Chapter 16 - St. Agnes
Old St. Agnes Hospital stood empty beneath a gray Chicago sky.
Windows were boarded.
Graffiti covered the emergency entrance.
Wind pushed trash across the parking lot.
Enzo arrived alone.
At least, that was what Vittorio was meant to believe.
The real Cathedral remained inside a federal evidence vault.
Enzo carried a duplicate briefcase filled with blank paper.
Marco’s team positioned themselves two blocks away.
Adeline wore a communication earpiece from the surveillance van.
Camilla remained beside her.
“You think he’ll come out?”
Adeline stared at the hospital.
“He has spent twenty-three years preparing for this conversation.”
Inside, Enzo followed signs toward the surgical wing.
A light burned on the fourth floor.
He climbed the stairs.
Vittorio waited inside an old operating room.
Two armed men stood behind him.
Vittorio smiled.
“You look like Lorenzo.”
Enzo placed the briefcase on an operating table.
“And you look disappointingly alive.”
Vittorio laughed.
“Still angry.”
“I buried you.”
“No.”
“You buried an empty coffin.”
“Why?”
“To survive Caldwell.”
Enzo stared at him.
“You’re afraid of him.”
“I respect power.”
“You obey him.”
Vittorio’s smile faded.
“I built what you inherited.”
“You stole what my father built.”
“Your father was weak.”
“He wanted to run.”
“He wanted his son alive.”
“He wanted legitimacy.”
“He wanted freedom.”
“Those are words weak men use when they become tired of winning.”
Enzo took one step closer.
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
The admission came without hesitation.
Adeline heard it through the transmitter.
Her hand tightened around the recording console.
Enzo asked, “My mother?”
Vittorio’s eyes shifted.
“Caldwell handled Isabella.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Vittorio sighed.
“She refused to stop digging.”
“So you poisoned her.”
“Slowly.”
Enzo closed his eyes for one second.
When he opened them, his expression had changed.
Vittorio noticed.
“You want revenge.”
“No.”
“Of course you do.”
“I wanted revenge yesterday.”
Enzo looked around the ruined operating room.
“Today I want the truth.”
Vittorio laughed.
“Truth?”
“You still believe that saves people?”
“It didn’t save Lorenzo.”
“It didn’t save Thomas.”
“It didn’t save Isabella.”
“No.”
Enzo looked at him.
“But lies saved you.”
Vittorio stopped laughing.
“For twenty-three years.”
“You lived in hiding while I carried the name you were too frightened to show.”
The armed men behind Vittorio shifted.
Vittorio stepped forward.
“You think you became powerful without me?”
“I became powerful despite you.”
“You became feared because I taught Chicago what happened to men who touched the Marchetti family.”
Enzo’s eyes hardened.
“You touched the Marchetti family.”
Silence.
In the van, Camilla whispered, “That was good.”
Adeline almost smiled.
Vittorio reached toward the briefcase.
“Open it.”
Enzo did.
Blank paper.
Vittorio stared.
Then looked up.
“You came here without the ledger.”
“Yes.”
His face twisted.
“Kill him.”
The armed men raised their weapons.
Before either fired, the hospital lights went out.
Marco had cut power.
Emergency strobes flashed.
Enzo dove behind the operating table.
Gunfire exploded.
Windows shattered.
Marco’s team entered from the stairwell.
Vittorio ran.
Enzo followed through a corridor lined with abandoned patient rooms.
They reached the old maternity wing.
Vittorio turned and fired.
The bullet hit the wall beside Enzo.
Enzo tackled him.
They crashed into a nurse’s station.
The gun slid across the floor.
Vittorio punched him.
Enzo hit back.
For a moment, there was no empire.
No history.
No guards.
Only a nephew and the man who had murdered his parents.
Vittorio grabbed a broken piece of metal.
Enzo trapped his wrist.
“You should have died with your father.”
Enzo looked into his uncle’s eyes.
“No.”
He forced the weapon away.
“You should have lived long enough to see everyone learn what you are.”
Police rushed into the hallway.
Vittorio froze.
Enzo stepped back.
Officers surrounded him.
Vittorio laughed breathlessly.
“You think Caldwell lets me testify?”
Enzo watched the handcuffs close.
“No.”
“He’ll try to kill you.”
“Exactly.”
Vittorio stared.
May you like
Enzo smiled faintly.
“And now we know what he’ll do next.”
