Chapter 2 - The Woman Luca Buried
Luca had imagined seeing Rebecca again more times than he would ever admit.
Usually in dreams.
Sometimes in the middle of a crowded restaurant when a woman turned her head the right way.
Once, during Owen's school concert, he had smelled Rebecca's perfume somewhere behind him and nearly walked out of the auditorium searching for a ghost.
But he had never imagined this.
A steel door.
A hidden basement.
Two frightened boys.
His supposedly dead mother standing ten feet away.
And Rebecca DeLuca stepping into the weak fluorescent light as though she had climbed out of the grave.
She was thinner.
Much thinner.
Her dark hair had streaks of gray Luca had never seen before, and her face looked hollow beneath the cheekbones. A pale hospital gown hung from her shoulders beneath an oversized cardigan.
But it was Rebecca.
Not someone who resembled her.
Not a trick.
Rebecca.
Luca took one step toward her.
Then stopped.
Three years of grief crashed into three seconds.
“Rebecca?”
Her eyes found him.
For one brief moment, the fear disappeared from her face.
“Luca.”
Owen broke away first.
“Mom?”
Rebecca's entire body shook.
She looked at him.
Then at Ben.
Her hand covered her mouth.
“My boys.”
Owen stared at Ben, then back at Rebecca.
“Boys?”
Ben began crying silently.
Rebecca crossed the room.
She reached Owen first, touching his face as if afraid he would disappear.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Owen didn't move.
His expression was more confusion than joy.
“You died.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“We buried you.”
“I know.”
“You didn't come back.”
Her face crumpled.
“I couldn't.”
Ben stood several feet away.
He seemed afraid to approach.
Rebecca turned toward him.
“Benjamin.”
The boy flinched.
It was the first time Hannah had heard anyone call him by a full name.
Rebecca opened her arms.
Ben ran into them.
He struck her so hard that she stumbled backward.
“You said you'd wake up.”
“I tried.”
“You promised.”
“I know.”
“You left me with her.”
Rebecca looked over his shoulder.
At Luca's mother.
The old woman's expression remained almost unreadable.
Almost.
Luca saw the guilt.
He stepped between them.
“What did you do?”
His mother straightened.
“Not here.”
Luca laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You've been dead for eighteen years. My wife has been dead for three. My son has a twin I never knew existed. There is a hospital ward underneath my house.”
His voice grew quieter.
“You're going to answer me here.”
“Luca—”
“Now.”
Rebecca tightened her arms around Ben.
“Your mother didn't start this.”
Luca looked at her.
Rebecca swallowed.
“She helped continue it.”
That was worse.
Hannah stood near the wall, still holding the photograph of herself as a newborn.
She wanted to disappear.
This was family history so impossible that she felt intrusive simply breathing in the room.
But Rebecca looked directly at her.
“Hannah.”
Hannah froze.
“You know my name?”
Rebecca's eyes filled.
“I knew your mother.”
“My mother died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“You knew Patricia Brooks?”
“Before you were born.”
Hannah looked at the photograph.
“Why were you holding me?”
Rebecca glanced at Luca.
Then toward his mother.
“Because for three days, I thought you were mine.”
Silence swallowed the corridor.
Hannah almost laughed from shock.
“What?”
Luca stared at Rebecca.
“What does that mean?”
His mother suddenly said, “Enough.”
Luca turned.
She had made the mistake of sounding like she still possessed authority over him.
He crossed the distance in three strides.
For the first time, the elderly woman looked uncertain.
“You don't tell me when it's enough.”
“Think about the children.”
“I am.”
His eyes moved to Ben.
“That child has lived underground.”
Then Owen.
“My son has been sneaking food to his brother because every adult around him failed him.”
Then Rebecca.
“My wife was declared dead while apparently breathing beneath my home.”
He leaned closer.
“So don't ever tell me to calm down for the children.”
Rebecca whispered, “Luca.”
He looked at her.
She pointed toward the ceiling.
“There are cameras.”
Luca glanced up.
A black dome occupied the corner.
“Celeste?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don't know anymore.”
That answer bothered him.
“Marco should be upstairs.”
“Then call him.”
“No signal.”
Rebecca's expression changed.
