Chapter 10 - The Missing Page
Vincent arrived thirty minutes later.
Angry.
Not at me.
At himself.
“You should have called.”
“I was busy.”
“With Aldo.”
“Yes.”
“That sentence should concern you more.”
“It concerns me exactly enough.”
He looked exhausted.
I was still angry.
That didn’t stop me from noticing.
I handed him the cassette.
He listened.
When Rose’s voice ended, Vincent sat down.
“She tried to save him.”
“Yes.”
“She tried to save all of us.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I folded my arms.
“For what?”
“Choosing what you could handle.”
I said nothing.
“My father did it. Rose did it. I hated both of them for it.”
His voice lowered.
“And then I did the same thing to you.”
That apology mattered.
Not enough to erase anything.
Enough to open a door.
“Aldo wants a meeting.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Marco found tracks.”
I sighed.
“Of course he did.”
“He wants the ledger?”
“And says he has a missing page.”
Vincent’s face sharpened.
“What page?”
“Something about Rebecca.”
He looked confused.
That seemed genuine.
We went through Rose’s records again.
The ledger had page numbers.
Twenty-seven.
Twenty-eight.
Thirty.
Page twenty-nine missing.
The index described it simply:
R.V. / G.M. / child transfer.
Rebecca Vale.
Gabriel Moretti.
Child transfer.
My stomach turned.
“What does that mean?”
Vincent shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The next morning, federal agents surrounded the abandoned quarry.
Aldo specified only me and Vincent.
This time, I refused to be left behind.
We walked down an old service trail.
The same mountain range where I had found Vincent.
The same wet stone.
The same pine smell.
Aldo waited beside a rusted excavator.
He held one sheet of paper.
No visible men.
No visible weapon.
Vincent stopped twenty feet away.
“Aldo.”
Aldo looked at him.
For a second, twenty years existed between them.
Then vanished.
“You look better.”
“You missed.”
Aldo smiled without humor.
“I noticed.”
I stepped forward.
“The page.”
He held it up.
“First, he hears the truth.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“I know about my father.”
“No.”
Aldo looked at me.
“Not that truth.”
He handed me the page.
Rose’s handwriting.
Rebecca Vale had been working for Gabriel Moretti.
Not willingly.
Gabriel threatened Daniel.
Rebecca agreed to pass information.
Then she learned Gabriel planned to kill Daniel anyway.
She went to Salvatore.
She became the reason Salvatore discovered his brother’s betrayal.
I stared.
“My mother exposed Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he kill my parents?”
“Because she betrayed him.”
Vincent whispered:
“And the baby?”
Aldo looked at me.
“Gabriel wanted Hannah alive.”
“Why?”
“She was leverage.”
My skin crawled.
“Against who?”
“Rebecca’s younger brother.”
I froze.
“I had an uncle?”
Aldo nodded.
“Still do.”
“What?”
Vincent looked equally shocked.
Aldo smiled faintly.
“Rose hid more than one person.”
“Who is he?”
“Federal prosecutor David Vale.”
I stared.
The name was familiar.
David Vale had spent twenty years prosecuting organized crime cases in New York.
My biological uncle had been hunting families like the Morettis my entire life.
“Does he know about me?”
“Yes.”
My knees weakened.
“He knew I was alive?”
“Rose contacted him after Salvatore died.”
“And he never came?”
Aldo looked away.
“He believed staying away kept you safe.”
I laughed bitterly.
Another man protecting me with absence.
Of course.
Vincent stepped closer to Aldo.
“You brought us here for this?”
“No.”
Aldo reached inside his coat.
Every hidden agent probably tensed.
He removed a flash drive.
“Every account.”
Vincent stared.
“Why?”
“Because Rose was right.”
Aldo looked around the quarry.
“I spent half my life waiting for revenge to make me feel like my father mattered.”
His voice broke slightly.
“It didn’t.”
He handed the drive to me.
Then a gunshot cracked through the quarry.
Aldo jerked.
Not from his weapon.
From somewhere above.
Vincent grabbed me.
We dropped behind stone.
Another shot hit the excavator.
Aldo fell.
“Who’s shooting?” I shouted.
Vincent looked toward the ridge.
Aldo laughed painfully.
“You thought I was the last problem?”
Men appeared above.
Not federal agents.
Marco shouted through comms.
“Second team! East ridge!”
Vincent dragged Aldo behind cover.
Aldo clutched his shoulder.
“Gabriel’s network didn’t die with Gabriel.”
“Who?” Vincent demanded.
Aldo looked at him.
“Marco’s brother.”
Vincent went still.
“Enzo?”
Aldo nodded.
“He funded the ambush.”
More gunfire.
The cliff edge crumbled beneath Vincent’s injured leg.
He slipped.
I caught his wrist.
For one terrible second, history repeated.
Vincent hung over the quarry edge.
Rain began to fall.
I heard Rose in my head.
Pull with leverage, not strength.
Rocco barked somewhere above.
I grabbed the emergency rope from my pack.
Because after the first ravine, I never went into mountains without one.
I looped it around a pine root.
Locked it around my waist.
Vincent looked up at me.
“Hannah—”
“Don’t.”
“Hannah, let the agents—”
“Shut up.”
He almost smiled.
Even hanging above a forty-foot drop.
I pulled.
Slowly.
Controlled.
Every inch deliberate.
Agents reached us.
Hands joined mine.
Vincent came over the edge.
The moment he was safe, he rolled onto his back.
Rain hit his face.
He looked at me.
“Again?”
I was crying and laughing at the same time.
“You really need a safer hobby.”
Then federal agents surrounded Aldo.
May you like
He raised his uninjured hand.
This time, he did not run.
