Chapter 6 - The Shot in the Chapel
The bullet struck the stone wall beside Mason’s head.
He jerked Leo sideways.
“Shoot again and the baby falls.”
Lorenzo froze.
Mason smiled.
“You missed deliberately.”
“That means you are not as fearless as everyone says.”
“You are holding my son.”
“You should be afraid.”
Mason pressed his gun against Leo’s blanket.
“I am not the person you should be threatening.”
“Marco is.”
I stepped forward.
“What did you mean about Lily?”
Mason looked at me.
The arrogance in his face was the same expression he had worn whenever he hurt me and later claimed I had made him do it.
“I meant you never understood what happened.”
“You shoved me.”
“You were going to leave.”
“I was afraid of you.”
“You were supposed to be.”
Lorenzo’s gun remained aimed at his forehead.
“Answer her question.”
Mason tilted his head.
“Marco needed me to move money through accounts no one could connect to him.”
“I borrowed Clara’s identity.”
“She found the documents.”
“She threatened to call the police.”
“So you tried to kill her,” Lorenzo said.
“I tried to stop her from leaving.”
Mason said it as though there were a difference.
My hands trembled around the pistol.
“And Lily?”
“She was not part of the plan.”
Pain entered his voice.
Not regret.
Self-pity.
“The hospital said she died from the fall.”
“The hospital said what Marco paid Dr. Vale to write.”
My breath stopped.
“What did they give her?”
Mason looked down at Leo.
“A muscle suppressant.”
“The same one they have been giving this child.”
The chapel seemed to tilt around me.
“Lily was alive?”
Mason smiled faintly.
“For three minutes.”
A sound escaped my throat that did not feel human.
I remembered the doctors refusing to let me see her immediately.
I remembered Dr. Vale arriving despite not being assigned to my case.
I remembered the nurse saying there had been complications.
Lorenzo looked sick.
“You were at her hospital?”
“Marco sent me to make certain Clara could not speak to investigators.”
“You killed a newborn child to protect your accounts?”
Mason’s smile vanished.
“I did not inject the baby.”
“Vale did.”
“I only watched.”
The distinction made him sound more monstrous.
Leo’s head dropped weakly against his chest.
“He needs me,” I said.
Mason stepped backward.
“You need to trade places with him.”
“What?”
“You come with me.”
“The baby goes to Lorenzo.”
“No,” Lorenzo said.
Mason raised the gun.
“I was not asking you.”
I placed my pistol on the stone floor.
Lorenzo’s eyes flashed toward me.
“Clara.”
“He will die if we wait.”
I walked forward slowly.
Mason removed Leo from the carrier.
The baby’s lips were turning pale.
He held Leo out with one arm.
I reached for him.
Mason suddenly pulled me against his chest and pressed the gun beneath my ribs.
Lorenzo caught Leo before he fell.
“Move back,” Mason ordered.
Lorenzo held his son against his shoulder.
His pistol remained aimed at Mason.
“You will not leave this chapel.”
“Marco already has.”
A metal door opened behind the altar.
Mason dragged me toward it.
I kicked backward.
My heel struck his knee.
The gun fired.
Pain burned across my side.
Lorenzo shot Mason in the shoulder.
Mason released me and stumbled through the hidden doorway.
Lorenzo moved after him.
Then Leo made a choking sound.
Lorenzo stopped.
Mason disappeared into the passage.
For one second, Lorenzo stood between the man escaping and the child dying in his arms.
Then he turned toward Leo.
He chose his son.
He handed him to me.
“Save him.”
I pressed Leo against my chest.
His mouth moved weakly.
“He cannot latch.”
Lorenzo opened the medical kit attached to the carrier.
Inside was an empty vial.
A gold symbol had been stamped on its label.
I had seen that symbol before.
It was engraved on the ring Marco wore every day.
Beneath the vial was a photograph.
Lorenzo picked it up.
The picture showed his late wife, Sofia, standing beside Marco.
The date was two days before her fatal car accident.
May you like
On the back, someone had written five words.
Sofia knew who poisoned her.
