Chapter 12: The Boy Who Burned Saint Agnes
Nobody spoke.
Gabriel Moretti stood beneath the loading bay lights, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. He looked too young to have ordered a hospital fire twenty-eight years ago.
Yet he had said it without hesitation.
Michael raised his gun.
“Explain yourself.””
Gabriel looked at the weapon.
“Put it down.””
“You just confessed to mass murder.””
“I confessed to ordering the fire.””
Michael's finger tightened around the trigger.
“Those are the same thing.””
“No,” Gabriel said quietly.
“They aren't.””
Elena moved between them.
“Michael, don't shoot him.””
Michael stared at her.
“Are you insane?””
“Listen to him.””
“I've spent my entire life listening to people explain why their crimes were necessary.””
He turned back to Gabriel.
“Start talking.””
Gabriel nodded.
“Victor told you the fire was intended to destroy the archive. That's true. But he never told you who actually gave the order.””
“Apparently, you did.””
“I was a child.””
The words struck the room like a slap.
I looked at him.
“How old?””
“Eleven.””
Luca shook his head.
“No eleven-year-old can order a hospital fire.””
Gabriel's expression didn't change.
“I didn't order it because I wanted to. I ordered it because Victor told me he would kill my mother if I refused.””
He reached into his jacket and removed a photograph.
It showed a young woman standing in front of Saint Agnes, holding a little boy's hand.
The boy had Gabriel's eyes.
The woman had mine.
Elena gasped.
“Rachel.””
Daniel moved forward.
“That's my wife.””
Gabriel nodded.
“She was my mother, too.””
The room fell silent.
Lily covered her mouth.
I stared at Gabriel, unable to understand.
“You're saying you're Rachel's son?””
“Yes.””
“But Lily and I are her daughters.””
“Yes.””
“And Luca is my twin.””
Gabriel looked at him.
“Your biological twin. I'm the older brother.””
Elena gripped the edge of a crate.
“I gave birth to four children?””
Gabriel shook his head.
“No. Rachel did.””
Daniel stepped backward as if the floor had vanished beneath him.
“My wife had four children?””
Gabriel nodded.
“Two girls. Two boys. Victor arranged for all four of us to be born at Saint Agnes because he wanted to control our identities from the beginning.””
Michael lowered his gun slightly.
“Why?””
“Because Rachel was the only person who could expose him. She had discovered the adoption program before the rest of us were born. Victor took her children as insurance.””
Daniel's voice broke.
“Rachel never told me.””
“She couldn't. Victor threatened to kill all four of us if she spoke.””
Lily stared at Gabriel.
“Why did she keep me?””
“Because you were the only one she managed to get back.””
He turned toward Daniel.
“Rachel escaped with you when I was five. She thought Victor would stop searching if he believed the other children were dead.””
Daniel looked devastated.
“She told me Lily was our only child.””
“She was trying to protect you.””
Gabriel's eyes lowered.
“She spent the rest of her life searching for the others.””
I remembered the letter.
Anna, you were the child they gave away.
Lily, you were the child they kept.
Now there was Gabriel.
And Luca.
Four children.
One mother.
A lifetime of lies.
I stepped toward Gabriel.
“Did you really order the fire?””
He met my eyes.
“Yes.””
“Did you know people would die?””
He swallowed.
“I knew the hospital was occupied. Victor told me the east wing had been evacuated. He said the fire would destroy the records and nothing more.””
“But people were still inside.””
“Yes.””
“Did you see them?””
His face crumpled.
“I heard them.””
Nobody moved.
Gabriel looked at the photograph in his hand.
“I stood outside the building and listened to people screaming while Victor told me I had done something necessary. He said the people inside were criminals who would have destroyed our family.””
His voice broke.
“I believed him because I was eleven and terrified.””
Michael lowered his gun.
For the first time, I saw something in his face that resembled understanding.
Not forgiveness.
Recognition.
He had been a frightened boy, too.
Victor had simply taught them different ways to survive.
Gabriel continued.
“I ran away the next morning. Victor told everyone I had died in the fire. He created a new identity for me and sent me to a family in Ohio.””
“Why come back now?”” Luca asked.
“Because Victor has started killing people again. And because he plans to burn the archive tonight.””
Michael's head snapped up.
“What?””
Gabriel pointed toward the warehouse ceiling.
“There's a second demolition system. The building is wired to collapse if the archive's master key is removed. Victor activated it when he left.””
A low metallic click sounded somewhere beneath our feet.
Adrian checked his watch.
“That's not a demolition system.””
He looked toward the loading bay.
“That's a timer.””
The lights flickered.
A warning alarm began to sound.
Michael grabbed my hand.
“Everybody out!””
We rushed toward the loading bay doors.
