Chapter 4 - ST. AGNES
Superintendent Harper believed exactly half of what I said.
That was comforting.
People who believed me too quickly usually wanted something.
She coordinated a tactical response with federal internal affairs outside Price’s task force.
No Moretti men.
No Elias.
No Marcus.
I stayed behind.
That was the hardest part.
Emily was at St. Agnes.
Possibly bleeding.
Possibly trapped.
Every instinct told me to go.
I had cars.
Men.
Weapons.
Routes.
Harper said no.
I nearly ended the call.
Then Lily walked into the room.
She wore borrowed pajamas.
Rabbit under one arm.
“Lunch.”
I looked at the clock.
12:58.
I had told her I planned to be back by one.
I was.
Barely.
The universe had terrible timing.
She climbed onto a chair.
“Mommy?”
I sat.
“We found where she might be.”
Her face lit.
“Go get her.”
“I have people helping.”
“You?”
“I’m staying here.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Because you’re here.”
The answer came before I thought.
It was true.
Emily needed rescue.
Lily needed someone not to disappear.
I could not be in both places.
Once, I would have chosen action because action looked like love.
Now I stayed.
Lily studied me.
“Police?”
“Yes.”
“Good police?”
I almost laughed.
“We are trying very hard to use good police.”
She accepted that.
We ate grilled cheese.
I received updates through Naomi.
St. Agnes was an abandoned convent scheduled for redevelopment.
Tactical team entered.
No shots.
Two rooms cleared.
Basement.
One injured woman.
One unconscious man.
I stopped breathing.
“Emily?”
Naomi said, “They haven’t confirmed.”
Lily looked at me.
I put the phone down.
“Eat.”
“You’re scared.”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
I nodded.
We sat scared together.
Five minutes later, Harper called directly.
“We have Emily Carter alive.”
My eyes closed.
Alive.
The word became oxygen.
“Condition?”
“Gunshot wound to shoulder. Blood loss. Conscious.”
I looked at Lily.
“Your mom is alive.”
The grilled cheese fell from her hand.
“What?”
“She’s alive.”
Lily screamed.
Not fear.
Joy.
She climbed across the chair and into my arms.
I held her.
Harper continued.
“We also found a man identified as Anton Velez. Unconscious. Head injury.”
“Price?”
“Not there.”
“Marcus’s daughter?”
“Unknown.”
“Where is Emily going?”
“Northwestern.”
“I’m going.”
Harper said, “You are not bringing an entourage.”
“Fine.”
“Two security maximum.”
“Fine.”
“Lobby only unless hospital permits.”
“Fine.”
A pause.
“You’re agreeing too easily.”
“I have a daughter waiting to see her mother.”
Silence.
Then Harper said, “Understood.”
Daughter.
I had said it aloud.
Lily did not react.
She already knew.
At the hospital, I stopped before entering Emily’s room.
Six years.
No amount of power prepared me.
Naomi stayed with Lily outside until the doctor approved a short visit.
I went in alone first.
Emily looked smaller.
Pale.
Left shoulder bandaged.
Bruise along her jaw.
Hair shorter.
Still Emily.
Her eyes opened.
We stared.
No dramatic music.
No perfect sentence.
She said:
“You got older.”
I almost laughed.
“So did you.”
“Rude.”
“You started.”
There she was.
Then her eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
I pulled a chair beside the bed.
“No.”
She frowned.
“No what?”
“No apology before facts.”
A weak smile.
“Who are you?”
“Apparently someone trying new things.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“How is Lily?”
“Angry at hospital rules.”
“That’s my girl.”
My chest tightened.
“Our girl.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Tears escaped.
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“Is she mine?”
Emily looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Biologically.”
“Yes.”
“Certain?”
“Yes.”
“DNA?”
“I had one done privately after she was born.”
“Where?”
“Records safe.”
“Why?”
“In case she ever needed proof.”
I looked away.
Six years.
First steps.
First word.
First birthday.
Everything.
I felt anger.
Real.
Sharp.
Emily saw.
“You can be angry.”
“I am.”
“I know.”
“You took six years.”
“Yes.”
“You thought I would hurt you.”
“At first.”
“Then?”
She stared at the ceiling.
“Then I thought they would hurt you.”
“That was my choice.”
“Yes.”
“You understand that now?”
“Yes.”
It did not fix anything.
Still, truth.
“Why come back to Chicago?”
“I never really left.”
“What?”
“I lived in Milwaukee for two years. Then Evanston.”
My face changed.
“You were thirty minutes away.”
“Yes.”
“How did nobody find you?”
“Ward.”
“Elias.”
“He built the identity.”
“Did you trust him?”
“For years.”
“What changed?”
“I found his old First House payments.”
“Was he still active?”
“I don’t know.”
“Price says—”
“Don’t trust Price.”
“I know.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“How?”
“Elias.”
“You trusted Elias?”
“No.”
“Good.”
We almost smiled.
“What happened last night?”
Emily’s face tightened.
“Velez came first.”
“To your house?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“At first.”
“What did he want?”
“The ledger copy.”
“Which ledger?”
“The full First House board records.”
“Do you have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“No.”
I stared.
She met my eyes.
“Not yet.”
I almost laughed.
“Fair.”
“Velez said Price knew I had flipped.”
“Then?”
“I hid Lily.”
Her voice broke.
