CHAPTER 5 — The Voice From the Grave
The bunker remained completely dark.
Emily instinctively reached for Vincent's arm.
The old speaker crackled again.
Then the voice continued.
"Don't waste time looking for me."
"By the time you hear this..."
"...I'll have been dead for many years."
Vincent's breathing became uneven.
He knew that voice.
There was no mistake.
It belonged to his father.
The man whose funeral he had attended twenty-three years earlier.
A hidden projector flickered to life.
The image was grainy, filmed on an old videotape.
An older man sat alone in a dimly lit room.
His face was exhausted.
"If Project Phoenix has reached you..."
"...then my greatest fear has come true."
Emily stared at the screen.
"Who is he?"
Vincent answered quietly.
"My father."
The old recording continued.
"Our family didn't build the DeLuca empire."
"We stole it."
Vincent felt the ground disappear beneath him.
Every story he had grown up believing...
Every lesson...
Every sacrifice...
Had been built on a lie.
"Twenty-three years ago," the man continued, "five criminal families signed an agreement."
"They would exchange children from rival bloodlines."
"No child would ever know who they truly were."
"No family could challenge the balance of power."
Emily covered her mouth.
Vincent stood frozen.
The recording wasn't finished.
"You, Vincent..."
"...were never born a DeLuca."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Even the emergency generator seemed to stop humming.
The screen changed to an old hospital photograph.
Two newborn boys.
One wearing a silver bracelet.
The other gold.
The nurse's face had been scratched out.
A date appeared beneath the picture.
July 18 — Twenty-Two Years Ago.
Then came the final sentence.
"If you're watching this..."
"The other child is still alive."
The screen suddenly went black.
Emily whispered,
"So... neither of us knows who we really are."
Vincent slowly nodded.
For the first time in his life...
The man who controlled an entire criminal empire didn't know his own name.
Before either of them could speak—
The bunker alarm exploded.
WARNING... SECURITY BREACH...
Dante's voice came through the radio.
"Boss!"
"They found the bunker!"
"They're using military explosives!"
Vincent grabbed his pistol.
"How many?"
Dante answered with a trembling voice.
"Too many."
"They're not Marco's men."
Emily looked up.
"If they're not his..."
"Then who are they?"
No one answered.
Outside...
A steel blast door began to bend inward.
Someone on the other side wasn't trying to negotiate.
May you like
They were trying to erase everyone inside.
END OF CHAPTER 5
