Chapter 4 - The Lie Hannah Was Raised Inside
Hannah stared at Vincent.
The phone remained between them.
Sarah’s breathing crackled through the speaker.
“Hannah?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you with him?”
Hannah looked directly at Vincent.
“Yes.”
Sarah made a sound that was almost a sob.
“Then you need to leave.”
Vincent took the phone.
“Sarah.”
Silence.
Twenty-four years collapsed into that single word.
Sarah finally answered.
“You grew up.”
“So did you.”
“You weren’t supposed to find her yet.”
Vincent’s expression sharpened.
“Yet?”
Hannah stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
Sarah ignored the question.
“Vincent, please. Let Hannah go.”
“Someone attacked us at Union Station.”
Sarah inhaled sharply.
“They found the locker?”
“Yes.”
“Then Dominic knows.”
“He already knew.”
Sarah went silent.
Vincent’s voice became harder.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Sarah.”
“You still think fear makes people obedient.”
“No. Experience does.”
“You sound like your father.”
That hit him.
Hannah saw it.
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
A long pause.
“St. Agnes Cemetery.”
Marcus immediately began searching.
Sarah continued.
“North gate. Come alone.”
“No.”
“Then I disappear again.”
Vincent looked at Hannah.
“She comes with me.”
“No!”
Sarah’s fear was immediate.
“Hannah stays away.”
“I’m not staying anywhere,” Hannah said.
“Hannah—”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
Silence.
“For eight years.”
“Honey—”
“Don’t call me that.”
Sarah began crying.
Hannah’s voice broke.
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“I stood over your coffin.”
“I know.”
“I slept on the floor beside your bed for three months because the apartment still smelled like your perfume.”
Sarah sobbed quietly.
Hannah closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
The call ended.
Forty minutes later, Vincent and Hannah entered St. Agnes Cemetery.
Marcus followed at a distance despite Sarah’s demand.
Rain fell lightly.
Rows of monuments stretched beneath old trees.
Sarah stood beside a mausoleum.
Hannah stopped.
Eight years of grief became flesh.
Sarah looked older than Hannah remembered.
But alive.
Completely, impossibly alive.
Hannah walked toward her.
Sarah opened her arms.
Hannah slapped her.
The sound echoed between the graves.
Sarah accepted it.
Hannah slapped her again.
Then collapsed against her.
Sarah held her.
Both women cried.
Vincent turned away.
Some grief deserved privacy.
After several minutes, Hannah stepped back.
“Explain.”
Sarah wiped her face.
“The cancer was real.”
“You died.”
“No.”
“The hospital told me—”
“The hospital was paid.”
“The funeral?”
“Closed casket.”
Hannah stared at her.
“You watched me bury an empty box?”
“I watched from a car across the street.”
Hannah’s face twisted.
Sarah reached toward her.
Hannah stepped away.
“Don’t.”
Sarah lowered her hand.
Vincent approached.
“Why?”
Sarah looked at him.
“Because someone found us.”
“Dominic?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Sarah looked toward the cemetery road.
“We don’t have much time.”
Vincent’s patience disappeared.
“Twenty-four years, Sarah.”
His voice became lethal.
“You have had twenty-four years.”
Sarah met his gaze.
“The fire wasn’t meant to kill Clara.”
Vincent froze.
“It was meant to erase the Ledger.”
“What happened?”
“Clara changed the plan.”
Sarah looked at Hannah.
“She knew they were coming. She gave me Hannah and told me to leave.”
“Why you?”
“We were sisters.”
Hannah stared.
“What?”
“Not biologically.”
Sarah smiled sadly.
“We grew up together.”
She reached inside her coat.
An old photograph.
Two teenage girls.
Clara and Sarah.
“She trusted me.”
Hannah looked at Vincent.
“And him?”
Sarah’s expression changed.
“Clara loved Vincent.”
Vincent looked away.
Hannah noticed.
Sarah continued.
“But not the way he remembers.”
Vincent turned back.
“What does that mean?”
“She loved you like family.”
His face hardened.
Sarah sighed.
“You were sixteen, Vincent. She was twenty-two. You were a frightened boy trapped inside your father’s world. Clara protected you.”
Vincent said nothing.
Maybe some part of him had always known.
Sarah looked at Hannah.
“She loved someone else.”
“My father.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Sarah hesitated.
A car engine sounded beyond the cemetery wall.
Vincent immediately looked toward it.
Sarah whispered, “We need to move.”
“Name him.”
Sarah stared at Vincent.
“Your brother.”
Everything stopped.
Vincent’s face emptied.
“I don’t have a brother.”
“Yes, you do.”
“My mother had one child.”
“Your father had two.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“Who?”
“Gabriel.”
The name seemed to disturb the air itself.
Vincent knew it.
Everyone in old Chicago knew it.
Gabriel Moretti.
A young enforcer who disappeared twenty-six years earlier after stealing millions from the organization.
Vincent’s father had ordered every photograph of him destroyed.
Hannah stared.
“Gabriel Moretti is my father?”
Sarah nodded.
“Clara loved him.”
Vincent’s voice became quiet.
“My father killed him.”
Sarah looked at him sadly.
“No.”
“Gabriel disappeared.”
“He survived.”
Vincent stared.
Sarah whispered, “And he has spent twenty-four years building something powerful enough to destroy the Duca family.”
A gunshot cracked through the cemetery.
Sarah jerked.
Blood appeared on her shoulder.
Hannah screamed.
Vincent pulled both women behind the mausoleum.
A second bullet struck marble.
Marcus fired from the trees.
“Shooter north side!”
Vincent drew his weapon.
Sarah grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t chase him.”
“You were shot.”
“He wants you separated.”
“Who?”
Sarah pressed her hand against the wound.
“Gabriel.”
Hannah stared at her.
“My father shot you?”
“No.”
Sarah’s eyes filled with terror.
“He sent someone because he knows I finally told you.”
Vincent heard tires squeal beyond the wall.
The shooter was leaving.
Marcus reached them.
“Through-and-through. She’ll live.”
Sarah grabbed Hannah’s hand.
“There’s something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“Gabriel doesn’t want the Ledger anymore.”
Hannah shook.
“What does he want?”
Sarah looked toward Vincent.
“You.”
Vincent frowned.
Sarah shook her head.
“Not Vincent.”
She looked at Hannah.
“You.”
Hannah’s blood turned cold.
“Why?”
“Because the Ledger can only be opened with three keys.”
May you like
She touched Hannah’s crescent scar.
“And Clara hid the final key inside you.”
