Chapter 3
Luca did not ask Lia again whether Nico was his son.
Not immediately.
Children repeated what adults told them.
Sometimes adults told children the truth.
Sometimes they told them whatever story made survival easier.
Detective Rinaldi seemed to understand the same thing.
“No DNA tests tonight unless child-protection requests and legal guardian process supports it,” she said.
Luca looked at her.
“You think I’m afraid?”
“I think you like facts until they might be personal.”
Fair.
He said nothing.
The emergency search of Saint Gabriel House began at 11:18 p.m.
Luca did not lead it.
That was Rinaldi’s condition.
“This is a police operation.”
“It’s my family ledger.”
“It’s children.”
That ended argument.
He provided building security information from public records, old parcel plans, and the tunnel access map recovered from Maria’s scanner history.
No tactical freelancing.
No private assault team.
His men secured Saint Orfeo’s and protected Lia and Nico under police direction.
Luca stayed at a mobile command vehicle three blocks from the house.
He hated every second.
Saint Gabriel House looked respectable from outside.
A converted stone rehabilitation center surrounded by trees.
Warm windows.
A bronze plaque:
SANNA FAMILY FOUNDATION
RESIDENTIAL RECOVERY FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
No bars.
No razor wire.
No guards with rifles at gate.
That made it harder, not easier.
Places built to hide abuse rarely advertised themselves as prisons.
Police entered with child welfare officers and medical personnel.
The first ten minutes sounded almost boring over radio.
Front staff cooperative.
Seven registered residents.
Three social workers.
Two overnight supervisors.
Records requested.
Then:
“Basement door.”
A pause.
“Locked.”
Then:
“Manager says mechanical storage.”
Another pause.
“Thermal shows occupied space.”
Luca’s hands tightened.
Rinaldi’s deputy came over channel.
“Opening under warrant.”
Five minutes later:
“We have children.”
Luca closed eyes.
“How many?” Rinaldi asked.
“Eleven in lower residential rooms.”
Registered?
“No.”
Age range?
“Three to fourteen.”
No one spoke in command vehicle.
Then:
“Two adults.”
“Staff?”
“One woman says no.”
Maria.
Luca knew before name.
“Identify.”
“Maria DeLuca.”
Luca exhaled.
Alive.
“Second?”
“Rosa Bellini.”
Luca stopped.
Rosa.
Nico’s mother?
“Condition?”
“Both ambulatory. Maria has facial bruising. Rosa appears sedated or ill. Medical assessing.”
No detail beyond.
“Gabriel Sanna?”
“Not located.”
Of course.
Rinaldi looked at Luca.
“He knew.”
“Tunnel.”
Teams checked.
A concealed passage behind boiler room.
Open.
Descending.
Where to?
Old river route.
Possibly church.
But lower seal had closed.
Gabriel may have exited elsewhere.
Then child count increased.
“Three more behind service partition.”
Fourteen unregistered.
The official seven above were legitimate placements?
Maybe some too.
Police separated staff and residents.
No assumptions.
A legal residential program could coexist with hidden one.
That made case uglier.
At 12:03, Rinaldi left command vehicle for site.
Luca stayed because she told him.
He paced.
Titan was at church.
He regretted leaving dog.
Then laughed at himself.
Titan was not detective.
The dog had found a smell.
Humans needed do rest.
At 12:40, Rinaldi called.
“Maria wants to talk to you.”
“Now?”
“With attorney and me present.”
“Why?”
“She says Gabriel has a second site.”
Luca was driven to hospital interview room.
Maria DeLuca looked forty, exhausted, one eye swollen.
She stared at Luca as he entered.
Not impressed.
Good.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Maria.”
“You found ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Red?”
“Yes.”
“Do not give police full copy yet.”
Rinaldi’s face hardened.
Maria looked at her.
“I’m not asking to hide evidence. I’m asking victim counsel to review because names include children placed under new identities.”
Rinaldi relaxed slightly.
Reasonable.
“We already planned controlled review.”
Maria nodded.
“Good.”
Luca sat.
“Why did you work for me?”
“To get Salvatore’s files.”
“Why not ask?”
“Would you have given them?”
He thought.
“No.”
“Exactly.”
“You stole.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My grandmother died waiting for her brother.”
Sofia Benedetti.
