\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two words.<\/p>\n
Nothing about them was complicated, yet for several seconds I could not make my mind accept their meaning.<\/p>\n
Matteo stood a few feet behind me at the gate, his face drained of color. Victor remained on the opposite side of the steel bars, watching us with an expression I could not read. Behind me, the Moretti estate stretched through the morning light with its trimmed hedges, pale stone, and armed guards. It looked absurdly permanent for a place where almost every certainty I possessed had collapsed in less than two days.<\/p>\n
I turned to Matteo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou killed our father?\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not correct me.<\/p>\n
Victor slid both hands into his coat pockets. \u201cNow you understand why Pierce wants him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cI understand nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca had followed Matteo outside. He stopped when he heard the last exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked at him.<\/p>\n
Luca's expression changed before anyone answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuca\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He crossed the distance between them and seized Matteo by the front of his shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't get to say my name like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel moved forward.<\/p>\n
I raised a hand.<\/p>\n
Matteo did not fight back.<\/p>\n
Luca shoved him against the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou let us spend two years believing Dad's heart failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou stood in the cemetery?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watched us bury him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo's voice cracked on that one.<\/p>\n
Luca drew back his fist.<\/p>\n
He did not throw the punch.<\/p>\n
Instead, he released Matteo so abruptly that our brother stumbled.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me,\u201d Luca said.<\/p>\n
Matteo glanced toward Claire and Lily, who had remained farther up the drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuca.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me what you did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor spoke through the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should hear the entire story before deciding which part to hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca turned on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't get a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. But I know more about that night than either of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cBring Victor to Antonio's study.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel's expression suggested several alternative destinations for Victor, most involving concrete walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stays restrained.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n
We returned to the house.<\/p>\n
Claire did not follow immediately. She knelt beside Lily near the fountain and said something that made the child examine a leaf floating on the water. Claire had become remarkably good at constructing tiny islands of normality inside disasters.<\/p>\n
I envied Lily for being young enough to accept them.<\/p>\n
In Antonio's study, Daniel secured Victor to a heavy chair near the fireplace. Luca remained standing. Matteo took the chair beside our father's unfinished chessboard.<\/p>\n
I stood behind the desk.<\/p>\n
The arrangement felt almost judicial.<\/p>\n
Nobody deserved that illusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cStart with the poison,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Matteo rubbed both hands over his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntonio discovered Michael was giving him digoxin months before he died. Frank helped him replace the medication, but some damage had already been done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard the recording.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn't the final meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the recorder on the desk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInsurance. Dad wanted Pierce and Michael to believe he'd captured their attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor gave a faint nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey became cautious afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntonio's condition improved once the poisoning stopped. Quietly. Michael didn't know because Dad started seeing another cardiologist under a false name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why did he still look sick?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he wanted Michael to think the poison was working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our father had spent his final months pretending to die.<\/p>\n
It was exactly the kind of terrible strategy Antonio might have considered brilliant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened the night he died?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked at the chessboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce came here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the estate?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity records showed nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank erased them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca laughed without humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce demanded the archive. Dad refused. They argued. Michael was called because Dad deliberately made his pulse unstable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had medication from the second doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor shifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe staged a cardiac event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce believed the poison had finally pushed him over the edge. Michael examined him and thought he was dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey left.\u201d<\/p>\n
That made no sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael left a dying patient?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot immediately. Dad insisted he wanted privacy with his sons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren't there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo's voice dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered that night.<\/p>\n
I had been in New York negotiating an acquisition.<\/p>\n
Luca had been in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Our father's final decline had seemed sudden, but Michael had called both of us and said there was no reason to panic. Antonio was resting. We should return the next morning.<\/p>\n
By the time my plane landed, he was dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hidden route beneath the study.<\/p>\n
Antonio had concealed his oldest son beneath the house while his two acknowledged sons went about their lives unaware he existed.<\/p>\n
Matteo swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Pierce and Michael left, Dad opened the panel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor watched him carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat condition was he in?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the staged episode?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPartly. His heart had already been damaged. He was having trouble breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo stared at his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could have gone to a hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn't he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he thought Pierce would know the moment he was admitted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have protected him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn't trust the network around us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen another hospital. Another city. Another country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe refused.\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard my father's voice in the answer.<\/p>\n
