. I arranged it.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You helped fake my father's death?”
“I helped keep him from taking the entire family down with him.”
“And Rebecca?”
“She discovered the agreement. She intended to expose it.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Lorenzo leaned across the desk.
“Then tell me who did.”
Giovanni swallowed.
“Your father gave the order. I arranged the disappearance. I was told she and the child would be sent somewhere safe.”
“The child?”
Giovanni looked up.
“Your sister.”
Lorenzo went completely still.
He had grown up believing he was an only child.
“Sarah is not your sister,” Giovanni continued. “Rebecca was involved with your father long before she married Anthony's supposed business partner. The dates were deliberately altered. Sarah's birth certificate was changed.”
Lorenzo felt the room closing around him.
“Why?”
“Because your father believed a daughter would make Rebecca vulnerable.”
A phone vibrated on the desk.
An unknown number.
Lorenzo answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Send the girl to the old warehouse on Halsted. Come alone. Bring the original files.”
“Who is this?”
“You have until midnight.”
The line went dead.
A message followed, containing a photograph of Sarah outside her grandmother's apartment.
Taken three minutes earlier.
Lorenzo called Marco.
“Get Sarah and Eleanor somewhere secure. No one goes near them without your approval.”
He ended the call and opened the office door.
Giovanni was gone.
A guard lay unconscious in the corridor.
On the floor sat Giovanni's phone.
Its screen displayed a message sent moments earlier.
THE GIRL IS THE KEY. THE BOSS MUST NEVER LEARN WHAT HAPPENED IN ROOM 12.
Lorenzo stared at the words.
Then another message arrived.
This one contained an address.
And a photograph of Sarah kneeling beside a bloodied woman whose face was hidden beneath her hair.
May you like
The caption read:
MIDNIGHT, LORENZO. OR SHE DIES.