The girl Salvatore failed to save.
“What happened to her?”
“She escaped Saint Gabriel at twelve.”
“How?”
“She never knew.”
Interesting.
“She woke in a convent outside Parma. No records. New name offered. She refused and kept Sofia.”
“Salvatore?”
“She believed one of his Shepherds moved her.”
“So he did save her eventually.”
Maria’s eyes hardened.
“Do not make him saint.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
She continued.
Sofia spent life looking for Marco.
No success.
Before dying, she gave Maria a photograph of Salvatore and told her Moretti knew more.
Maria infiltrated company.
Found storage box.
Found church route.
Found proof Saint Gabriel network had been rebuilt by Gabriel Sanna.
“Why not police?”
“I did.”
Rinaldi turned.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“Who?”
“Vice unit.”
“Name.”
Maria gave.
Rinaldi wrote.
“What happened?”
“Two meetings. Then my source inside Sanna vanished.”
“Did they close?”
“They said insufficient evidence.”
Could be corruption.
Could be evidentiary failure.
Need investigate.
Maria then approached journalists.
One story killed by legal threat.
Then she went undercover herself.
Took cleaning work at Sanna foundation? She already worked Moretti. How infiltrate house?
“Weekend catering crew.”
She used false identity? Risky.
Over months she found hidden children.
Some had been trafficked across borders under forged guardianship.
Some were children of undocumented workers coerced by threats of deportation.
Some were runaways.
Some were not abducted in dramatic way; guardians had signed papers they did not understand.
“Why call them Shepherds?”
Maria laughed bitterly.
“Gabriel loves inheritance.”
He learned Salvatore had called rescue network Shepherds and claimed the name as proof Sanna family had always “placed” children.
He reframed trafficking as rescue from unfit families.
Ideology.
Dangerous.
“He thinks he saves them?”
“Yes.”
“From what?”
“Poverty. unstable parents. crime. migration. anyone he decides cannot give proper home.”
Luca felt cold.
Ownership disguised as protection.
“Rosa?”
Maria looked toward adjoining medical room.
“Rosa Bellini isn’t her real name.”
“Who?”
“Rosaria Benedetti.”
Luca stopped.
“Marco’s daughter?”
Maria nodded.
“Marco is alive.”
There.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know?”
“Rosa found me.”
Two years ago.
She had grown up moving through foster placements under false surname.
Her father Marco survived Saint Gabriel but disappeared later into Sanna network.
He eventually became a driver for Gabriel.
Not voluntary? Complicated.
He stayed close trying to find records and children.
Rosa grew up believing her father worked for charity.
Then discovered.
“What about Nico?”
Maria looked at Luca.
“He is Rosa’s son.”
“Father?”
“She refuses to name.”
“So not me.”
Maria stared.
“No.”
Luca exhaled.
Unexpected relief.
Then anger.
“Why tell him I’m papa?”
Maria frowned.
“I didn’t.”
“Lia said Rosa did.”
Maria thought.
Then smiled sadly.
“She said ‘Papa Luca.’”
“What is that?”
“Children at the house used roles instead of names when planning escape.”
Luca stared.
“Papa Luca?”
“Not father.”
“Then?”
“The man outside who would protect.”
He hated how that still placed him in a role he had not consented.
Maria continued:
“Rosa showed Nico your picture from newspaper and said, ‘Luca takes you home.’ He’s two. Words collapse.”
Lia heard and interpreted father.
Simple.
No paternity melodrama.
Good.
“Why me?”
“Because your father left instruction in stolen box.”
Luca stared.
“What instruction?”
Maria had found a cassette.
Salvatore’s voice.
If Shepherd route ever reopens and children reach Saint Orfeo, take them to Luca only if he has changed the company.
Luca went still.
“He judged me from grave?”
“He left criteria.”
“What criteria?”
“No off-books debt work. No juvenile transport contracts. No Sanna clients. Public licensing.”
Luca almost laughed.
His father had set test.
Maria verified over years.
“You watched my company.”
“Yes.”
“Why trust?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then Nico?”
“I trusted Titan more.”
Luca stared.
Maria looked almost embarrassed.
“Old company notes said your father trained rescue dogs to recognize church blankets.”
“Titan wasn’t alive.”
“I know.”
“But blankets were reused in kennel training.”