Stubbornness had always sounded like principle when Antonio used it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he ask you to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo's eyes met mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked me to help him disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not die.<\/p>\n
Disappear.<\/p>\n
The distinction mattered.<\/p>\n
At first.<\/p>\n
Antonio believed Pierce needed to think the poisoning had succeeded. If Antonio remained alive, Pierce would keep hunting the archive and everyone connected to it. If he died, Pierce might become careless.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you faked his death?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral hours?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank helped. Michael signed the preliminary medical paperwork because he expected the death. Nobody questioned it.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad was alive after Michael pronounced him dead?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo pointed down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the floor.<\/p>\n
Our father had lain alive beneath his own house while preparations for his death began upstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was the plan?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank had a vehicle waiting. We were going to take Dad north. New identity. Medical treatment. Once he recovered, he would release the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn't you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo's face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe collapsed before we reached the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started CPR. Frank called the second doctor. Dad stopped us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStopped you how?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca turned away.<\/p>\n
Matteo's voice became uneven.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew what was happening. His heart was failing for real.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said Michael didn't kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe poison damaged him. The stress finished what it started.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat still sounds like Michael killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLegally, maybe. Morally, certainly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Dad was still alive when I made the decision Pierce knows about.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat decision?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had medication.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor looked down.<\/p>\n
He knew.<\/p>\n
Luca did too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Luca said.<\/p>\n
Matteo nodded once.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad asked me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEnd it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room seemed to lose air.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked you to kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked me not to let Michael bring him back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo pressed both hands together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in pain. He couldn't breathe. He knew if we called an ambulance, Michael or Pierce would find him before we could move him safely. He said the evidence mattered more than another few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou believed him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
His answer came sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him he was insane. I told him I would carry him out myself. I told him Adrian would burn down every hospital in Illinois before letting Pierce reach him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite everything, that sounded accurate.<\/p>\n
Matteo's mouth trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could see it.<\/p>\n
Antonio dying beneath his house and still finding amusement in the idea of me bullying a hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018That is exactly why Adrian cannot know until it's finished.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Anger surged through me.<\/p>\n
Even dying, my father had decided for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had no right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo agreed immediately.<\/p>\n
That took some of the force out of my anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had no right to ask you either.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo stared at the carpet.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis heart stopped again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't restart it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Not an injection.<\/p>\n
Not a pillow.<\/p>\n
Not some deliberate final violence.<\/p>\n
A refusal to continue resuscitation.<\/p>\n
Luca sank into a chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou let him die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he asked?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr because it protected the archive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo flinched.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca stood again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou son of a\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuca.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Adrian.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed at Matteo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn't get to hide behind Dad's wishes. Dad manipulated everybody. We know that now. He was dying, frightened, drugged, exhausted. Matteo made the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Matteo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo's expression suggested he had been doing little else.<\/p>\n
Victor spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce has a recording.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of us turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce planted audio surveillance in Antonio's study. One microphone extended into the passage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Evelyn recovered the files.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca looked toward Victor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe supposedly dead Evelyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor's mouth tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael told me she had been killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you believed him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI verified a body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is one of several questions I intend to ask Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n
I returned to the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does Pierce's recording contain?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough to make Matteo sound like he murdered Antonio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad's request?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
Pierce possessed the final minutes without the context.<\/p>\n
A perfect weapon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he releases it,\u201d Luca said, \u201cMatteo gets arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the entire case against Pierce becomes contaminated by allegations that Antonio's sons fabricated evidence to conceal patricide.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was Pierce's leverage.<\/p>\n
Not merely Matteo's freedom.<\/p>\n
The credibility of everything Antonio had built.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does Pierce want?\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor nodded toward the envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatteo and the original ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go, Pierce loses his reason to target Claire and Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still think disappearing protects them?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
