Chapter 8 - THE BOY BEHIND THE GLASSVincent tore open the refrigerated chamber.
A teenage boy collapsed into his arms.
He appeared no older than fifteen. Medical wires covered his chest, and bruises marked both wrists.
Dr. Romano’s name appeared on the chamber controls.
The boy opened his eyes.
They were gray, like Vincent’s.
“Who are you?” Vincent asked.
The teenager looked at Marco.
“My brother.”
Another secret surfaced.
The Crown had taken more than one child from Vincent’s former lover, Teresa Bellini. Marco had been hidden within Vincent’s organization, while the younger boy had been raised inside the Crown’s laboratories.
His name was Julian.
He had been used as a living biometric backup for the Torino bloodline.
Marco knelt beside him.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
Julian’s expression remained cold.
“They told me you chose Vincent over me.”
“They lied.”
“They always lie.”
The purge timer reached eight minutes.
Dominic attempted to disconnect the system, but each command accelerated the deletion.
Mia discovered an analog control panel hidden beneath Salvatore’s desk.
“There are two choices,” she said. “Transfer or release.”
“Transfer where?” Elena asked.
“To an external server.”
“That would let the Crown steal everything,” Gabriel said.
“Then release means publishing it,” Vincent replied.
Every secret would be sent to journalists, federal agencies, and international organizations.
Innocent families could be destroyed. Children might learn their parents were not their parents. Governments could collapse.
But deleting the archive would allow the Crown to continue operating in darkness.
Sophie looked at Vincent.
“What would happen if bad people lose their secrets?”
“They lose their power.”
“What happens to good people?”
“They may get hurt too.”
Sophie thought quietly.
“My daddy said telling the truth hurts once. Lying hurts forever.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
He remembered saying those words to her.
Vincent selected release.
The system requested confirmation from the youngest Torino descendant.
Sophie pressed the button.
Data began transmitting.
Across Chicago, phones rang in police stations, newsrooms, courtrooms, and mansions. Files exposing decades of hidden crimes appeared simultaneously.
The Crown’s empire began collapsing.
But Isabella still controlled the purge.
She appeared on the screen again.
“You think truth makes you righteous, Vincent?”
“No.”
“Then why release it?”
“Because you fear it.”
Isabella smiled.
“I fear nothing.”
A new camera feed opened.
The lakeside estate was burning.
Ruth stood outside surrounded by Crown operatives. A rifle was pressed against her head.
Isabella had never left Chicago. She was at the estate.
“Bring Sophie to me,” Isabella ordered. “Or everyone still inside dies.”
Vincent checked the transmission.
Only sixty percent of the archive had uploaded.
“If we leave now, the system may fail,” Dominic warned.
“If we remain, Isabella murders the staff,” Marco said.
Gabriel stepped forward.
“I’ll finish the upload.”
Vincent studied him.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t. But Sophie should not have to watch more people die because of me.”
Elena looked at Gabriel.
For a moment, he resembled the man she had once loved.
Vincent left Dominic and Gabriel inside the vault. He took Marco, Elena, Sophie, Mia, and Julian toward the estate.
During the drive, Marco sat beside Vincent.
“Did you know my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
Vincent’s answer was quiet.
“More than I knew how to admit.”
“Why did she leave?”
“I thought she was murdered.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“In your world, love and death seem identical.”
Vincent accepted the accusation.
At the estate, flames consumed the eastern wing.
Isabella waited on the frozen dock with Ruth and several hostages. Snipers surrounded the shoreline.
Sophie remained inside the armored vehicle while Vincent approached alone.
“Release them,” he ordered.
“Give me the girl.”
“You won’t touch her.”
Isabella tilted her head.
“You always believed protecting someone meant possessing them. Gabriel ran because of it. Teresa ran because of it. Even our father feared you.”
“He gave you to the Crown.”
“No. I volunteered.”
Vincent stopped.
Isabella revealed that she had fallen through the lake ice as a child but survived. When Crown agents found her, she chose not to return home because she had heard Salvatore planning to use his children in a war for succession.
“I learned early that family is simply another prison,” she said.
“You were six.”
“I was old enough to know none of you came looking in the right places.”
Their confrontation was interrupted by Julian.
The teenage boy stepped from the vehicle.
Isabella’s composure shattered.
“Go back inside.”
Julian walked toward her.
“You said Vincent abandoned me.”
“He did.”
“He didn’t know I existed.”
“He would have ruined you.”
“You ruined me.”
Isabella raised her weapon.
Marco stepped between them.
She fired.
Vincent shoved Marco aside and took the bullet beneath his ribs.
He fell onto the ice.
Sophie screamed and ran from the vehicle.
Elena tried to catch her, but the girl reached Vincent first.
Blood spread across the frozen lake beneath him.
Isabella aimed at Sophie.
Before she could fire, Ruth drove her shoulder into Isabella’s back.
Both women crashed through a weakened section of ice.
Ruth grabbed the edge.
Isabella disappeared beneath the black water.
Vincent struggled to remain conscious as Marco pressed his hands against the wound.
The archive transmission reached ninety-nine percent.
Then every phone went dark.
The final one percent had failed.
That missing section contained a list of every active Crown assassin in the country.
As paramedics carried Vincent away, a hand emerged from the broken ice behind them.
Isabella pulled herself onto the shore.
May you like
No one saw her crawl into the burning estate.
And hidden beneath her coat was the final one percent of the archive.
