Chapter 5 - THE WIFE WHO RETURNED FROM THE DEAD
I struck the glass with both hands.
“Sofia!”
She tried to stand, but the chain pulled her back.
Dante turned toward me.
He held the vial meant to save Matteo.
“Open the door!” I shouted.
Vittorio’s voice answered through the speakers.
“One door opens when another closes.”
A screen lit beside the glass.
Two live images appeared.
One showed Matteo.
The other showed Isabella at the safe house.
My blood froze.
Vittorio had found her.
Masked men surrounded the house while Pierce barricaded the door.
“You choose,” Vittorio said. “Your son or Sofia’s daughter.”
I looked at Sofia.
She shook her head violently.
“She is your daughter too!” she shouted through the glass.
The words tore through me.
Mine.
Not only in love.
In blood.
Sofia pressed both palms to the glass.
“Luca, Isabella is yours.”
I stared at her.
“How?”
“Before we married,” she said, voice breaking, “we met once in Venice.”
Memory returned like lightning.
Eight years earlier.
A masked charity ball.
A woman in silver.
One night I had never forgotten.
Sofia.
She had known.
I had not.
“You disappeared,” I whispered.
“I was already hiding from Vittorio. I found out I was pregnant afterward.”
Vittorio laughed through the speakers.
“A touching reunion.”
The screen showed Isabella being pulled from the safe house.
Something inside me became still.
Not rage.
Something colder.
Gabriel touched my shoulder.
“Trust Dante.”
I looked through the glass.
My brother nodded once.
Then he injected Matteo.
The monitor screamed.
Matteo’s heart stopped.
Sofia screamed.
I drew my gun and fired into the glass until cracks spread across it.
Vittorio’s voice remained calm.
“Your son is dead.”
“No,” Dante said.
He lifted Matteo from the table.
“His heart is hidden.”
Emergency lights failed.
The glass wall unlocked.
Gabriel’s men rushed through.
I reached Sofia first.
My knife cut the chain.
She fell into my arms.
For one second, the entire world disappeared.
Her face pressed against my neck.
Her tears soaked my shirt.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I tried to come home.”
I held her so tightly I feared I would hurt her.
“You are home.”
A gunshot shattered the moment.
Gabriel fell.
Vittorio emerged from the shadows holding a pistol.
He looked almost nothing like the father I remembered, yet his eyes were the same.
Empty.
“You always were sentimental,” he told me.
I moved in front of Sofia.
“And you were always a coward.”
He smiled.
“Dante has twelve minutes to restart Matteo’s heart. Unfortunately, the reversal agent requires a second component.”
He held up a small blue vial.
Dante’s face changed.
“Give it to me.”
Vittorio pointed the gun at Sofia.
“Luca makes the choice.”
“Isabella or Matteo again?” I asked.
“No.”
His smile widened.
“Dante or Sofia.”
I understood.
One would receive the vial.
The other would die.
Sofia gripped my arm.
“Save Matteo.”
Dante shook his head.
“The blue compound neutralizes the poison in Sofia’s blood. Without it, she has less than an hour.”
I looked at her.
She was already trembling.
Vittorio had poisoned her too.
Every path led to loss.
That was his favorite weapon.
Not guns.
Choice.
He wanted me to become him by deciding who mattered more.
Then I remembered Isabella’s memory card.
Sofia had gathered records.
Formulas.
Every experiment.
“Elena,” I said quietly.
She understood before anyone else.
She opened the medical database on the nearby terminal and searched the formula.
“There’s another dose,” she said. “Storage level three.”
Vittorio’s smile vanished.
I fired.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
Dante tackled him.
Sofia and I ran toward the stairwell while Elena carried the laptop.
Behind us, men fought through the laboratory.
We reached level three.
Rows of refrigerated units lined the room.
Most were empty.
Elena found the correct cabinet.
Inside were dozens of blue vials.
Not one.
Dozens.
Vittorio had lied because he wanted to watch me choose.
Sofia injected herself while Elena carried the remaining doses to Dante.
Matteo’s monitor remained flat.
Ten minutes.
Eleven.
Then twelve.
Dante pressed the second compound into Matteo’s IV.
Nothing happened.
I stood beside the table holding Sofia’s hand.
“Come on, piccolo,” I whispered. “Papa is here.”
Dante began chest compressions.
The monitor stayed silent.
Sofia broke down against me.
Then a tiny beep sounded.
Another.
Another.
Matteo’s heart returned.
Weak.
Uneven.
Alive.
Sofia collapsed into my arms.
We had won.
Or so I believed.
Then Elena looked at the security screen.
Vittorio was gone.
So was Gabriel’s body.
And the convoy carrying Isabella had changed direction.
Not toward the monastery.
Toward Chicago.
Toward the Moretti estate.
Sofia’s face drained of color.
“He’s going back for the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one that proves who really owns the Moretti empire.”
She looked at me with terror.
“Luca, your father was never the head of the organization.”
“Then who was?”
May you like
Sofia swallowed.
**“Your mother.”**
