Chapter 7 - The Ambush
Glass rained across the pews.
Carlo dragged me down as bullets struck the altar.
Enzo screamed and crawled behind a stone column.
"Back door!" Carlo shouted.
We ran through the sacristy while two armed men entered the chapel from the courtyard.
I recognized one.
Dario Vescari.
A capo who had served my father for twenty years.
That hurt almost as much as seeing Matteo's key.
Outside, we cut through the garden toward the garage.
"Your mother sent them," Carlo said.
"Maybe."
"You still doubt it?"
"I doubt everyone."
We reached my car. Enzo stumbled after us, bleeding from a cut above his eye.
"The address I gave you is a trap," he gasped.
I turned.
"What?"
"Saint Agnes is real, but Grace isn't there anymore. Sofia moved her last night."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Then why give me the address?"
"Because the records are there. Delivery records. Medication logs. Proof."
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Not police sirens.
Estate security.
I shoved Enzo into the back seat.
"Then we get the proof."
Saint Agnes turned out to be an abandoned convent forty minutes away. The chapel roof had collapsed years ago, but the basement had been converted into a medical suite.
On one wall hung an ultrasound image with Grace's name.
On another sat a locked freezer containing blood samples.
Carlo found a laptop.
I found the delivery log.
Grace had given birth at 2:14 a.m. nine days earlier.
Healthy male.
Seven pounds, four ounces.
For the first time, I knew the weight of my own son.
Then I saw the discharge line.
INFANT RELEASED TO AUTHORIZED GUARDIAN.
Name: Matteo Rossi.
I stared at it.
My brother had taken my child.
Behind me, Enzo said, "Luca... there is one more thing."
He turned the laptop around.
A security video showed Grace being wheeled through the basement the night before.
May you like
Beside her walked Matteo.
And Grace was holding his hand.
