Chapter 8 - ELIAS ROURKE
Elias Rourke had no family name anyone respected.
That was intentional.
He came from outside the old organizations.
No bloodline.
No inherited territory.
He offered something more valuable.
He understood resentment.
Dante described him as a broker of grudges.
If two families already hated each other, Elias found the one lie that made hatred useful.
If brothers competed, he made the competition feel like betrayal.
If fathers feared losing control, he gave them enemies to blame.
Emilio Santoro had not invented the war.
He had hired a man who knew how.
“Why?” Raffaele asked.
Dante looked at Vincent.
Vincent answered.
“Power.”
“Not enough.”
“No.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Your father was sick.”
Raffaele stared.
“Before Beatrice died.”
“What kind?”
“Not dying immediately. But he knew his strength was fading.”
Raffaele remembered tremors Emilio hid by keeping one hand in his pocket.
Meetings shortened.
Stairs avoided.
He had never asked.
Emilio would have called concern weakness.
“He believed you would replace him too early,” Dante said.
“So he created a war.”
“Yes.”
“He needed me dependent.”
“Yes.”
“And Luca?”
“Luca discovered Elias.”
Raffaele looked at Vincent.
“You helped Father.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent’s shame was visible now.
“Because Emilio convinced me Luca planned to remove you.”
“Take my place?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Kill you.”
Raffaele laughed bitterly.
Of course.
The same method.
Fear.
Family.
A lie close enough to truth.
Luca and Raffaele had fought violently before his disappearance.
Anyone could believe murder might follow.
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“And Beatrice?”
“I believed she was being manipulated by Luca.”
“So you helped kidnap her.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
That mattered only slightly.
Raffaele asked:
“Who killed her?”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Raffaele's face hardened.
“You were there.”
“Outside.”
“Then tell me what you heard.”
“Three shots.”
“Then?”
“Luca came out.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Raffaele stopped.
“Luca survived.”
“At least that night.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because he was carrying Beatrice.”
Raffaele’s breathing changed.
“She was alive?”
Vincent looked at him.
“For a minute.”
The room went silent.
Dante looked down.
Vincent continued.
“Luca brought her outside. She was bleeding.”
Raffaele gripped the edge of the table.
“Did she speak?”
“Yes.”
“To who?”
“Me.”
Raffaele’s eyes burned.
“What did she say?”
Vincent hesitated.
Raffaele did not threaten.
He simply waited.
Vincent whispered:
“Don’t let Dad kill Luca.”
Raffaele closed his eyes.
Beatrice.
Dying.
Still protecting his brother.
Because she knew exactly what Raffaele would do.
“What happened to Luca?”
“Elias came outside.”
“Then?”
“Luca attacked him.”
“Emilio?”
“Still inside.”
“Beatrice?”
“She stopped breathing.”
Raffaele’s hands shook once.
Only once.
Vincent continued.
“I took Sofia away.”
“You left Beatrice.”
“With Luca.”
“You left my dying daughter with the man you believed betrayed me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked broken now.
“Because Sofia was screaming.”
That stopped Raffaele.
He imagined seven-year-old Sofia in a car.
Terrified.
Vincent choosing the living child over the dying woman.
A terrible choice.
Not clean guilt.
Not innocence.
Human.
“What happened after?”
“I drove Sofia to your mother’s house.”
“She remembered nothing.”
“She was in shock.”
“And the bracelet?”
“Fell in my car.”
“So you kept it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
Raffaele almost laughed.
All those years.
A child’s bracelet hidden behind a wall because a grown man could not look at it.
Dante spoke.
“Elias disappeared after that night.”
“Until Caleb.”
“Yes.”
Raffaele looked at him.
“Why return?”
Dante’s expression darkened.
“Because Emilio left something behind.”
“Saint Agnes?”
“Not the tapes.”
“What?”
“No one knows.”
Vincent spoke quietly.
“Elias believes Sofia knows.”
Raffaele thought of Caleb’s pressure.
Beatrice’s memory.
The key.
The bracelet.
“Why Sofia?”
“Because Emilio gave it to her.”
“What?”
Dante shook his head.
“That’s what Elias has spent eighteen years trying to learn.”
Raffaele’s phone vibrated.
A message from Sofia.
One line:
I remember the red door.
Raffaele called immediately.
“What red door?”
Her voice shook.
“At Saint Agnes.”
“There was no red door.”
“Yes.”
“I was there today.”
“You went below the altar.”
Raffaele stood.
“What are you saying?”
“There was another place.”
“Where?”
“Behind the statue.”
Raffaele looked at Vincent.
Vincent went pale.
“What?”
He whispered:
“Emilio’s confession room.”
Dante frowned.
Vincent continued.
“Not for religion.”
“For secrets.”
Raffaele headed for the door.
Sofia’s voice stopped him.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“I remember Beatrice was there with me once.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Raffaele closed his eyes.
“What happened?”
“She told me if Grandfather ever made me choose between family and truth…”
Sofia began crying softly.
Raffaele waited.
“What did she say?”
May you like
Sofia whispered:
“Choose truth, because family that needs a lie to survive is already dead.”
