The Fall(75)

My head was going to explode with the information. This whole time, Franco Santini’s son had been right under his nose and he’d never known. Hell, if he found out it would send a tidal wave of ramifications that I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Oh my God, poor Rose. She must have been terrified. She had lived in fear for months, hidden away here while she tried to bring her child into the world. She was right about one thing. If Franco had ever found out about Michael, he would have never let him go, pulling him so deep into his world there would be no humanity left.

It was such a cruel twist of fate that he ended up in that life anyway. It begged the question as to how hard can we really fight our DNA? Had the echoes in his blood of Franco’s brutality drawn him to the underworld? There was no way we would ever know. The only saving grace was that he didn’t have ties to anyone, no formal allegiances. All he had to do was leave and he would be free from it, from them, something that wouldn’t have been possible if his last name was Santini.

Look at what happened to me. I was living proof that blood ties were almost impossible to break.

I understood why Sister Catherine fought so long and hard to keep it buried. Even though deep down inside me I knew he deserved to know, once that lid was opened, nothing in his world would ever be the same.

Will you tell him? A voice whispered from deep inside of me.

“I don’t know.” I answered the empty room.





There was a large field.

In it tall pale blue cornflowers grew, their petals curling up toward the sun’s light. The thin green stems bent just slightly in the gentle breeze. It was beautiful, peaceful, and as I looked out into the horizon the endless landscape seemed to stretch eternally.

There was a woman, mid-twenties with long, wavy, dark hair walking through the cornflowers with slow steady steps. The white dress she wore was covered in a fine film of blue powder but she was laughing, clearly not minding the stain.

“Hello.” I smiled as she came closer, her brown eyes so bright they almost didn’t seem real. “I’m Sofia.” I held out my hand, waiting for her to take it.

“I know.” Her pale pink lips spread into a grin before she turned back to the horizon. “It’s a beautiful day isn’t it?”

I dropped my hand feeling a little stupid that I didn’t know who she was. “Yes, it is.”

She breathed in deep, her eyes closing as her chest expanded to maximum. “Such a beautiful day.”

I watched her, mesmerized as she pushed out the breath and threw her head back in a throaty laugh before continuing to walk forward.

“Where are you going?” I called out, her body moving faster through the sea of blue flowers taking her further and further away.

“Wherever I want to.” She laughed, her hair flowing behind her as she continued to run until I couldn’t see her anymore.

“Wait!” My body tried to surge forward, hoping I could catch her and at the very least ask her name. “Wait.”

But I didn’t move; my legs staying rooted in their spot despite me willing them to walk. It was then when I looked down hoping to see what was wrong with my feet that I saw that I was wearing the same white dress.

Except instead of the soft hew of blue smeared across the front, there was a deep shade of red.

And it was on my hands too.

“Quick, you must wake up!”

I wasn’t sure if I’d dreamt it or someone was in the room speaking to me. The landscape faded taking with it the cornflowers, the field and the sun. I returned to black, my eyes slowly sliding open as the light beside my bed turned on.

“You have to hide or they will find you.” This time the voice was more insistent, startling me awake.

“What?” My body shot up off the mattress as my brain suddenly kicked into gear. “What’s happening?”

“There’s no time.” One of the nuns—I think her name was Rachel?—tossed my clothes at me. “They will be here soon.”

“Who, who is coming?” I sat up, throwing jeans and a sweater over my pajamas. The urgency in her voice hinted that I didn’t have time to properly dress.

“Sister Catherine is sick, we had to call an ambulance.” She picked up my two bags I had purposely left packed and held them out toward me. “Please, you must go hide before they get here.”

“I can help,” I ignored the bags hurrying toward the doorway. “I’ve been trained in first aid.”

“No, you can’t.” She cut off my exit, dropping my bags in front of me and bracing her arms either side of the door. “They will find you and then we’ll all be in danger. Please, you can’t be here when they come. You must hide.”

I had no idea what was wrong with Sister Catherine but whatever it was I knew that every second counted. She needed me, and I owed her.

“Please, I’ll be quick. Just let me see her and then I’ll do whatever you want me to.”

Sister Rachel hesitated, her fingers turning white as they squeezed against the doorframe. “One minute, and then you have to go.”

She had barely moved to the side when I sped past her, my bare feet pounding against the floorboards as I raced into Sister Catherine’s room.

I gasped when I saw her and not because it was the first time I’d seen her without her habit.