Chapter 10 - SAINT BERNADETTE’S
Saint Bernadette’s had stopped being a church before Lorenzo was born.
The DeLuca family bought the property years ago because Antonio liked places built for confession.
The chapel remained untouched.
The buildings behind it did not.
Wine.
Cards.
Meetings.
Disappearances.
Every family had places where stories changed after the doors closed.
Gabriel waited near the altar.
Noah sat on a wooden bench holding a cookie.
Untouched.
Good boy.
Sarah had taught him never to eat food from strangers.
Gabriel noticed Lorenzo looking.
“He refused.”
Lorenzo’s chest tightened with pride and fear.
Noah saw him.
“Daddy!”
Gabriel raised one hand.
No weapon visible.
That meant nothing.
Lorenzo stopped.
“You wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“Let him go.”
“In a minute.”
“You have the coin.”
Gabriel held it between two fingers.
Black metal.
Small enough to have caused three years of suffering without ever understanding what it was.
“Antonio gave this to me.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“You gave it to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed it hidden somewhere even I could not reach.”
“In my ring.”
“Exactly.”
Lorenzo laughed coldly.
“You used me as a vault.”
“I used the most watched man in the family to hide the one thing nobody would think was hidden on him.”
“What is it?”
Gabriel walked toward the old altar.
A black metal circle was set into the stone.
He pressed the coin into the center.
It fit.
Then turned.
A low mechanical sound moved beneath the floor.
A narrow section of wall opened.
Behind it was darkness.
No papers.
No gold.
No weapons.
Only a chair.
And an old reel-to-reel recorder.
Lorenzo stared.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“The Bell.”
One machine.
Dozens of tapes arranged on shelves.
Voices.
Not signatures.
Not contracts.
Confessions.
Arguments.
Orders.
Men speaking when they believed the room belonged only to friends.
Antonio DeLuca had spent decades recording everyone.
Mafia bosses.
Allies.
Enemies.
Relatives.
The Circle itself.
The Black Bell was not proof designed for law.
It was power designed for betrayal.
One voice could destroy an alliance.
One sentence could start a war.
One tape could convince a son his father ordered his death.
Lorenzo understood why Antonio had hidden it.
Then why everyone wanted it.
Gabriel stood beside the shelves.
“I found this room seven years ago.”
“Before Father died.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know?”
“He caught me.”
“What happened?”
“He offered me his Circle seat.”
Lorenzo stared.
“You accepted.”
“At first.”
“Then?”
“I listened.”
Gabriel looked toward the tapes.
“I learned what he had done to us.”
“To who?”
“All of us.”
Antonio manipulated Victor Vale against Malcolm.
He encouraged Hale conflicts.
He weakened rival families.
He even arranged threats against Lorenzo when Lorenzo was young because danger made Lorenzo easier to shape.
Every crisis had been training.
Every victory had increased Lorenzo’s dependence on his father.
Gabriel discovered the family he loved had been designed like a cage.
“So you destroyed it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because destroying truth does not undo it.”
“Then why fake your death?”
“The Circle found out I knew.”
“Who told them?”
Gabriel smiled without humor.
“That is the question I still cannot answer.”
Lorenzo looked toward Noah.
“You voted to exile me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get you away from the city before the Circle decided to kill you.”
“You gave me to Victor.”
“I voted exile.”
“Same excuse Margaret uses.”
“I know.”
Gabriel’s voice became quiet.
“It was wrong.”
Lorenzo had expected defense.
Not admission.
“Victor changed the plan,” Gabriel continued.
“He wanted the Bell. He believed you had it.”
“And you let him believe that.”
“Yes.”
“For three years?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Lorenzo.
“I thought you escaped after six months.”
The room changed.
“What?”
“Victor told the Circle you escaped.”
Lorenzo stared.
“I was underground for three years.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“Then someone kept you after Victor stopped reporting.”
Lorenzo thought of the bells sent to Margaret.
Victor sent early ones.
Malcolm sent two after Victor died.
But two remained unexplained.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Lorenzo almost hit him.
Then Noah slid off the bench.
“Daddy.”
Gabriel immediately stepped away.
Noah ran.
Lorenzo dropped to one knee and caught him.
The boy wrapped both arms around his neck.
Everything else disappeared.
For one second.
Then Noah whispered:
“Wolf man is here.”
Lorenzo froze.
“What?”
Noah pointed toward the dark balcony above the chapel.
A shadow moved.
A gunshot broke the silence.
Gabriel staggered.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Lorenzo threw Noah behind the stone altar.
Another shot struck the wall.
From outside, gunfire erupted.
Sarah’s hidden team had been discovered.
The trap had changed.
Gabriel leaned against the recorder.
“Not mine.”
Lorenzo looked up.
A man crossed the balcony.
No limp.
Tall.
Silver wolf pin.
The same figure from Noah’s birthday.
The same man in the photograph.
Lorenzo finally saw his face.
Thomas Creed.
Margaret’s driver.
Except Thomas Creed was not running like a servant.
Men were moving around him like soldiers around a commander.
Gabriel whispered:
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“You know him.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened.
“That’s not Thomas Creed.”
The man above them smiled down.
Then removed the silver wolf pin.
“My name is Elias Vale.”
Adrian’s face appeared in Lorenzo’s memory.
Victor.
Malcolm.
A family of brothers.
But no one had ever mentioned Elias.
The hidden Vale.
May you like
The one who had lived inside the DeLuca house for twelve years under another man’s name.
And apparently, the one who had been closest to Margaret all along.
