Chapter 4 - What Elena Knew
Dante opened the chapel door.
Victor Salvi stood alone.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
And a thin scar on the right side of his neck.
Anna’s memory exploded.
A balcony.
Victor shouting.
Her hand gripping a railing.
Rain.
Headlights.
She stumbled.
Dante caught her elbow.
“Anna.”
She pulled away.
“I remember him.”
Victor smiled sadly.
“Hello, Elena.”
“Don't call me that.”
“You remembered Dante quickly enough.”
“I remember pieces.”
Victor looked at Dante.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Dante’s voice was quiet.
“You took her.”
“I saved her.”
Anna laughed bitterly.
“You destroyed my identity.”
Victor looked at her damaged hand.
“I kept you alive.”
“What happened that night?”
Victor's expression changed.
“You discovered records you weren't supposed to see.”
“We know that.”
“No. You know about the money.”
Dante frowned.
Victor continued.
“Elena found something worse.”
“What?”
Victor looked directly at Anna.
“You discovered who killed Dante’s father.”
Silence filled the chapel.
Dante stared at him.
“My father died in a car accident.”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“He was murdered.”
“By whom?”
“Your uncle.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“Lorenzo?”
Victor nodded.
Anna suddenly gripped the piano.
Another memory.
A ledger.
A photograph.
Victor saying, You don't understand what this will do to him.
Then another voice.
Her own.
He deserves the truth.
Anna looked up.
“I was going to tell you.”
Dante turned.
“Yes.”
“Victor tried to stop me.”
Victor said, “Because Lorenzo had people inside Dante’s organization. If Elena spoke before I identified them, both of you would have died.”
Dante stepped toward him.
“So you abducted her?”
“I tried to get her out.”
“You ran me off the road,” Anna said.
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
The certainty in his voice stopped everyone.
“Lorenzo did.”
Anna stared.
Victor continued.
“I followed. Your car went through the barrier. I climbed down and found you alive.”
“My hand?”
“Crushed beneath the dashboard.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“You took me to Voss.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you bring me back?”
“Because Lorenzo believed you were dead.”
Dante’s anger finally broke through.
“You had four years to tell me!”
“And for four years Lorenzo sat beside you at every family dinner.”
Dante went silent.
Victor stepped closer.
“He controlled people around you. Your drivers. Accountants. Security. I couldn't know who was loyal.”
Anna whispered, “Why erase my memory?”
Victor looked horrified.
“I didn't.”
Everyone stopped.
“What?” Dante asked.
“Her memory loss was real.”
Victor looked at Anna.
“The doctors said the trauma caused it. I created Anna Reed because I thought Elena Marconi needed to stay dead.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because Lorenzo found me.”
Dante stared at him.
Victor opened his coat slowly and removed a folded envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Lorenzo Moretti.
Standing beside the gray sedan outside Anna’s grocery store.
Taken that morning.
Victor said:
“He knows she survived.”
Anna looked at Dante.
“What happens now?”
Dante’s eyes stayed on the photograph.
May you like
“We finish what you started four years ago.”
---
