Chapter 4
1701 Words
Chapter 4
The Note
The hospital smelled like antiseptic and regret.
Lisa walked through the door of San Raffaele at a peace that made Luca's guards jog to keep up. Her hands were shaking. Not from fear. From the need to move, to find, to stop this before it becomes irreversible.
“Which room?” She asked the nurse at the desk.
“Room 312,” the nurse said, then hesitated.
“Signora the police said no one was to …”
“I'm family,” Lisa cut in. “Where is he?”
The nurse pointed. Third floor
But….”
Lisa was already moving.
Luca stayed one step behind her. He hadn't spoken since the call. His face was a mask, but his eyes were scanning everything.exits, people, cameras.
Room 312 was empty.
The bed was stripped. The IV stand pushes against the wall. On the pillow lay a single folded sheet of pepper.
Lisa picked it up with a finger that wouldn't stay still.
Lisa
I won't let you pay for my mistakes. I want to talk to Vittorio. Alone. If I don't come back, sell the shop. Don't let them use you or Marco.
Love you.
Papa
She read it twice. Then she crumpled it.
“He didn't go to Vittorio,” she said. Her voice was flat. Dangerous. “Vittorio would have told us.”
Luca took the note, smoothed it out, handed it to one of his men. “Dust it. I want every print.”
“Who else would he go to?” Lisa asked.
Luca didn't answer right away. He looked at the empty bed, at the IV line still taped to the rail, at the small indentation in the pillow where her father's head had been.
“De Luca,” he said finally. “If he went to anyone outside the family, it was De Luca.”
“Why?”
“Because De Luca promised him a deal. Money for the shop, immunity for you and Marco, if he handed over something only a Romano would have.”
Lisa's stomach dropped. “What could he have?”
“Old records,” Luca said. “Your nonno kept everything. Ledgers, contract, names. Before the digital age, before we cleaned houses. If De Luca gets those, he can reopen cases, blackmail half the council, and take control of the pot.”
“So my father went to sell the city to save us.”
Luca's jaw tightened. “He went to try.”
Lisa turned to guard. “Get me the security footage. Now.”
“Already done,” the guard said. He held out a tablet.
The video was grainy, time stamped 4:47AM. Marco Romano, in a hospital gown and jacket, walking out of the room, pausing at the door, looking back once. Then he walked down the hall, past the nurses station, out the emergency exit.
No one stopped him. No one followed.
“Alone,” Lisa said.
“Not for long,” Luca said. He tapped the screen. At 4:49, a black sedan pulled up outside the exit. No plates. The rear door opened. Marco got in.
The car drove off.
Luca's phone was already in his hand. “I want that car. Every camera between here and the port. Now.”
The guard nodded and moved away, speaking into his earpiece.
Lisa stared at the empty bed. “If he's dead….”
“He’s not dead,” Luca said. De Luca needs him alive. For now.”
“For now,” she repeated.
They left the hospital in silence.
7:30AM at Port of Genoa.
The port never slept. Containers stacked like metal mountains, cranes swinging overhead, the smell of diesel and salt in the air
Luca's car stopped at the edge of sector 7.
“Stay in the car,” he said.
“No.”
“Lisa..”
“If he dies because I wanted in the car, I will never forgive you.”
Luca looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. “Stay behind me. And do what I say.”
She nodded back.
The moved through the maze of containers in a formation that felt military. Luca in front, two guards flanking, Lisa behind.
The black sedan was parked between container C42 and C43. Engine cold. No one inside.
“Spilt up,” Luca said quietly. “Check the perimeter.”
One guard moved left. The other moved right. Lucaoved forward, gun drawn but not raised.
Lisa followed.
They found him in container C43
Marco Romano was tied to a chair, blood at the corner of his mouth, eye closed.
Breathing slow.
“Papa!” Lisa ran to him, dropping to her knees.
Luca moved fast, checking the room, checking the exits, checking for wires. “Clear. No explosive.”
Lisa's hand shook as she worked at the ropes. “Wake-up. Papa, wake up.”
His eyes fluttered open. When he saw her, pain crossed his face.
“Lisa go back it's a trap.”
“I know,” she said. “We're leaving.”
The ropes came loose. She helped him stand, his weight heavy against her.
