Chapter 47 No more running
Rafael
I stared at Antonio's body on the floor.
Blood pooled around his head. His eyes were open, staring at nothing.
"We need to leave before the Morellis arrive." Marco said urgently.
"He's right," Helena said, rubbing her neck where Antonio had pressed the gun. "If what he said is true they'll kill everyone here."
Eva was a Morelli.
And I had never known.
"Rafael!" Flora grabbed my arm. "We have to go!"
"You should run," I said. "Get as far away from me as possible."
"What?" Flora's eyes widened.
"The Morellis want Valserro blood," I said. "They want me. You don't have to be part of this."
"Are you insane?" Flora demanded. "After everything we've been through, you think I'm just going to abandon you?"
"I'm giving you a choice," I said. "Start a new life. Isn't that what you wanted?"
Flora slapped me.
The sound echoed through the warehouse.
"Don't you dare," she said, tears in her eyes. "Don't you dare try to be noble now. I'm not leaving you, Rafael. We're in this together."
Something in my chest cracked. "Okay," I whispered.
"Touching," Marco interrupted. "But we really need to move. I can hear vehicles approaching."
"This way," Helena said, pointing to a back exit. "My car is parked two blocks away."
We ran.
Behind us, tires screeched as vehicles pulled up to the warehouse.
"Faster!" Marco urged.
We turned a corner just as gunfire erupted behind us.
They'd found Antonio's body.
"Here!" Helena stopped at a black sedan. "Get in!"
We piled into the car. Helena drove, Marco sat in the passenger seat, Flora and I sat in the back.
Helena peeled out of the alley just as armed men rounded the corner. More gunfire erupted. Bullets pinged off the car's exterior.
"It's bulletproof glass," Helena said calmly. She drove like a maniac through the empty streets. After ten minutes of turns and doubling back, we lost them.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Somewhere safe," Helena said.
"There's nowhere safe," I said. "Not from them."
"There's one place," Helena said. "My sister's lab. It's about two hours from here. It's remote and stocked with enough supplies to last weeks if necessary."
"The Morellis will find it eventually," Marco said.
"Maybe," Helena agreed. "But it'll buy us time to figure out our next move."
"Antonio's dead. Catherine disappeared. Isabella can't talk. We have no allies left." I said bitterly.
The drive upstate was tense and silent except for the hum of the engine.
Finally, Helena turned onto a dirt road that led deep into the woods.
"Here," she said.
The lab was a hidden, small concrete building that looked like an old bunker, surrounded by trees. It was completely isolated.
"My sister bought this property twenty years ago," Helena explained as we got out. "Under a false name. No one knew about it except me."
She unlocked the heavy steel door.
Inside was exactly what she'd promised. A fully equipped laboratory, living quarters, food, water, everything.
"We can stay here while we figure things out," Helena said.
"Figure what out?" I asked. "The Morellis want me dead. That's not a puzzle to solve. That's just reality."
"Then we give them what they want," Marco said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Explain," I said.
"We fake your death," Marco said. "Make the Morellis think you're already dead. Then you disappear. Have a new identity and a new life."
"They'll want proof," Helena said.
"Then we give them proof," Marco said. "A body. DNA evidence. Everything they need to believe you're gone."
"Whose body?" Flora asked.
"Antonio's," Marco said. "He's already dead. We stage it to look like the Morellis got to you."
I thought about it. "It could work. But what about all of you? If I'm dead, the Morellis will just target Marco. Flora. Everyone connected to me."
"Not if we all die," Marco said.
"What?" Flora's voice rose.
"We all fake our deaths," Marco explained. "Make it look like the Morellis wiped out everyone involved. Then we all disappear. Start over somewhere new."
"That's insane," I said.
"Is it?" Marco asked. "What's the alternative? Spend the rest of our lives running? Looking over our shoulders? Waiting for the Morellis to find us?"
He had a point.
"Even if we fake our deaths," Helena said, "we'd need help, resources, money and connections."
"I have money," I said. "Offshore accounts the Morellis don't know about. Enough to set us all up with new lives."
"And I have connections," Helena said. "People who owe my sister favors. They can create new identities and passports."
"So you're really doing this?" Flora asked, looking at me. "Just... giving up everything?"
"Everything we thought we knew was a lie, Flora. Eva was a Morelli. I was a pawn. You were created as insurance. None of it was real."
"I'm real," Flora said fiercely. "What I feel is real. What we have is real."
I took her hand. "Then let's make a new reality. One where we're not constantly running."
Flora looked at me for a long moment.
Then nodded. "Okay. Let's do it."
"I'll start making arrangements," Helena said, pulling out her phone.
"I'll need a few days to set everything up."
"We might not have a few days," Marco said, looking out the window. “We need to do something to buy us time.”
I pulled out my phone and turned it on for the first time since leaving the warehouse.
Immediately, messages flooded in. Most from unknown numbers.
I opened one.
"Rafael Valserro. This is Vittorio Morelli. We need to talk. Call me at this number within the hour or I will assume you are fleeing justice. And I will hunt you down."
I showed the message to the others.
"Call him," Helena said. "See what he wants."
"He wants me dead," I said.
"Maybe," Helena said. "Or maybe he wants answers. The Morellis are old-fashioned. They value honor. Tradition. If you can prove Antonio acted alone, that you didn't know Eva was a Morelli, he might show mercy."
"And if he doesn't?" Flora asked.
"Then we proceed with the plan to fake our deaths and start a new life." Helena said.
I looked at the number.
Then I made the call.
It rang once before someone picked up.
"Valserro," a deep voice said. Older and authoritative. "You have some courage to call me."
"Mr. Morelli," I said. "I understand you want to talk."
"Talk?" Vittorio laughed without humor. "I want much more than talk, boy. I want answers. I want the head of the man who killed my daughter."