Chapter 5 - The Sins Of The Father
I froze, staring down the dark barrel of Luca’s gun.
Leo whimpered and buried his face in my neck.
My maternal instinct overrode my terror. I shifted my body, shielding my son completely.
“Shoot me if you want,” I cried, tears spilling over my cheeks. “But David didn’t kill your father. He died trying to protect him!”
Luca’s finger lingered on the trigger guard. His eyes were completely unreadable.
“David Dawson was the chief accountant for the Bellini family,” Luca said coldly. “He had access to my father’s vault. Five years ago, the vault was breached, my father was shot, and David vanished.”
“He didn’t vanish!” I screamed. “He was murdered! They found his car in the river three weeks later. The police ruled it a suicide, but he left me a voicemail that night, Luca. He told me the Bellinis were framing him. He told me he hid the proof.”
Luca didn’t move. “Where?”
“In a cedar box. Inside Antonio Moretti’s library.”
The silence in the room was deafening.
Luca slowly lowered the weapon.
The pieces clicked together in his eyes.
Vanessa hadn’t just stolen the cedar box to sell the letters inside. She stole the box because David Dawson had slipped his confession and the real vault codes into it five years ago.
Vanessa was marrying Luca to ensure the Bellini family’s involvement in his father’s murder was buried forever.
And the custody paper?
If I ever found out the truth, Vanessa and Aaron Pike were going to use Leo to blackmail me into silence.
Luca looked at my terrified son.
He holstered his weapon.
He knelt down on the ruined carpet, putting himself at eye level with Leo.
“I’m sorry I scared you, Leo,” Luca said quietly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy silver chain bearing a St. Christopher medal. He slipped it over my son’s head. “This protects travelers. It’s going to keep you safe tonight.”
Leo touched the medal, his wide eyes looking up at the mafia boss.
“Thank you,” Leo whispered.
Luca stood up and looked at me. The coldness was gone, replaced by a burning, terrifying resolve.
“Grab whatever you need for the boy,” Luca ordered. “We’re leaving.”
“Where?”
“A safehouse. Daniel is on his way.”
Twenty minutes later, we were in a fortified penthouse downtown. Daniel stood guard at the door.
I put Leo to bed in the guest room. When I came out, Luca was staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city lights reflecting in his dark eyes.
“She has the box, Claire,” he said, not turning around. “If she destroys what your husband left inside, the Bellini family gets away with my father’s murder. And Aaron Pike gets away with yours.”
“I know.”
“I have to go back to the estate.”
“She’s going to know you know,” I warned.
“I don’t care.” Luca turned to me. “Keep the doors locked.”
He left.
I sat on the couch for two agonizing hours, clutching the St. Christopher medal around my own neck.
At 1:15 A.M., my phone buzzed on the glass coffee table.
It was a text from Luca.
I’m in her room. The suitcase is here.
I texted back: Did you find the box?
My screen showed the typing bubbles for an eternity.
Finally, a photo came through.
It was the cedar box, sitting on Vanessa’s bed.
But the brass lock had been smashed open with a hammer.
And the box was completely, totally empty.
My phone rang. I answered it immediately.
May you like
“Claire,” Luca’s voice was hollow. “She burned them. The ashes are still warm in the fireplace.”
TITLE: The Yellowed Envelopes And The Blue Ribbon