Luca's head snapped up. “Movement.
Northeast.”
Gunfire cracked through the air.
“Down!” Luca grabbed both of them, pulling them behind the chair as bullets tore into the metal container wall.
One of the guard returned fire. The other dragged Marco towards the exit.
“Go,” Luca said to Lisa. Get him out.”
“I'm not leaving you behind.”
“You are,” he said, and his voice left no room for arguement. “Now.”
She didn't argue. She helped her father move, stumbling through the narrow gap between container, following the guard.
Behind her, Luca returned fire, his movements precise, controlled.
They reached the car. The guard shoved Marco into the back seat. Lisa climbed in after him, hands checking for wounds she couldn't see
“Drive,” she said.
The driver didn't wait for orders. Tires screeched as they pulled away.
In the rearview mirror, Lisa saw Luca Sprinting between containers, firing as he moved.
Stop the car,” she said.
“No,” the driver said.
“Stop the car!”
The car slowed.
Luca appeared at the passenger window, breath hard, eyes sharp. He opened the door and slid in, him still in hand.
“Go,” he said.
The car accelerated.
Marco was unconscious now, head lolling against Lisa's shoulder.
“He’ll be fine,” Luca said.
Lisa didn't answer. She was too busy holding her father together.
They didn't speak for ten minutes.
Then Luca's phone rang.
He answered. Listened.
His face went cold.
“Vittorio,” he said after he hung up.
“What?” Lisa said.
“My father know we have him. He’s calling an emergency council meeting. Tonight. 9PM.”
“Why?”
“To decide if I'm still fit to lead,” Luca said.
“And to decide what happens to you.”
Isabella looked down at her father. His breathing was shallow, but steady.
“And if they decide against you?”
Luca met her eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Then we go to war.”
Palazzo Moretti 8:45PM
The council chamber was underground, stone walls, no windows. Twelve chairs around a circular table. Only six were filled.
Vittorio sat at the head.
Luca stood opposite him. Lisa stood to his left. Marco was in the medical wing, stable but sedated.
“Let's begin,” Vittorio said. “Luca Moretti. You brought a Romano into this house. You involved her in family business. You near got yourself kill at the port”
“I saved her father,” Luca said.
“You endangered him,” Vittorio countered.
“And now De Luca knows we are divided.”
“We have always been divided,” the difference is, now I know who is on my side.”
He looked around the table. Old men. Men who had served his grandfather, men who had watched him grow up and decided he was too young, too soft, too careful.
“Rule one of the Moretti family,” Vittorio said.
“Never show weakness.”
“Rule one, of being human,” Luca said, is protecting what's yours
Lisa stepped forward. “You want to talk about weakness? My father nearly died because you used his debt to force a marriage. You call that strength?”
The room went silent.
Vittorio’s eyes narrowed. “Careful, girl.”
“I'm not your girl,” Lisa said. I'm Luca's wife. And if you touch him, you will have to go through me.”
Luca's head snapped towards her. Surprise. Then something else.
Vittorio laughed. It wasn't a kind sound.
“See? He's compromise. He's chosen her over the family.”
“No,” Luca said. “I’ ve chosen the family over you.”
He placed a folder on the table.
“De Luca’s accounts. Port transactions.
Names. Dates. Proof that you have been skimming from the family for ten years.”
Vittorio's face didn't change. His head grip the table.
“Where do you get this?”
“From the Romano records,” Luca said. “Your mistake was thinking Marco didn't know where they were.”
Vittorio stood. “You accuse me without proof.”
“Then let's vote,” Luca said. “Council. Do you trust Vittorio Moretti to lead this family?”
One by one, the man looked at each other.
One raised his hand.
Then another.
Then three more.
Vittorio looked at Luca. For the first time, there was no mask. Just fury.
“You will regret this” he said.
Luca didn't blink. “ I already do.”
“Guards,” Vittorio said.
The door opened.
But it wasn't Vittorio’s guards who entered.
It was Luca’s guards.
And behind them, De Luca himself.
Blood on his shirt. A gun in his hand.
“Funny,” De Luca said, smiling. “I came to kill you, Vittorio. Looks like you did my work for me.”
He raised the gun
“Luca,” Lisa said.
Luca moved.
The gun fired.
- Writer
