Chapter 5 - THE HOSPITAL BRACELET
The ballroom started to spin.
The crystal chandeliers blurred into streaks of blinding light.
"Born alive?" I choked out, grabbing the edge of the table to keep from collapsing. "What do you mean it was born alive?"
Vincent lunged forward, grabbing Caterina by the shoulders. "You told me she miscarried! You told me it was a tragedy!"
Caterina shoved Vincent off her with a strength I didn't know she had.
"I lied to you, Vincent!" she yelled, her Italian accent thick with rage. "Because if I told you the truth, you would have told Antonio! And they would have killed the child!"
"Why would they kill a baby?!" I screamed.
Caterina looked at me, her chest heaving. "Because the baby wasn't David's."
The silence in the room was deafening. The remaining guests were practically holding their breath.
"What?" Vincent whispered.
"Anna was pregnant before she met David," Caterina explained, her voice dropping lower. "She met a boy in New York. A good boy. A civilian. When David’s father forced the engagement, Anna was already two months along."
I covered my mouth. My beautiful, independent daughter had been carrying a child, terrified and alone, trapped in an arranged mafia marriage she couldn't escape.
"David found out," Caterina continued. "He beat the boy in New York half to death and told Anna if she didn't get rid of the baby, he would finish the job."
Tears streamed down my face. I looked at Vincent. "You did this. You forced her into this monster's arms."
Vincent was weeping now, sinking into a chair, his head in his hands.
"When Anna went into early labor in February," Caterina said, "she called me. She knew I had connections to the underground clinics because of Marco. I helped her deliver the baby in secret."
"Where is the child?" I begged, stepping toward her. "Caterina, please, where is my grandchild?"
Caterina looked down at the plastic hospital bracelet around her wrist.
"I took the baby to a convent in Rome. I hid him. But yesterday, the nuns called me. The child was taken in the middle of the night."
She looked at the ballroom doors where David and Anna had just disappeared.
"That is what David showed her in the photograph. He has her son. And he is using him to force her to the altar."
I didn't hesitate. I didn't look at my husband. I didn't look at the mistress who was his niece.
I picked up my purse from the table.
"Evelyn," Vincent said, standing up quickly. "Where are you going? You can't fight them. Antonio controls the police, the judges, everything."
"I am going to get my daughter," I said, my voice cold as ice. "And my grandson."
"How?" Vincent cried. "You're a housewife, Evelyn! These men are killers!"
I stopped and looked at the man who had sold our family for a shipping port.
"I was a housewife," I said. "Before you introduced our family to monsters."
I walked out of the ballroom, leaving my broken marriage behind.
I didn't know how to fight the mafia. I didn't own a gun. I didn't have soldiers.
But I had something else.
I walked out to the valet, got my coat, and pulled out my cell phone. I dialed a number I hadn't called in thirty years.
It rang twice.
A deep, gravelly voice answered.
"Hello?"
"Frank," I said, my voice shaking. "It's Evelyn."
A long pause on the other end of the line.
"Evelyn," Frank said softly. "It's been a very long time."
"I need your help," I whispered. "Vincent gave Anna to the Chicago syndicate."
Silence. Then, the sound of a chair scraping against a wooden floor.
"Where are they?" Frank asked.
"I don't know yet. But David took her."
"I'll be in Chicago in three hours," Frank said.
He was about to hang up, but I stopped him.
"Frank?"
"Yeah, Evie?"
"Vincent also... Vincent also had a mistress."
"I know," Frank said.
My heart skipped a beat. "You know?"
"I know a lot of things, Evelyn. Including what's inside the safety deposit box your mother left you."
I froze.
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"What safety deposit box?" I asked.
"The one with the key hidden inside the clasp of the sapphire necklace," Frank replied. "The necklace Vincent just gave to Serena."
