Chapter 5 - The Daughter He Couldn’t Lose Twice
Elena knew what Adrian would say before he opened his mouth.
“No.”
She stared at Maria’s photograph on the phone.
“Don’t.”
“You’re not going.”
“She is there because of me.”
“She is there because Marco chose her.”
“And if I don’t go?”
“He kills her.”
Adrian’s silence answered.
Elena stepped closer.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You don’t own me.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“So am I.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if Maria survives.”
Vittorio spoke from the wheelchair.
“Elena.”
She turned.
His face carried the expression of a father terrified of losing a child he had only just found.
“You cannot walk into Marco’s hands.”
“Then give me another option.”
Nobody had one.
Daniel studied the photograph.
“The room.”
“What about it?” Adrian asked.
“I know where it is.”
He enlarged the image.
Concrete walls.
Rusting metal beams.
A narrow window.
“That’s Pier 19.”
Adrian frowned.
“Bellandi property?”
“Former Bellandi property.”
“Marco’s?”
Daniel nodded.
“There are underground loading tunnels.”
Adrian’s mind shifted instantly into strategy.
“We can get inside without using the main entrance.”
Elena looked at him.
“So I’m going.”
“You’re staying in the tunnel.”
“Adrian.”
“That isn’t a negotiation.”
She almost laughed.
“We’ve known each other for less than a day and you’re already behaving like an unbearable older brother.”
For the first time, Adrian smiled fully.
It lasted less than a second.
“Get used to it.”
Their plan was simple because complicated plans failed.
Adrian would take the flash drive to the visible entrance.
Daniel and two trusted security men would enter through the tunnel.
Elena would remain with Vittorio’s physician and security in a vehicle three blocks away.
Elena agreed.
Then quietly decided she had no intention of obeying.
At 11:42 p.m., the convoy reached Red Hook.
Rain had begun.
The abandoned warehouse appeared through the darkness like a rusted skeleton.
Adrian left the vehicle.
Before going, he looked at Elena.
“Stay here.”
She nodded.
He narrowed his eyes.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m offended.”
“You should be.”
Then he left.
Elena waited exactly ninety seconds.
Then opened the opposite door.
One guard blocked her.
“Ms. Marlow.”
“My friend is inside.”
“Mr. Bellandi ordered—”
“I’m a registered nurse. If Maria is injured, I may be the only person there who can keep her alive.”
The guard hesitated.
That was enough.
Elena moved.
Inside the tunnel, she found Daniel.
He stared at her.
“You inherited that from your mother.”
“What?”
“The inability to follow instructions.”
“Useful tonight.”
“No.”
But he didn’t send her back.
They reached a stairwell.
Voices above.
Adrian’s.
Marco’s.
“You brought the drive?” Marco asked.
“Yes.”
“And Elena?”
“Not happening.”
A slap echoed.
Maria cried out.
Elena moved instinctively.
Daniel caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Marco spoke again.
“You think this is about inheritance, Adrian?”
“What else?”
“It was never about the money.”
“Then enlighten me.”
Marco laughed.
“It was about control.”
Daniel and Elena crept upward.
Through a gap, Elena saw Maria tied to a chair.
Blood near her eyebrow.
Alive.
Marco stood ten feet away.
Four armed men around him.
Adrian was alone.
Marco continued.
“Your father was supposed to modernize the family. Instead he became sentimental.”
“Because he fell in love?”
“Because he wanted out.”
Marco sneered.
“Carlo saw weakness. I saw opportunity.”
“You murdered my mother.”
“She should have minded her own business.”
Something changed in Adrian.
His face emptied of emotion.
That was more frightening than rage.
Marco noticed.
“Careful.”
He pressed a gun against Maria’s shoulder.
“You’re here for the drive.”
“No.”
Marco frowned.
Adrian took out the flash drive.
“You’re here because you think this is the only copy.”
Marco’s face changed.
Adrian smiled slightly.
“Every file on this drive was uploaded twenty minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“Federal prosecutors.”
Marco’s confidence cracked.
