Chapter 6 – THE TRAIN TICKET

Victoria leveled the pistol directly at Isabella’s chest. Her hands were shaking so violently I thought the gun might discharge by accident.

“Drop the pipe,” Victoria shrieked, “or I’ll shoot you right in front of her!”

Isabella didn’t flinch. She didn’t drop the pipe. She stepped fully into the panic room, placing herself squarely between Victoria and Lily.

“You’re out of time, Victoria,” Isabella said, her voice eerily calm despite the blood running down her temple. “Gabriel knows everything. The police are upstairs. If you pull that trigger, the gunshot will echo up the ventilation shafts. They will swarm this tunnel in thirty seconds.”

Victoria’s eyes darted frantically toward the ceiling, realizing Isabella was right. The silencer was on the gun, but in a concrete echo chamber, a gunshot would still sound like a cannon.

“Where is Leo?” Isabella demanded, taking a slow step forward.

“He’s mine!” Victoria screamed, stepping backward into the tunnel. “He’s Gabriel’s son! He belongs in my house!”

“He belongs with his mother,” Isabella said.

Victoria looked at Isabella, then down at Lily, who was sobbing behind her mother’s legs. The delusion finally seemed to shatter in Victoria’s eyes, replaced by cornered-animal panic.

She aimed the gun at the ceiling and fired.

CRACK.

Concrete dust showered down on us. The sound was deafening.

I covered my ears, and Isabella threw herself over Lily, shielding her.

Victoria used the distraction to turn and sprint down the dark maintenance tunnel, disappearing into the shadows.

Isabella stayed crouched over Lily for a long moment, breathing heavily. Then, slowly, she pulled back and looked at the twelve-year-old girl she hadn’t touched in six years.

Lily was staring up at her, her lower lip trembling. She reached out a hesitant hand and touched the blood on Isabella’s forehead.

“You came back,” Lily whispered.

Isabella broke. A sob tore from her throat as she pulled Lily into a crushing embrace, burying her face in her daughter’s hair. “I never stopped trying, my brave girl. I never stopped loving you. Not for one second.”

I pushed myself up against the wall, clutching my ribs, tears streaming down my face as I watched them. Six years of stolen birthdays, empty chairs, and hidden letters, finally ending on the wet floor of a concrete bunker.

But it wasn’t over.

Isabella pulled back, kissing Lily’s cheeks frantically before turning to me. “Claire?”

“I’m here, Mrs. Moretti.”

“Is Gabriel really at the railyard?” she asked, helping me to my feet.

“Yes. Dominic has Leo. He’s planning to trade the ledger to Elias’s men to buy tickets to Zurich.”

Isabella’s face went completely pale. She reached into her torn coat pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. It was a train ticket.

“Dominic isn’t taking us to Zurich,” Isabella whispered in horror.

She unfolded the ticket. It was a freight train manifest.

“Dominic gave me this before he put me on the decoy bus to Milwaukee,” Isabella explained rapidly. “He told me to meet him at the South Side railyard at 2:00 AM. He said we were taking a cargo train to Canada, not flying to Switzerland.”

My stomach dropped. “But… I found a first-class ticket to Zurich in Leo’s coat. Victoria’s men dropped it.”

Isabella shook her head. “Dominic didn’t buy a ticket to Zurich. Victoria planted that ticket in Leo’s coat so Gabriel would think Dominic betrayed him.”

The realization hit me like a freight train.

“Victoria wants Gabriel to kill Dominic,” I breathed. “If Gabriel thinks Dominic sold out his son, Gabriel will shoot his own brother on sight.”

“And Elias’s men will be waiting in the shadows to kill Gabriel while he’s distracted,” Isabella finished, terror rising in her eyes. “It’s a trap. The whole thing is a trap to eliminate the Moretti brothers in one night.”

She looked down at her watch. It was 1:45 AM.

“We have fifteen minutes,” Isabella said, grabbing the flashlight from the floor.

“You can’t go,” I protested. “You’re injured. The police are upstairs, let them handle it!”

“The police are on Elias’s payroll!” Isabella snapped, though her eyes were filled with desperate motherly instinct. “If they find Leo, they’ll hand him right back to Victoria. I have to get to the railyard.”

“I’m going with you,” Lily said, grabbing Isabella’s hand.

“No, baby. It’s too dangerous.”

“I am not losing you again!” Lily screamed, stomping her foot, sounding exactly like Gabriel in that moment.

Isabella looked at her daughter, then at me.

“We go together,” I said, picking up Mr. Buttons from the puddle and handing it to Lily. “My car is parked outside the service gate. If we take the tunnels to the street, we bypass the police.”

Isabella nodded. We ran down the dark tunnel, our footsteps echoing against the damp brick.

We burst out into the freezing Chicago rain through a grate in the alley. My beat-up Honda was right where I left it.

I drove like a madwoman, tires hydroplaning as we sped toward the South Side.

When we reached the abandoned switching station, the railyard was completely silent. Rusting boxcars sat like steel skeletons in the rain.

“Stay in the car,” Isabella ordered. “Keep the doors locked. If you see Elias’s men, drive away.”

Before I could argue, a gunshot rang out from the center of the yard.

Isabella didn’t hesitate. She threw open the door and sprinted into the maze of trains.

Lily unbuckled her seatbelt. “Mommy!”

“Lily, no!” I grabbed her, but she slipped out of her jacket and bolted out the door after her mother.

I cursed and chased after them into the freezing rain.

We rounded a rusted cargo car and stopped dead in our tracks.

In a clearing illuminated by a single flickering floodlight, Gabriel had Dominic pinned to the gravel, a gun pressed directly between his brother’s eyes.

A few feet away, little Leo was sitting on the ground, crying, holding the green ledger.

“Gabriel, don’t!” Isabella screamed, running into the light.

Gabriel froze. His head snapped up.

When he saw Isabella, the gun in his hand began to tremble. His missing wife. The ghost he had mourned for six years, standing in the rain, alive.

But as Gabriel lowered his weapon in shock, three black SUVs suddenly roared into the clearing, their headlights blinding us.

Doors flew open, and Elias’s heavily armed men stepped out.

And from the lead vehicle stepped Victoria, holding a shotgun.

“How touching,” Victoria sneered, cocking the weapon. “A family reunion. Kill them all.”

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