Chapter 6 - The Sister in the Crypt
Elena stepped toward the speaker and cried, “Elisa, open the door.”
A red light blinked above the iron frame.
Three digits appeared beside it.
Elena knew the number immediately.
It was the room where their mother died.
For a moment, the crypt felt smaller.
Daniel moved toward the keypad.
Victor stopped him.
“Don’t.”
“She controls the lock.”
“And maybe something else.”
Daniel looked at the walls.
Victor did too.
Fresh wiring.
Camera in the corner.
Someone was watching.
“Elisa,” Elena said. “I’m here.”
Static.
Then the voice returned.
“You took too long.”
Elena flinched.
“I thought you were dead.”
“You were supposed to.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Victor noticed.
“You knew she blamed Elena.”
Daniel said nothing.
Victor stepped closer.
“You knew.”
“I knew she was angry.”
“Angry?”
Elena turned.
“Daniel.”
His face tightened.
“She was sixteen.”
“So was I once.”
“You escaped.”
“I was sent away in a freight truck.”
“Elisa stayed.”
Elena’s voice broke.
“You told me you protected her.”
“I did.”
The speaker clicked.
Elisa laughed.
Not joyfully.
“You protected me by teaching me how to disappear.”
Daniel looked up.
“Elisa, open the door.”
“Still giving orders.”
“Elisa.”
“You said Elena would come back when it was safe.”
Daniel went silent.
“You said six months.”
Elena stared at him.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Elisa—”
“Then one year.”
The voice trembled.
“Then two.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
That hurt worse.
Victor watched Elena absorb guilt that was not hers.
He had seen that pattern before.
People injured by powerful men often carried the shame powerful men refused to feel.
“Elisa,” Victor said.
Silence.
“Victor Russo.”
“I know who you are.”
“Then you know I dislike locked doors.”
A pause.
“Do you threaten everyone?”
“Only people keeping Elena underground.”
The speaker crackled.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You said her name like she matters.”
Victor did not answer.
Elena looked at him.
So did Daniel.
Victor ignored both.
“Elisa,” he said, “what do you want?”
“For Elena to hear the truth.”
“Then open the door and tell her.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel will stop me.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“You’ve said that for six years.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Tell Elena what you did.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Victor noticed.
Elena did too.
“What did he do?”
Silence.
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Your mother’s evidence wasn’t just about your father.”
Victor’s attention sharpened.
“What was it about?”
“Everyone.”
“Specific.”
“Russo money. Bellandi routes. Rinaldi judges. Police captains.”
Victor nodded.
“Expected.”
Daniel continued.
“Antonio helped Margaret because he wanted Bellandi weakened.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Not noble.
Practical.
That sounded like his father.
“But he also wanted the evidence contained,” Daniel said.
Elena stared.
“You said he promised to protect us.”
“He did.”
“Then?”
“Protection had conditions.”
Victor’s voice cooled.
“What conditions?”
Daniel hesitated.
The speaker answered for him.
“That we never speak.”
Elena looked up.
Elisa continued.
“Antonio Russo helped fake Daniel’s death.”
Victor went still.
Daniel’s eyes closed.
“He helped move me.”
Elisa laughed bitterly.
“He helped bury the evidence too.”
Victor’s chest tightened.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Antonio believed exposing everything would start a citywide war.”
“So he hid it.”
“He split the records.”
“Where?”
“Three places.”
Elena stepped closer.
“What places?”
“Margaret gave one copy to Daniel.”
Daniel nodded.
“One to Antonio.”
Victor felt dread settle.
“And the third?”
Elisa spoke softly.
“To Elias.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Victor thought of the cuff links.
Elias had become the final custodian.
Then died.
“Bellandi never found his copy,” Daniel said.
“That’s why he kept looking for Elena,” Victor said.
Daniel nodded.
“He assumed Elias gave it to her.”
“But he didn’t,” Elena said.
“No.”
Victor looked at the silver cuff link still in his pocket.
Then why had Elias given her one half of a pair?
Marker.
Key.
Code.
“Elena,” Victor said.
She looked at him.
“The cuff link.”
“What about it?”
“Where did you keep it?”
“For years?”
“Yes.”
“On a chain.”
“Always?”
“Until about eight months ago.”
“What happened?”
“I lost it.”
Victor went still.
“Where?”
“In your house.”
Daniel looked sharply at her.
Victor’s pulse slowed.
That meant the cuff link had not arrived tonight from outside.
Someone inside the mansion might have had it for months.
The hooded visitor held the matching one.
Two links.
Two locations.
A pair divided between Elena and Elias.
“Where did you lose yours?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“I noticed it missing after cleaning your father’s old office.”
Victor’s face changed.
Antonio’s office had been locked for years.
Victor entered rarely.
Elena had cleaned it because Mrs. Alden insisted the room be maintained.
“What day?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Month.”
“January.”
Daniel stared.
“January seventeenth?”
Elena frowned.
“Maybe.”
Daniel swore.
“What?”
He moved to the wall of photographs and pulled down an old diagram.
A cuff link.
Two circles.
Inside one: 10/17.
Inside the other: 1/17.
Victor understood.
“Dates.”
Daniel nodded.
“Coordinates?”
“No.”
“Combination.”
Daniel turned toward the keypad beside the door.
Three digits.
Elisa spoke through the speaker.
“You’re close.”
Elena stepped toward the keypad.
Victor caught her wrist.
She looked at him.
“What?”
“We don’t enter numbers into a locked crypt because a traumatized woman behind a speaker tells us to.”
Elisa laughed again.
“I like him.”
Victor ignored it.
Daniel examined the wiring.
“It’s probably safe.”
Victor stared.
“You faked your death under a bridge and hid a teenager for six years. Your definition of safe concerns me.”
Matteo coughed to hide a laugh.
Daniel glared.
Elena almost smiled despite herself.
Then the lights went out.
Darkness.
Victor pulled Elena against the wall instinctively.
A shot cracked.
Stone chipped.
Matteo fired toward the muzzle flash.
Daniel shouted.
Emergency lights came on red.
The iron door stood open.
A figure ran through the corridor.
Victor pursued.
“Elena, stay with Matteo!”
He reached the stairs.
The chapel above was empty.
Rear door swinging.
Victor ran outside.
A black motorcycle disappeared into the alley.
Too fast.
He stopped.
Something lay on the chapel steps.
A phone.
Burner.
Screen glowing.
One message.
Victor picked it up.
A photograph loaded.
His mansion.
Live camera feed.
Sofia sat alone in the sitting room.
Behind her, a man stepped into frame.
Dominic Rinaldi.
Victor called Matteo.
No signal underground.
He ran toward the chapel door.
The phone vibrated.
A new message appeared.
BRING ELENA’S CUFF LINK TO THE RUSSO HOUSE.
Victor’s blood went cold.
May you like
Then a second message arrived.
COME ALONE OR SOFIA DIES.