Luca stumbled, and Elena caught him. Daniel lifted Lily over a pile of fallen equipment while Adrian shouted directions to the guards.
Gabriel remained near the archive entrance.
“Gabriel!”” I screamed.
He turned.
“Go!””
He shook his head.
“The system won't stop unless someone manually resets it.””
Michael started back toward him.
I caught his arm.
“Michael, no!””
He looked at me.
“If he dies in there, the truth dies with him.””
“Then we'll find another way!””
“There isn't time.””
He kissed my forehead.
It was so brief that I barely understood what he had done.
Then he pulled away and ran back into the building.
I screamed his name.
The warehouse shook.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
A second later, the lights went out.
We stumbled through the loading bay doors into the rain.
An explosion thundered behind us.
The ground buckled beneath my feet.
The warehouse windows shattered outward, spraying glass across the yard.
I hit the pavement hard.
For several seconds, all I could hear was ringing.
Then Luca was beside me.
“Anna! Are you hurt?””
I tried to answer, but my voice wouldn't work.
I stared at the burning building.
Michael was inside.
Gabriel was inside.
The archive was inside.
And for the first time since I had begun searching for Luca, I was afraid I would lose everyone I had found.
The warehouse roof collapsed.
Flames shot through the broken windows.
Michael's guards rushed toward the entrance, but a second explosion forced them back.
Elena dropped to her knees.
“No,” she whispered.
Lily clung to Daniel.
Luca held my hand.
Nobody spoke.
Then a figure emerged through the smoke.
Gabriel.
He stumbled into the yard, his coat burning at the shoulder. He fell to his knees and rolled across the wet pavement.
Two guards dragged him away from the flames.
I rushed toward him.
“Where's Michael?””
Gabriel coughed violently.
“Inside.””
“Did you see him?””
He shook his head.
“Anna, I'm sorry.””
I turned toward the building.
A man appeared in the smoke.
He was carrying someone.
Michael.
He emerged through the shattered side entrance, his arms wrapped around a woman in a white dress.
My breath stopped.
The woman lifted her head.
Isabella Moretti.
She was alive.
Michael collapsed beside the loading bay, still holding her.
I ran to him.
“Michael!””
His eyes opened.
“Anna?””
I grabbed his face.
“Are you hurt?””
“Nothing serious.””
He tried to smile.
Then I saw the blood spreading beneath his shirt.
“That's not nothing.””
He looked toward Isabella.
“She saved me.””
Isabella coughed.
“I saved my son.””
Michael stared at her.
“You lied to me for twenty-eight years.””
“I know.””
“You let me believe you were dead.””
“I know.””
“You let me believe my father was the only monster in our family.””
Isabella closed her eyes.
“I know.””
Michael's voice broke.
“Why?””
She looked at him.
“Because I was afraid that if you knew the truth, you would become him.””
Michael turned away.
For a moment, I thought he would reject her.
Instead, he reached for her hand.
“I became him anyway.””
Isabella began to cry.
“No,” she whispered.
“You became the man who came back for someone he thought he had lost.””
The ambulance sirens grew louder.
As the paramedics loaded Michael and Isabella onto stretchers, I looked toward the burning warehouse.
The archive was gone.
The master key was gone.
Victor was gone.
But the upload had completed before the explosion.
Every name was already on its way to journalists, investigators, and families who had spent decades believing their children were dead.
I turned toward Gabriel.
He sat on the pavement, his hands cuffed by two police officers.
“Are you going to tell them everything?”” I asked.
He nodded.
“Every word.””
“Even about the fire?””
“Especially about the fire.””
I looked at him for a long moment.
“I don't forgive you.””
“I don't expect you to.””
“But I'll make sure the truth survives.””
Gabriel lowered his head.
“That's more than I deserve.””
A police officer approached me.
“Miss Reed? We need you to come with us.””
“For what?””
He held up a document.
“Your name appears in a sealed federal investigation. So does Michael Moretti's.””
I took the paper.
At the bottom was a signature I recognized.
Victor Moretti.
Above it was a statement dated three days earlier.
*If the archive is exposed, eliminate the four surviving children.*
Beneath that were four photographs.
Mine.
Luca's.
Lily's.
Gabriel's.
The officer looked at me.
“There's one more thing.””
He handed me a second page.
It was a death certificate.
Victor Moretti.
Date of death: October 19, 1998.
Cause: Multiple gunshot wounds.
The signature belonged to the medical examiner.
But the photograph attached to the certificate showed a different man.
A man with Michael's face.
A man who had been standing in the warehouse hours earlier.
I looked at the date.
Then at the photograph.
And finally, at the officer.
“Who exactly died in 1998?””
May you like
He swallowed.
“That,” he said, “is what the FBI has been trying to determine for twenty-eight years.””
