Chapter 6 - JULIANA’S LAST SECRET
For six minutes, I became the man Juliana had begged me not to become.
I shouted.
Threatened.
Broke a chair against a hospital wall.
Security evacuated half the corridor.
Emma finally stepped directly in front of me.
“Lorenzo.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Move!”
“She needs you thinking.”
That stopped me.
Not because Emma’s voice was louder.
Because she was right.
Again.
I forced myself to look at the facts.
Sophia had been removed from a protected oncology floor.
That required access.
A badge.
Knowledge of the hospital.
Bellini had all three.
But he couldn’t simply carry a six-year-old child through the lobby.
Anthony obtained security footage.
A maintenance cart left through the loading dock seventeen minutes earlier.
We traced the vehicle.
Stolen plates.
Last camera hit near Queens.
Then nothing.
Marco came toward me holding Juliana’s cross.
“There’s something inside.”
“What?”
He had noticed the back panel was thicker than it should have been.
A jeweler opened it.
Inside the cross was a tiny rolled strip of paper.
One address.
St. Agnes.
Emma recognized the name.
“It’s an abandoned convent hospital.”
“Where?”
“Upstate. Near Poughkeepsie.”
My phone rang.
Bellini.
“You’re becoming predictable,” I answered.
“So did Juliana.”
“Tell me where my daughter is.”
“She’s safe.”
“You don’t understand the meaning of that word.”
“She will remain safe if I receive the drives.”
“You tried to drug her.”
“I was trying to protect an investment.”
That sentence erased whatever restraint remained inside me.
“Sophia is not an investment.”
“To you, perhaps.”
Emma watched my face.
Bellini continued.
“Her genetic profile is extraordinarily rare. Do you understand how many companies would pay for controlled access to treatment data from a patient like her?”
“You kidnapped a sick child for research?”
“Don’t be melodramatic. Her treatment could help thousands.”
“Then why alter her records?”
“Because controlled outcomes require controlled environments.”
I wanted him dead.
Not eventually.
Now.
Then Juliana’s voice returned inside my head.
Sophia will need her father more than revenge.
“What does St. Agnes mean to you?” I asked.
Silence.
That was enough.
I hung up.
Bellini called back immediately.
I didn’t answer.
We left within minutes.
St. Agnes had closed nearly fifteen years earlier after a private healthcare company purchased the property.
Guess who owned a subsidiary connected to that company?
Cedar House.
The abandoned complex sat behind iron gates and dead trees.
One wing still had power.
We entered before dawn.
No gunfire.
No guards.
That frightened me more.
Inside, the halls smelled like dust and disinfectant.
Recent disinfectant.
Emma found medical packaging in a trash container.
Pediatric IV tubing.
Sterile gloves.
Blood collection kits.
“This is still being used.”
We followed the lights downstairs.
Behind an old radiology department, we found a modern laboratory hidden inside the decaying hospital.
Refrigerators.
Computers.
Patient records.
Thousands of biological samples.
Children reduced to numbers.
Anthony whispered a curse.
Then we heard singing.
A child’s voice.
Weak.
Soft.
But unmistakable.
Sophia.
I ran.
She was sitting on a hospital bed in a laboratory room.
Bellini stood beside her.
No weapon.
No panic.
Just that same composed expression he had worn at my dinner table for twenty years.
Sophia saw me.
“Daddy!”
That word almost brought me to my knees.
Bellini smiled.
“Remarkable, isn’t it? Trauma restored what grief took away.”
“Step away from her.”
“She’s not restrained.”
Sophia immediately climbed off the bed.
She stumbled.
Emma ran to catch her.
I kept my eyes on Bellini.
“Why Juliana?”
His expression changed.
“She should have stayed out of things she didn’t understand.”
“You killed her.”
“I did not cause the crash.”
The answer was too precise.
“What did you do?”
“She was injured. The crash did most of the work.”
My hands curled.
“But?”
“I made certain she never recovered enough to destroy decades of research.”
Emma covered Sophia’s ears.
Bellini looked almost irritated.
“I gave her medication that worsened the bleeding.”
The room blurred.
“You murdered my wife.”
“I protected something larger than one woman.”
I crossed the distance before anyone could stop me.
My hand closed around his throat.
Bellini’s back struck the wall.
Marco shouted my name.
Juliana’s letter flashed through my mind.
Do not become the man your enemies expect.
I wanted to ignore her.
I wanted one violent second to erase two years of grief.
Then Sophia spoke.
“Daddy.”
I looked toward her.
She was crying.
Not because of Bellini.
Because of me.
My hand opened.
Bellini fell to the floor, coughing.
I stepped back.
“Marco.”
“Yes.”
“Call the federal agents.”
Bellini laughed weakly.
“You think prison changes anything?”
“No.”
I looked at my daughter.
“But she does.”
Then alarms erupted.
Bellini’s smile widened.
Anthony ran to one of the computers.
“What did you do?”
Bellini remained on the floor.
“Research facilities have protocols.”
A chemical warning flashed across the monitors.
FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEM ARMED.
Emma looked upward.
“No.”
Metal doors began closing throughout the hallway.
Bellini had triggered a purge.
Not water.
Gas.
A system designed to destroy samples and suffocate anyone trapped inside.
Marco pulled at the nearest door.
Locked.
Sophia started coughing.
I grabbed her.
“Find another way out!”
Emma ran toward the laboratory cabinets.
Anthony attacked the computer.
The countdown appeared.
03:00.
02:59.
02:58.
Bellini sat against the wall and smiled.
“If I go to prison, Lorenzo, your wife’s proof disappears with me.”
I looked at the thousands of files surrounding us.
He still didn’t understand.
I no longer cared about revenge.
May you like
I cared about the little girl holding onto my neck.
And we had less than three minutes to get her out alive.