“Then we're already locked in.”
As if the basement had heard her, a heavy metallic sound echoed through the corridor.
CLANG.
Owen grabbed Hannah's hand.
The elevator display went dark.
Luca walked to the doors and pressed the call button.
Nothing.
His mother closed her eyes.
“They cut the lift.”
“Who?”
She didn't answer.
Luca turned.
“Who?”
“People who will destroy this house before they let what's inside leave.”
Hannah stared at her.
“What is inside?”
The old woman looked at the photograph still in Hannah's hand.
“Proof.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Not just proof.”
Her voice lowered.
“Names.”
Luca caught that.
“What names?”
Rebecca went to the steel room she had emerged from.
Inside stood a hospital bed, medical monitors, shelves of medication and a locked cabinet.
She pulled open a drawer beneath the bed.
Empty.
Rebecca's face drained.
“No.”
“What?”
“There was a ledger here.”
Luca approached.
“What ledger?”
“Every birth. Every payment. Every transfer.”
“Transfer of what?”
Rebecca looked at the boys.
Then at Hannah.
“Children.”
The word landed like broken glass.
Hannah felt Owen squeeze her fingers.
Rebecca continued.
“It started before Celeste was born. Wealthy families. Political families. Organized crime families. People who needed heirs. People who needed children to disappear. Infertile couples willing to pay anything. Mothers who were told their babies died.”
Hannah's stomach twisted.
“You're describing trafficking.”
Rebecca didn't deny it.
Luca looked at his mother.
“You were involved?”
The old woman sat slowly on a metal chair.
“My husband was.”
Luca's father, Vittorio DeLuca.
Dead twenty-two years.
At least Luca had believed that death.
“You helped him.”
“I survived him.”
“By helping him?”
Her eyes hardened.
“You have no idea what that man was.”
“I knew enough.”
“No.”
She looked toward the hidden rooms.
“You knew the version he allowed his son to see.”
Rebecca spoke quietly.
“After Vittorio died, your mother tried to dismantle the operation.”
Luca stared at her.
“By faking her own death?”
“She had enemies.”
His mother nodded.
“And evidence. I thought disappearing would let me destroy the network without putting you and Celeste in danger.”
Luca glanced toward the elevator.
“How did that work out?”
She didn't answer.
Ben had gone quiet.
Hannah noticed him staring at one of the children's drawings.
“What is it?”
Ben pointed.
A house.
Three children.
One was Owen.
One was Ben.
The third was a girl.
Hannah crouched beside him.
“Who is she?”
Ben whispered, “I don't know.”
“You drew this?”
He nodded.
“Why did you draw a girl you don't know?”
“Because Grandma told me to.”
Everyone turned toward Luca's mother.
She frowned.
“I never told him that.”
Ben's face tightened.
“Yes, you did.”
“I did not.”
“The other Grandma.”
Rebecca stopped breathing.
Luca noticed.
“What other grandmother?”
Ben pointed toward the darkest end of the corridor.
“Her.”
There was no one there.
Then a speaker crackled.
A woman's voice came through.
Not Celeste.
Not Luca's mother.
Older.
Cold.
“You always were a difficult boy, Benjamin.”
Ben screamed.
Rebecca grabbed him.
Luca looked at the camera.
“Who are you?”
A quiet laugh filled the corridor.
Then Hannah heard footsteps beyond the wall behind her.
Not from the elevator.
From somewhere else.
Luca's mother stood so quickly her chair fell over.
“No.”
Luca turned.
She was staring at Hannah.
Not the wall.
Hannah felt cold.
“What?”
The old woman whispered, “Your mother.”
Hannah's chest tightened.
“My mother is dead.”
“So was I.”
The hidden wall beside Hannah unlocked.
A narrow doorway opened.
A woman stepped through.
She was in her late sixties.
Tall.
Elegant.
And wearing the gold wedding ring Hannah had personally removed from her mother's finger before the funeral twelve years earlier.
Hannah could not breathe.
The woman smiled.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Hannah stumbled backward.
“No.”
Her mother's smile disappeared.
Then she looked at Luca.
May you like
And said the words that changed everything.
“You still don't know why Rebecca was ordered to keep Hannah away from you.”
