Part 4 — I was unfairly fired from my job, and that same night I found myself in the mafia boss’s bedroom, and his reaction amazed me

The phone froze in my hand.

“Repeat that once more,” I said.

But the call had already ended.

Cassius immediately called security.

“Lock all exits. Send three cars to the center’s address. Do not shoot anyone until you find out Ellis’s location.”

“It is already too late,” Luca said. “If Bruno took him, he will be watching us.”

“Then let him watch us,” Cassius replied.

I leaned against the table with both hands.

“We will find my brother.”

“We will,” Cassius said.

“No. I will find him. You will only clear the way for me.”

For the first time, he did not object.

Twenty minutes later his phone rang again. Jamie’s name was on the screen.

Cassius turned on speakerphone.

“Noel, forgive me,” Jamie was crying. “They sent me a photograph of my daughter. Daniel told me that if I did not say that I had seen your bag in the room, they would take her.”

“Where did they take Ellis?” I asked.

“To the old ferry station. On the southern bank of the river. But do not go there alone.”

At the end of the call, heavy breathing could be heard.

“Jamie, lock the doors and move away from the window.”

“It is already too late…”

A gunshot rang out.

Then silence.

Cassius put the phone down. His face became like stone.

“Let’s go,” I said.

He stood in front of me.

“You cannot enter there.”

“That is my brother.”

“That is exactly why you cannot enter. They expect you to act emotionally.”

“And what will you do? Hide me again?”

Something broke in his eyes.

“I hid the truth once already, and your family paid the price. I will not do that a second time.”

We arrived at the ferry station at four in the afternoon. The shore smelled of rusty iron, while the waves struck the concrete wall. Cassius’s people scattered like shadows.

I put my mother’s notebook into the inside pocket of my coat. For years I had thought that the small bulge under the cover was simply a hardened seam.

Now Luca opened it with a knife.

There was a small strip of microfilm hidden there.

“This is what Bruno wants,” he said.

“And why did Mother leave it to me?”

“Because she knew that one day you would be able to make the choice yourself.”

I heard Ellis’s voice in the dark warehouse.

“Noel!”

“Ellis, do not move!”

Bruno Valente stood by a pillar. Beside him stood Daniel Morrow, holding a weapon.

“Give me the film,” Bruno said.

“Release my brother first.”

“Your family always had too many conditions.”

Cassius appeared beside me.

“This is over, Bruno.”

Bruno laughed.

“Your father thought that too.”

Luca nodded invisibly. His phone was already recording.

“Say it again,” I told Bruno.

He took a step toward me.

“Your mother should have stayed silent. The house burned because the evidence disappeared. And you were left alive because a child did not arouse suspicion.”

Ellis shook the chain.

“Noel, do not give it to him!”

Bruno pointed the weapon at him.

At that moment Cassius turned off the lights. Three voices rang out in the darkness, and then the weapon fell to the floor. The guards threw Daniel and Bruno to the ground. Ellis ran toward me and hugged me with such force that I could not breathe.

“I thought you would not be able to come.”

“I was afraid too,” I told him. “But I came.”

The police took them away that same night. Luca’s recording, the microfilm, and Bruno’s own confession proved sufficient. Daniel also handed over the hotel camera recordings, and Jamie’s daughter was found safe.

Three days later Cassius called his lawyer.

“All my companies will fully assist the investigation.”

Luca nodded.

“And you?”

“Me too.”

“The charges may reach you as well.”

“I know.”

This was the first time Cassius consciously surrendered control.

In the second week he played Bruno’s recorded confession for us. There were only four of us in the room: me, Cassius, Luca, and Ellis.

Bruno’s voice sounded from the recording.

“Your mother should have stayed silent.”

Cassius lowered his head.

“This was also my father’s doing,” he said. “For years I told myself that I was only managing the business I had inherited. In reality, I was benefiting from his silence.”

I said nothing.

He continued:

“If you want to leave me, I will not stop you.”

“I do not yet know whether I want to stay.”

“That is enough too.”

In the house where I had fallen asleep that night, my small room was empty for the first time. Only my mother’s notebook lay on the bed. Cassius had had it bound for me, but the gray cover was still softened in the old way.

I picked up the notebook.

On one page Ellis’s childhood fever was written. On another, an unpaid bill. And on the last page, in my mother’s handwriting, was one sentence:

“The truth returns when you are no longer afraid to carry it.”

Three months later I rented a small apartment on the other side of the river. During the day I worked in the hospital administration, and in the evening I accompanied Ellis to physical therapy. On the refrigerator hung a house drawn by him, with four windows and an excessively large sun.

One morning the first snow began to fall.

“Noel, isn’t Cassius waiting for you anymore?” Ellis asked.

“Perhaps he is waiting.”

“Then why don’t you go?”

I stood by the window.

“Because now I should not go to save anyone. If I go to him, it must be by my choice.”

That evening an envelope was found at the door. This time it was neither hidden, nor gray, nor sealed. Inside was only one sheet of paper.

“The door is still open for you. If you ever want to come in, this time you will find nothing hidden.”

Cassius’s number was written below.

I looked at it for a long time.

Then I took the phone and wrote only this:

“The door may be open. But I am no longer standing outside.”

No answer came.

That night I placed my mother’s notebook on the table. I ran my fingers over the old fabric cover and, for the first time, no longer thought about how much pain it had hidden.

Outside, snow was falling quietly.

And for the first time, I knew where I was going.