Chapter 10 - THE LIFE THEY STOLE
The investigator’s file contained thirty-two photographs.
Elena leaving a grocery store.
Elena entering the South Side apartment.
Elena sitting in a coffee shop with Luca.
Elena walking into a clinic.
The final photograph showed her leaving the clinic with one hand pressed against her stomach.
Pregnant.
Luca could barely look at it.
The date was six days before Elena mailed the letter.
Sal had known everything.
Marco found reports beneath the photographs.
Subject likely pregnant.
Relationship appears emotionally significant.
Costello discussing withdrawal from current operations.
Bellini requests continued surveillance.
Elena read the pages without speaking.
Then she pushed them away.
“I was twenty-six.”
Luca sat beside her.
“I know.”
“I thought we were just unlucky.”
Luca said nothing.
“I thought you disappeared.”
“You thought I got scared.”
“Yes.”
“I thought maybe you got bored.”
Luca looked at her.
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“That doesn’t erase what I thought then.”
“No.”
Elena stared toward the window.
“I hated you for a while.”
“You had every right.”
“I didn’t want to hate you.”
“That probably made it worse.”
“It did.”
Luca nodded.
They sat quietly.
Elena looked at his legs.
“How much can you feel?”
“Pressure.”
“Heat sometimes.”
“Pain.”
“That’s good?”
“Apparently.”
She smiled faintly.
“That’s a terrible system.”
“I’ve complained.”
Elena reached out.
Her hand stopped before touching his knee.
“Can I?”
Luca nodded.
She rested her palm gently against his leg.
“Anything?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes lifted.
“You can feel that?”
“Faintly.”
Elena swallowed.
Twelve years earlier, she used to fall asleep with one leg tangled around his.
The memory came back without permission.
She pulled her hand away.
Luca let her.
They were not twenty-six anymore.
They could not pretend the lost years did not exist.
From the hallway came a crash.
They both jumped.
Maya appeared.
“Sorry.”
She held a broken glass.
“I dropped it.”
Elena stood.
“Don’t move.”
Maya froze.
Luca watched Elena clean the glass.
Then Maya looked at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“You both look weird.”
“Your mother and I were talking.”
“About me?”
“Partly.”
Maya frowned.
“Everybody talks about me when I’m not there.”
“You’re interesting.”
“I know.”
Later that night, Luca told Maya the rest.
Not every criminal detail.
But enough.
Someone had deliberately kept him away from Elena.
Someone had poisoned him.
Someone had known Elena was pregnant.
Maya listened quietly.
Then she asked one question.
“Did he hate me?”
Luca’s stomach turned.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he didn’t know you.”
“He hated what you represented.”
“What did I represent?”
Luca thought carefully.
“A reason for me to become someone he couldn’t control.”
Maya stared at him.
Then she said,
“That’s stupid.”
Luca laughed.
“It is.”
She leaned against him.
“Are you going to hurt him?”
Luca stopped.
The easy answer would have been no.
But she deserved the real one.
“I want to.”
Maya looked up.
“Will you?”
Luca thought about the old rules.
His father.
His reputation.
Everything men expected Luca Costello to do.
Then he thought about her.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to know a different version of me.”
Maya nodded.
“Good.”
Then Marco walked into the room.
“We found Sal.”
Luca looked up.
Marco’s face was grim.
“He wants to meet tomorrow.”
“Where?”
May you like
“The old warehouse on Canal.”
“And he says come alone.”
