Chapter 10 - A Whisper in the Dark: The Confession of Vanessa Bellini
BANG!
A shot echoed from the pier outside.
Paul’s gun flew out of his hand, his index finger severed by a rifle round from Marco’s sniper position on the silos.
Paul screamed in agony, clutching his bloody hand against his chest.
“MOVE!” Luca roared.
Matteo burst through the side entrance, firing his automatic weapon into Vance’s security guards.
Chaos erupted in the boathouse.
Muzzle flashes illuminated the rotting wooden beams in strobing bursts of light.
Salvatore fired his shotgun from the catwalk, blasting a gaping hole in the wooden floor where Luca had stood half a second earlier.
Luca dove behind the concrete vault housing, returning fire with pinpoint precision.
I grabbed Frank’s jacket and pulled him down behind a heavy iron winch as bullets ricocheted off the steel cables.
Suddenly, a figure stumbled through the front doors.
It was Vanessa.
Her face was smeared with soot and blood, her hands shaking violently, but she was holding a heavy nine-millimeter pistol she had taken from the wrecked SUV outside.
“DAD!” Vanessa screamed at the top of her lungs.
Salvatore stopped firing.
He looked down from the catwalk, his face twisting with rage.
“Vanessa! Get out of the way, you useless idiot!”
“You lied to me!” Vanessa cried, tears cutting clean tracks through the dirt on her cheeks. “You told me you were doing this for our family! You told me you loved mom!”
Vanessa pulled a small micro-cassette tape from her pocket and held it high above her head.
“I found this in your coat at the motel, Dad!” she yelled. “The recording from nineteen ninety-eight! The recording of you telling the arson squad to make sure Luca didn't get out alive!”
Salvatore’s eyes flared with murderous panic.
“Give me that tape, Vanessa!”
“You used me!” she shrieked. “You made me a criminal when I was sixteen years old! You destroyed my life!”
Salvatore didn't hesitate.
He raised his shotgun and aimed it directly at his own daughter’s chest.
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“You were always weak,” Salvatore snarled. “Just like your mother.”
He pulled the trigger.
