Chapter 11 – The Train Station
The central train station was vast and echoing, filled with the rush of morning commuters.
Luca and I stood before a wall of battered steel lockers in the deepest, oldest wing of the terminal. We had left Sophie sleeping safely at the brownstone with a new, heavily vetted security team.
Luca slid the silver key into locker 402. He turned the dial to the numbers engraved on Maya’s brass coin.
Click.
The rusty door swung open.
Inside was a single leather briefcase.
Luca pulled it out and set it on a nearby bench. He popped the latches.
The briefcase wasn’t filled with money. It was filled with letters. Hundreds of them.
I picked one up. It was addressed to Luca’s mother, Elena Moretti. The return address was a prison in upstate New York.
“My mother faked her death twelve years ago to avoid a federal indictment,” Luca said, his voice hollow as he read through the letters. “She told me she was going to Europe to hide. But she never left. She’s been here the whole time.”
I opened a ledger tucked beneath the letters.
It documented every move the Moretti family had made for a decade. It documented Daniel’s embezzlement. It documented my father’s theft. And it documented the payments to Vanessa.
“She orchestrated all of it,” I breathed, horrified. “Vanessa marrying Daniel. Daniel stealing the money. Your wife’s murder. She pulled the strings to control the family empire from the shadows, making sure you were constantly at war so she could rule through proxies.”
Luca dropped the letter in his hand. “She used Vanessa to try and break me. When that failed, she used your sister to try and steal the offshore accounts.”
He looked at me, a profound sadness in his dark eyes. “I’m sorry, Emily. My family is a poison. You should take Sophie and run far away from me. I’ll make sure you have enough money to disappear forever.”
I looked at the briefcase. I looked at the man who had risked his life to save my sister, even when my sister had betrayed him.
I reached out and closed the briefcase, snapping the latches shut.
“No,” I said firmly.
Luca blinked, surprised. “Emily—”
“I spent my whole life running from ghosts I didn’t understand,” I told him, stepping closer and taking his hand. “I’m not running anymore. Sophie needs her father. And…” I swallowed hard, finding my courage. “I need you.”
A faint, genuine smile broke through the shadows on Luca’s face. He pulled me into his arms, kissing me deeply amidst the chaos of the train station. It was a promise.
“So what do we do now?” I asked, resting my head against his chest.
Luca picked up the briefcase. His eyes hardened, looking out at the city skyline through the massive glass windows of the terminal.
“Now,” Luca said, “we go find my mother. And we end this.”