“Yes.”
She had intentionally wrapped Nico in old Moretti blanket because any current dog trained on legacy scent inventory might respond non-aggressively.
Not guaranteed.
A risk.
Luca felt anger.
“You used my dog as test around a toddler.”
Maria flinched.
“Yes.”
“That was reckless.”
“Yes.”
Good.
No defense.
“I thought church staff would keep distance.”
“They brought him to dog.”
“I didn’t plan.”
“Still your plan created.”
“Yes.”
Luca stood, paced.
Then:
“Why did you go back?”
“Children.”
“Why not stay and call police?”
“Because Gabriel would move them.”
“Did he?”
“Some.”
“Second site.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Old Monastery of San Rocco.”
Rinaldi looked.
Closed monastery in hills.
Sanna foundation owned adjacent retreat center.
“Children?”
Maria said:
“Archive and older teenagers.”
“Older teenagers?”
“Those Gabriel trains as Shepherd aides.”
Indoctrination.
Some become staff.
Some resist.
“Marco?”
“Maybe.”
Rosa believed her father was there.
She intentionally remained at Saint Gabriel to collect route info.
Nico sent out because Gabriel threatened use him to control Rosa.
Luca looked toward room.
“Rosa is awake?”
“Intermittent.”
“What does she say?”
“Marco sent message three weeks ago.”
Text?
No.
Handwritten through food delivery.
COME TO SAN ROCCO ONLY WITH THE RED LEDGER.
Gabriel wanted red ledger.
Marco may be bait.
Or alive.
Rinaldi said:
“We get warrant.”
Maria grabbed her sleeve.
“Gabriel has legal retreat operation there. The hidden part is under old monastery. If police arrive visibly, he triggers evacuation.”
“Where to?”
“No one knows.”
Luca said:
“Tunnel?”
“Mountain service roads.”
Rinaldi stared.
“We can coordinate discreetly.”
Good.
Not private raid.
Maria nodded.
Then:
“There’s another problem.”
Of course.
“Someone in your company is feeding Gabriel.”
Luca went still.
“How know?”
“He knew when I signed out Salvatore box.”
“Could be inventory log monitoring.”
“He knew Titan’s deployment today.”
Luca’s skin chilled.
Titan had been assigned only this morning after Sister Elena call.
Very few knew.
“Who?”
Maria shook head.
“I only heard Gabriel say ‘Moretti dog is coming.’”
An insider.
Luca thought security team.
Dispatch.
Assistant.
Executive office.
Paolo?
No.
Do not assume.
Rinaldi said:
“Say nothing internally.”
Luca nodded.
Then phone buzzed.
His chief operations officer, Elena? Avoid same Sister Elena. Use Marco? Could conflict. "Gianni Riva." Message:
We have a problem. Someone accessed old kennel archive tonight using your credentials.
Luca stared.
His credentials.
He had been at church.
Clone.
What file?
He called.
Gianni said:
“Titan training history.”
Luca felt cold.
The insider had not only told Gabriel Titan was coming.
They had searched whether blanket trick would work.
Whoever helped Maria’s plan may also be helping Gabriel.
Or someone was playing both.
Rinaldi asked for audit log.
Gianni sent.
Access terminal:
MORETTI HQ — EXECUTIVE FLOOR.
Physical badge:
LUCA MORETTI.
But Luca’s badge was in his pocket.
Duplicate.
Only company security administrator could issue.
Three people.
Gianni Riva.
Paolo Serra.
And Luca himself.
Paolo had been beside him at church.
Gianni at headquarters.
Third administrator: Francesca Vieri, director of compliance.
Luca trusted Francesca most.
That made nothing.
Then Rinaldi’s officer entered.
“Detective.”
“What?”
“At Saint Gabriel, we found a hidden room behind office.”
“And?”
“Photographs.”
“Of?”
The officer looked at Luca.
“Mr. Moretti since childhood.”
Silence.
School.
Church.
His father.
His mother.
Company.
Titan.
Gabriel Sanna had not begun watching Luca because Nico arrived.
He had been watching the Moretti family for decades.
And on the newest photograph, taken only three days earlier, Luca stood outside his own headquarters beside Francesca Vieri.
May you like
On the back:
THE LAST SHEPHERD DOESN’T KNOW SHE’S ONE.
