Chapter 99: Bianca Begs

Luca's black sedan pulled away without me. Rain swallowed its taillights at the end of the chapel drive. I stood frozen in the side stairwell, one hand on the stone wall, while the last of my De Luca protection disappeared into the dark. The chapel door opened behind me. "Miss De Luca," a man called from the threshold. "Mr. De Luca says you leave now." I ran up two steps before I knew I was moving. Elena caught the iron votive stand and dragged it across the narrow landing. The heavy base scraped stone between me and the door. She did not touch me. She did not offer a hand. She only made the man on the other side stop where she could see him. "She can answer for herself," Elena said. The man's shadow held on the chapel floor. "Help me," I said. Elena turned. Her face was hard, rain darkening the loose strands around it. "Help you do what?" "Vittoria is going to kill me." "That is fear. It is not a reason for me to trust you." "I know." The shadow shifted. The man did not leave. I looked at the bare place at my throat where the De Luca rose had been. Luca had taken it after the last dinner when I embarrassed him. I had called it a message. Tonight I understood it had been practice. "When he offered me as the confession, he made it sound like mercy," I said. "When you said no, he took the offer away. Now I am the part no one has to keep." "You helped make me the part no one had to keep," Elena said. The words landed cleanly because they were true. "I did." I held her eyes. "I am not here because I care what happened to you. I am here because I care what happens to me." Outside the blocked door, the man tested the handle. Elena planted her shoulder against the votive stand. "One thing. A real thing. Then I decide whether you are trying to put a knife in my hand." Behind the stand, beneath the wax tray, was the brass seam I had hidden months ago. I dropped to my knees and slid my fingers under it. The metal caught under my nail. I pulled harder. My thumb split against the edge. Blood slicked the tiny strip when it came free. "Bianca," Elena said, low and sharp. The handle moved again. I threw the strip toward her before I dropped it. Elena caught it one-handed without taking her weight off the barrier. "What is this?" "The minute you keep looking for." Her fingers closed around the oil-soft paper. "Not the fragment you already saw," I said. "The full wedding backup. Vittoria hid it after the vows because Gabriel copied something he should not have." "Where?" "Gabriel's cloud archive." I pressed my bleeding thumb into my skirt. "The camellia route opens the fragments. That strip names the other folder: `A-0 / MAY 13 / RETAINED MINUTE.`" Elena looked down. There was a second line beneath it. I had not copied that line for importance. I had copied it because it scared me. `AUTO-PURGE: DAWN.` The chapel bell struck once above us. Elena read the second line twice. The wax-soft edge tore beneath her thumb. Then she folded the strip tight enough to leave its corner in her palm. The man outside said, "Miss De Luca. Last time." My phone buzzed inside my coat. I did not need to read the screen. I knew whose silence had turned into an order. Elena shifted the votive stand another inch until the doorway vanished behind its iron base. Then she folded the strip into her fist. "This does not buy you my trust," she said. "I know." "It does not make you my ally." "I know." She looked toward the stairs to Noah's floor, then back at the blocked chapel door. Her choice was not me. It was the minute. It was the truth before dawn and the child waiting above it all. "You stay away from my son's floor," she said. "You do not follow me." Then Elena turned and ran up the stairs with the folder name in her fist. Behind the iron stand, the man began to force the chapel door.