“I gave her the note. cash. necklace.”
“Why my address?”
Emily looked at me.
“Because if everything went wrong, you were the only person powerful enough to scare First House.”
“Even though you feared me once.”
“I stopped fearing you before I left.”
That hurt differently.
“Then why leave?”
“I feared what loving you made me willing to tolerate.”
I went still.
Emily continued.
“The guns. the threats. people disappearing from your life. I told myself your world was separate from us.”
Her eyes filled.
“Then I got pregnant and realized Lily would never get to pretend it was separate.”
I looked down.
That was fair.
Painful.
Fair.
“I would have changed.”
“Would you?”
I opened my mouth.
Stopped.
Six years ago?
Maybe not.
Maybe I would have promised.
Maybe tightened security instead.
Bought a safer prison.
Emily saw the answer.
“I didn’t know how to ask you to become someone you didn’t want to be.”
“So you left.”
“Yes.”
“Then First House found you.”
“They never lost me.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“They watched.”
“Through Ward?”
“Sometimes. Price mostly.”
“Why didn’t they act?”
“Because I was useful leverage.”
“Against me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“If you became too violent or too independent, they would reveal Lily.”
I felt sick.
“They kept my daughter as contingency.”
Emily nodded.
“That’s why I started collecting proof.”
“Three months ago?”
“Longer.”
“How long?”
“Five years.”
I stared.
“You investigated them with Lily beside you?”
“I lived my life with Lily beside me.”
The correction mattered.
“I did what I could.”
Fair.
“What about Marcus?”
Her expression changed.
“His daughter, Ava, worked as a financial analyst for First House.”
My chest tightened.
“He never told me he had a daughter.”
“She’s estranged.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus sent her away when she was seventeen.”
“Why?”
“Your world.”
I laughed bitterly.
Everyone had children hidden from me.
“Price recruited her later.”
“Did Marcus know?”
“Recently.”
“How recently?”
“Two weeks.”
“And Price has her.”
“I think so.”
“Did Marcus betray me?”
“I don’t know.”
There.
The phrase of the night.
“What did his credentials do at Monroe?”
“Price cloned them through Ava.”
Marcus innocent on that piece.
Maybe.
“What happened at St. Agnes?”
“After Velez came, I escaped through the back with the red phone.”
“Where is it?”
Emily smiled weakly.
“Still hidden.”
“Of course.”
“I called Elias. He sent men.”
“Why not me?”
“Because I had not decided whether involving you saved Lily or painted a target.”
“Again deciding.”
“I know.”
Her voice broke.
“I know.”
I softened.
“Then?”
“Price intercepted the call.”
“How?”
“He had the burner monitored.”
“So St. Agnes?”
“Old contact location.”
“Who shot you?”
“Velez.”
“Why was he unconscious?”
“I hit him with a statue.”
I stared.
Emily almost smiled.
“St. Joseph.”
I laughed.
I could not help it.
Then she winced.
“Don’t make me laugh.”
“Sorry.”
A knock.
Naomi.
“Lily can come in.”
Emily’s face changed completely.
Terror.
Joy.
Guilt.
“Is she okay?”
“Yes.”
“I look terrible.”
“She has blood memory. She just wants you.”
Emily cried.
Lily entered.
For the first second, she stood frozen.
Then:
“Mommy!”
She ran.
Hospital staff tried to slow her.
Emily reached with one arm.
They collided carefully.
I turned away.
Not because I did not belong.
Because this moment was theirs first.
Lily sobbed.
“You came back.”
Emily cried harder.
“I’m sorry.”
“You said if not, find Daddy.”
Emily looked at me over Lily’s shoulder.
There it was.
Daddy.
No test needed for the child.
After ten minutes, Lily climbed onto the chair beside the bed.
She took Emily’s hand.
Then mine.
Connected us.
Children did not understand complicated history.
Maybe that was why they saw structure so clearly.
Mom.
Dad.
Here.
The doctor limited the visit.
When Lily went with Naomi for snacks, Emily looked at me.
“There’s one more thing.”
“Of course.”
“The ledger.”
“What?”
“It proves Price runs First House.”
“Good.”
“And it proves someone in your organization has been feeding him intelligence for fifteen years.”
My chest tightened.
“Who?”
Emily looked terrified.
“I don’t know the name.”
“You said ledger proves.”
“It uses a code.”
“What code?”
She swallowed.
M13.
I froze.
M13.
Moretti 13.
The thirteenth member of my original organization?
There were twelve.
Always twelve.
Founding crew.
Me plus eleven.
No thirteen.
Unless—
My father used to refer to an unseen reserve contact as Number Thirteen.
A joke.
A ghost seat.
I stared.
Emily whispered.
“Vincent, what is M13?”
I looked at the hospital window.
“My father’s insurance policy.”
“Your father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then who inherited it?”
I knew.
Marcus.
Not my head of security.
My godfather.
Salvatore Moretti.
The man who raised me after my father died.
The man living quietly in Naples.
The man nobody had questioned because he was family.
I whispered his name.
“Salvatore.”
Emily went pale.
Then my phone rang.
Marcus.
I answered.
“Boss.”
His voice was wrong.
“Where are you?”
“Estate.”
“What happened?”
“Salvatore Moretti just arrived.”
May you like
My blood turned to ice.
“He says he came to meet his granddaughter.”
