CHAPTER 5 — The Woman with No Name
The tunnel stretched for nearly two miles beneath the forest.
Cold water soaked their boots.
Dominic nearly collapsed twice.
Sarah refused to leave him.
At dawn...
they emerged inside an abandoned church hidden deep in the mountains.
Waiting there...
was an elderly nun.
Sister Agnes.
She wasn't surprised to see them.
"I've been expecting you."
Sarah blinked.
"You know who we are?"
The nun smiled.
"I knew your mother."
Sarah froze.
"My... mother?"
Agnes opened a dusty wooden chest.
Inside were faded photographs.
Hospital records.
Letters.
One picture stole Sarah's breath.
Her mother...
standing beside Carmine Rossi.
Both smiling.
Holding newborn babies.
"What is this?"
Agnes answered softly.
"Thirty-two years ago..."
"Your mother saved Carmine's wife during childbirth."
"The hospital was attacked that same night."
"Carmine never forgot."
Sarah stared at the photographs.
"My mother never told me."
"No."
"Because Carmine paid every hospital bill your family ever received."
Sarah felt dizzy.
"My scholarship..."
"My mother's treatments..."
"The anonymous donations..."
Agnes nodded.
"They all came from Carmine."
Dominic looked toward Sarah with quiet respect.
"My father protected you your entire life."
Sarah whispered,
"And I never even knew."
Suddenly...
the church doors burst open.
A little girl ran inside.
Eight years old.
Barefoot.
Terrified.
"They're coming!"
Behind her...
sirens echoed through the valley.
Not police.
Private mercenaries.
Lorenzo had hired former military contractors.
The little girl gasped.
"They killed my father because he wouldn't tell them where you were."
Sarah knelt beside her.
"What's your name?"
"Emily."
"Where's your mother?"
The child began crying.
"They took her."
Dominic slowly stood despite the pain.
"They're no longer killing witnesses."
"They're taking hostages."
Lorenzo had changed tactics.
May you like
Anyone who helped Sarah...
would disappear.