“You’re lying.”
“Try me.”
“You’d destroy your father.”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Adrian continued.
“He told me to.”
Marco stared.
Then laughed sharply.
“Vittorio finally developed a conscience?”
“Maybe.”
“Too late.”
Marco raised the gun toward Adrian.
Daniel moved.
A shot rang out.
One of Marco’s men fell.
Chaos exploded.
Adrian lunged toward Maria.
Security entered from the tunnel.
Elena ran toward her friend.
“Maria!”
“Elena?”
“I’m here.”
Elena cut the restraints.
Maria collapsed into her arms.
Another gunshot.
Daniel stumbled.
Blood spread across his side.
“Daniel!”
“Get her out!”
Adrian fought Marco near the loading platform.
Marco drove an elbow into his ribs.
Adrian hit the ground.
Marco grabbed the fallen gun.
Elena saw it.
“Adrian!”
He turned.
Marco aimed.
Vittorio’s voice suddenly thundered from the entrance.
“MARCO!”
Everyone froze.
Vittorio sat in his wheelchair beneath the warehouse lights.
Two guards stood behind him.
Elena stared in disbelief.
He had followed them.
Marco laughed.
“The king himself.”
Vittorio looked at Adrian.
Then Elena.
Then Daniel bleeding on the floor.
“You wanted me.”
Marco aimed at Vittorio.
“I wanted what should have been mine.”
“You wanted power.”
“I deserved it.”
“No.”
Vittorio’s voice was calm.
“You wanted people to fear you because nobody ever respected you.”
Marco’s face twisted.
“You think they respect you?”
“No.”
Vittorio shook his head.
“I finally understand that fear and respect are not the same.”
Marco pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked.
Empty.
His expression changed.
Adrian stood.
“You should count.”
He struck Marco hard.
Marco fell.
Security surrounded him.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then the warehouse filled with distant sirens.
Marco looked toward Adrian.
“You called the police.”
“Federal agents.”
“You’ve destroyed your family.”
Adrian glanced at Elena.
“No.”
He looked at Vittorio.
“We’re trying something different.”
Marco was taken into custody.
Maria was transported to a hospital.
Daniel survived the gunshot.
And by sunrise, every major news organization in New York carried the same headline.
BELLANDI EMPIRE UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION.
Vittorio Bellandi voluntarily surrendered that afternoon.
Before leaving the estate, he asked Elena to walk with him into the garden.
She pushed his wheelchair beneath an old oak tree.
“Are you afraid?” she asked.
“Yes.”
The admission surprised her.
“What happens now?”
“My lawyers say I may spend years in court.”
“And prison?”
“Possibly.”
Elena looked down.
Vittorio reached for her hand.
“I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“For thirty years.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
“You trusted your brother.”
“I trusted fear more.”
Elena sat on the stone bench beside him.
“I don’t know how to call you Dad.”
Vittorio’s eyes filled.
“You don’t have to.”
“I don’t know if I forgive you.”
“You don’t have to do that either.”
“But I want to know you.”
Vittorio looked at her.
That seemed to matter more than everything else.
“I would like that.”
Federal vehicles waited beyond the garden.
Adrian approached.
“It’s time.”
Vittorio nodded.
Before leaving, he looked at both of them.
“My children.”
Adrian rolled his eyes slightly.
Elena laughed despite herself.
Vittorio smiled.
It was the first uncomplicated smile she had ever seen on his face.
Then he was taken away.
Elena thought the worst was over.
She was wrong.
Three days later Daniel asked to see her from his hospital bed.
“I found something your mother never told me,” he said.
Elena sat beside him.
“What?”
Daniel handed her a sealed envelope.
“Sofia wrote this shortly before she died.”
Elena recognized her mother’s handwriting.
On the front were three words.
ABOUT YOUR FATHER.
She opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Elena read the first sentence.
Then stopped breathing.
Vittorio Bellandi may be your biological father.
But he is not the man who raised you during the first year of your life.
Elena looked at Daniel.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with regret.
May you like
“It means there was another man.”
---
