Saint Brigid's Bells
Chapter 10 - Saint Brigid's Bells
Saint Brigid's stood behind a rusted iron gate and a line of winter-bare trees.
It did not look evil.
That was the trouble with places where terrible things happened. They often looked ordinary afterward. Brick walls. Broken windows. A statue with moss over one cheek. A bell tower leaning slightly toward the gray sky.
Anna expected screams, guards, evidence announcing itself.
Instead, there were birds.
Adrian's men entered first and quietly. No sirens. No dramatic storming. The world did not change because justice arrived; justice had to pick locks and check corners.
Anna waited in the second car with Evelyn and Bianca while the first sweep cleared the building.
Bianca had not spoken since they left the estate.
Evelyn watched her without hatred.
That unsettled Anna more than anger would have.
"How can you look at her?" Anna asked quietly.
Evelyn turned from the window. "Because if I only look at what she did to me, I miss what was done to her."
"That sounds like forgiveness."
"No." Evelyn's voice was gentle. "It is accuracy. Forgiveness is different. I am not there yet."
Bianca's mouth trembled.
Before she could speak, Marco opened the car door.
"You need to see this."
Inside, Saint Brigid's smelled of old dust and bleach. Recent bleach. The chapel had been cleared in a hurry. Mattresses lined one wall. Plastic crates sat open, half-filled with clothes too small for adults. On a desk lay medical charts with names written in code.
Anna stopped at the sight of children's shoes beneath a bench.
Not many.
Too many.
Adrian stood near the altar with a photograph in his hand.
His face told Anna before he spoke.
"They moved them last night."
Bianca made a small, broken sound.
"How many?" Evelyn asked.
Marco answered. "Seven recently. More over the years. This was a holding place."
Anna gripped the back of a pew.
Her father had found this.
He had not run from his family.
He had run toward other people's children.
"There is a lower level," Adrian said. "Samuel marked bells on the map. We found the bell rope. It doesn't go up."
They followed it down through a trapdoor behind the altar.
Beneath the chapel was a cellar lined with old stone niches where nuns had once stored food or wine. Someone had turned it into an office. File boxes filled the shelves. A radio sat on a desk beside a half-eaten sandwich.
And on the far wall, in black marker, someone had drawn the same carpenter's symbol Anna had seen under the bridal suite.
SP.
Below it: ANNA, IF YOU ARE HERE, I AM EITHER LATE OR DEAD. CHECK THE BELL.
Anna could not breathe.
Adrian reached for the old brass bell mounted above the desk. Its clapper had been removed. Inside the hollow body, wrapped in cloth, was a small recorder and a folded photograph.
The photograph showed a boy of about ten.
Dark hair. Serious eyes. A narrow scar near his chin.
On the back, Samuel had written: Bianca's son. They call him Leo Voss. He knows another name.
Bianca sank to the floor.
"Matteo," she whispered.
Evelyn knelt beside her.
Bianca clutched the photograph to her chest and rocked once, a movement so private that Anna had to look away.
Then the recorder clicked on under Marco's thumb.
Samuel Price's voice filled the cellar.
Older. Hoarse. Alive when recorded.
"Anna," he said, and his voice broke on her name. "If this reaches you, I am sorry for every birthday I missed. I thought saving the children would lead me home. I was wrong about the road, not the promise."
Anna covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
"The next transport leaves from Pier 19 after midnight. They are moving the boy with the scar because Bianca started asking questions again. Do not trust Carlo Moretti. Do not trust Peter Voss. And if Adrian Moretti is listening—"
The recorder crackled.
Samuel's voice lowered.
"Your bride saved my life once. Save hers properly this time."
The message ended.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Adrian turned to Marco.
"Pier 19. Tonight."
Bianca looked up, still clutching the photograph.
"If they see me, Matteo may remember."
Adrian stared at his sister for a long moment.
Then he said, "Then you come. But if you betray us again, I will not be your brother in that moment."
Bianca nodded.
"I know."
Above them, the old convent bell suddenly rang once, though no one was in the tower.
Marco's radio hissed.
"Boss," a guard said, voice tight. "We have movement outside. Multiple vehicles."
May you like
Adrian looked toward the stairs.
The Voss family had come back to erase the convent.