Claire stood in the doorway.<\/p>\n
She had heard enough.<\/p>\n
Matteo looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn't\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were.\u201d<\/p>\n
She entered without Lily. One of Daniel's guards remained outside with the child.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were about to do exactly what you always do. Decide alone, vanish, call it protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked ashamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would you have me do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Pierce?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor laughed once.<\/p>\n
Claire turned on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething funny?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think public truth is armor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think secrecy has been armor for every man in this room, and look how well that's gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
She was right.<\/p>\n
Claire looked at Matteo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Antonio asked you to stop resuscitating him, say it. If you made that choice, say that too. If Pierce has a recording, release the whole story before he edits it into his.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no proof of Dad's request.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered Antonio's obsession with redundancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at me.<\/p>\n
My father had recorded messages in the bank, the cabin, the cemetery trail.<\/p>\n
He had planted explanations inside toys and walls.<\/p>\n
A man that paranoid would not leave the most consequential decision of his life undocumented.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSearch every recording Antonio made in his last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. Search the metadata. Deleted files. Fragments. Cloud backups. Old security servers. Anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor watched me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father knew Matteo would be blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo looked uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me nobody would know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father lied constantly when he thought the lie served a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca nodded slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he lied to you too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel sent the order.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, his technical team found something.<\/p>\n
Not a video.<\/p>\n
A scheduled email.<\/p>\n
Antonio had composed it the afternoon before his death and placed it in an encrypted account under instructions to send if he failed to log in within seventy-two hours.<\/p>\n
It had never sent.<\/p>\n
Someone had accessed the account after Antonio died.<\/p>\n
The login came from Michael's clinic.<\/p>\n
Michael had found and disabled it.<\/p>\n
But he had not erased the server copy completely.<\/p>\n
Daniel recovered twelve seconds of audio attached to the draft.<\/p>\n
Antonio's voice.<\/p>\n
Weak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Matteo is forced to choose tonight, the choice is mine. Do not punish my son for obeying what I have asked of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twelve seconds.<\/p>\n
Not enough to settle every legal question.<\/p>\n
Enough to destroy Pierce's cleanest lie.<\/p>\n
Matteo sat down.<\/p>\n
He covered his face.<\/p>\n
For the first time since meeting him, I watched my older brother cry.<\/p>\n
Quietly.<\/p>\n
No performance.<\/p>\n
No attempt to hide it.<\/p>\n
Claire did not touch him.<\/p>\n
But she stayed.<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Pierce.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cJonathan.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice remained polished.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou've had an eventful morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou've had a disappointing one.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou found Antonio's message.\u201d<\/p>\n
That told me he had someone watching our systems\u2014or someone had told him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour recording is worthless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo recording is worthless once the public hears a son refuse to save his father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe'll release Antonio's message first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we disagree about what the public enjoys believing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was right about that much.<\/p>\n
Scandal traveled faster than nuance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMatteo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matteo held out his hand for the phone.<\/p>\n
I did not give it to him.<\/p>\n
Pierce continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou already know copies exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCopies are allegations. Originals become evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're running out of institutions you control.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAdrian.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstitutions are precisely what I control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he named a federal prosecutor scheduled to receive our evidence that afternoon.<\/p>\n
He named the man's wife.<\/p>\n
Their home address.<\/p>\n
Their daughter's school.<\/p>\n
Daniel began writing.<\/p>\n
Pierce named a journalist.<\/p>\n
Then a judge.<\/p>\n
Then one of Daniel's security officers.<\/p>\n
Not threats exactly.<\/p>\n
Proof of reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot protect all of them,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at my brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut neither can you silence all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierce went quiet.<\/p>\n
That was Antonio's final lesson.<\/p>\n
Do not divide the evidence.<\/p>\n
We had misunderstood it.<\/p>\n
He had not meant keep the archive together.<\/p>\n
He meant do not let any one person own the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time you reach one copy,\u201d I said, \u201cten more will exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sound like your father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo everyone keeps telling me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched your father die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You watched him fool you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That landed.<\/p>\n
Pierce's breathing changed.<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is what you still cannot tolerate, isn't it? Antonio died knowing you hadn't won.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierce hung up.<\/p>\n
Daniel's phone rang almost immediately.<\/p>\n
One of the federal teams had located Evelyn.<\/p>\n
Not at an airport.<\/p>\n
Not with Pierce.<\/p>\n
She had walked into a field office voluntarily.<\/p>\n
And she had brought something with her.<\/p>\n
A laptop containing Pierce's private communications.<\/p>\n
Including his current location.<\/p>\n
Luca looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel listened.<\/p>\n
Then his expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaint Gabriel Cemetery.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father's grave.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Pierce had returned to the beginning.<\/p>\n
But this time he was not searching.<\/p>\n
According to Evelyn, he was waiting for us.<\/p>\n
And he had ordered men to exhume Antonio's coffin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d Two words. Nothing about them was complicated, yet for several seconds I could not make my mind accept their meaning. Matteo stood a few feet behind me at … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}