Chapter 12 - My Mother
I did not go alone.
I wanted to.
For approximately thirty seconds.
Then Dante found me putting on my coat.
“No.”
“My mother may be alive.”
“That is exactly why you’re not going alone.”
“They said they’ll kill her.”
“They’ll kill both of you.”
I hated that he was right.
The message directed me to Union Station.
Dante created a plan.
I entered the main hall alone while his people watched from a distance.
A woman sat beneath the great clock.
Gray coat.
Dark hair streaked with silver.
She looked up.
My heart stopped.
I knew her.
Not because I remembered her.
Because I had my own eyes.
She stood.
“Emily.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“Mom?”
She covered her mouth.
Then I was in her arms.
Thirty years of questions disappeared beneath one broken sound.
“I’m sorry.”
She kept saying it.
“I’m so sorry.”
Dante remained twenty yards away.
My mother noticed him.
Her expression changed.
“Dante Moretti.”
He approached carefully.
“Anna Carter.”
“You look like your father.”
“You knew him?”
“I knew all of them.”
We moved to a secure location.
Anna told us the truth.
SAINT began as a financial intelligence network.
Victor Hale used it to collect leverage.
Then leverage became blackmail.
Blackmail became murder.
Gabriel Moretti discovered the scheme.
My father helped him copy the records.
Anna helped hide them.
Victor killed Gabriel.
Then my father.
“Why did you leave me?”
I asked.
She cried.
“Because Victor told me he would kill you next.”
“So you disappeared?”
“I made him believe I had the final ledger.”
“You abandoned me.”
The words came out harsher than I intended.
She accepted them.
“Yes.”
I looked away.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
Dante remained silent.
Anna finally looked at him.
“There’s something you need to know.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“About Marco?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“About your brother.”
Dante became completely still.
“Gabriel did not die in the car bomb.”
Nobody spoke.
Anna continued.
“He survived.”
My heart pounded.
“Victor kept him alive because Gabriel knew where the original SAINT accounts were.”
Dante looked like he had forgotten how to breathe.
“Where is he?”
Anna’s answer changed everything.
“In a private medical facility owned by Victor Hale.”
“And you know where.”
“Yes.”
She reached into her coat.
May you like
“But once we go there, Victor will know the war has started.”
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