Chapter 5 - THE SILVER ROSARY
The ride to the South Side took fourteen agonizing minutes.
I sat in the back of Luca’s armored SUV, my hands trembling violently as I stared out the window into the dark Chicago rain. Luca sat beside me, his jaw clenched, his dark eyes fixed on the road ahead. Daniel was driving, pushing the heavy vehicle to terrifying speeds.
“If they hurt her,” I whispered, tears finally spilling over my cheeks. “If they hurt my mother…”
“They won’t,” Luca said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an absolute, unbreakable authority. He reached across the leather seat and covered my shaking hands with his own. His skin was warm, calloused, and surprisingly gentle.
“Vanessa’s men are thugs,” Luca continued, his gaze never leaving mine. “Thugs are cowardly. They want a four-year-old boy. They don’t want a murder charge involving a civilian. Your mother is smart. She’s hiding.”
I nodded, clinging to his words like a lifeline.
The SUV screeched to a halt in front of the peeling brick building that housed the community daycare. The front glass door was shattered.
Luca didn’t wait for Daniel to open his door. He was out of the vehicle in a flash, his weapon drawn, moving with the terrifying grace of a man raised in violence.
“Stay behind me,” Luca ordered as I scrambled out after him.
We stepped through the broken glass into the dark, silent daycare. The walls were painted with cheerful rainbows, now illuminated only by the sweeping beams of the streetlights outside.
Desks were overturned. Toy boxes were emptied.
“Mom?” I called out, my voice cracking. “Mom, it’s Sophie!”
A muffled sob came from the back office.
I ran, ignoring Luca’s command to stay behind him. I threw open the shattered wooden door of the office.
My mother was huddled under the metal desk, clutching her chest, weeping uncontrollably. But she was alive. She was unhurt.
“Mom!” I dropped to my knees, pulling her into a desperate hug.
“Sophie!” she cried, burying her face in my shoulder. “They took him! They took little Leo! I couldn’t stop them!”
Luca stepped into the office, lowering his weapon as he scanned the room.
“How many men?” Luca asked, his voice calm, trying to ground her.
My mother looked up, terrified by the imposing man in the tailored suit, but my presence seemed to steady her. “Two. They were wearing dark coats. They kicked the door in. They grabbed Leo from his cot in the back room and just… ran.”
Luca’s jaw tightened. He walked over to the small, overturned cot in the corner of the office.
He stood there for a moment in silence. Then, he crouched down.
“Sophie,” Luca said quietly.
I helped my mother to a chair and walked over to him.
Luca was pointing at the floor, right where Leo’s pillow had been thrown.
Resting on the cheap linoleum was a delicate, intricately carved silver rosary.
I stared at it. “Did they drop that?”
Luca picked up the rosary. The beads slipped through his fingers. He stared at the silver crucifix, his expression shifting from anger to profound, earth-shattering shock.
“No,” Luca breathed. “Vanessa’s men didn’t drop this. Vanessa’s men didn’t take the boy.”
I frowned, completely confused. “But my mother said—”
“My mother gave this rosary to my brother on the day he was baptized,” Luca interrupted, his voice thick with emotion. “It was blessed in Rome. It is the only thing he took with him when he was exiled twelve years ago.”
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
“Your brother took Leo?” I asked. “But… why? If he’s selling the boy to Vanessa, why would he kidnap him from the daycare?”
“Because he’s not selling him,” a new voice said.
We spun around.
Standing in the doorway of the shattered office was a man soaking wet from the rain. He was bleeding from a nasty cut above his eye, his dark hair plastered to his forehead.
It was the man from the photograph.
Marco Moretti. Luca’s exiled brother.
Daniel instantly raised his gun, aiming directly at Marco’s chest.
“Don’t shoot!” Marco yelled, holding his hands up. “I didn’t hurt anyone! I swear to God, Luca, I didn’t hurt the woman!”
Luca didn’t raise his gun, but his eyes were filled with a lethal warning. “Where is the boy, Marco?”
“He’s safe,” Marco panted, leaning heavily against the doorframe. “He’s in my car out back. I had to get to him before Vanessa’s men did.”
I stared at him, my mind spinning. “You rescued him?”
“He’s my son,” Marco said, looking at me with desperate, pleading eyes. “Did you really think I’d sell my own flesh and blood to that monster?”
Luca stepped forward, the silver rosary clutched tightly in his fist. “You dug up our father’s grave, Marco. You stole the gold watch. You met with Vanessa. Explain yourself before I let Daniel put a bullet in you.”
Marco let out a bitter, exhausted laugh. He reached into the inside pocket of his soaked jacket and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper.
He tossed it onto the floor between them.
“I didn’t meet Vanessa to make a deal, Luca,” Marco said, his voice breaking. “I met her because she’s been blackmailing me for six months.”
I looked down at the paper on the floor.
May you like
It was a one-way plane ticket to South America, dated for tonight.
“She didn’t just want my son,” Marco whispered, sliding down the doorframe until he was sitting on the floor. “She found out where I was living. She hired men to hurt my wife. She told me if I didn’t dig up the watch and bring my boy to Chicago, she would slaughter my entire family.”
