Chapter 7 - THE SILVER ROSARY
Michael stared at the silver rosary in my palm, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“That’s impossible,” he breathed, stepping away from me as if the small cross were made of fire. “I lost that rosary four years ago. The night Isabella disappeared.”
Luca turned slowly from the child’s drawing.
His eyes locked onto his brother.
The grief in his face instantly hardened into absolute suspicion.
“You lost it?” Luca repeated, his voice dangerously soft. “Or you dropped it when you were dragging Isabella into a car?”
“Luca, I swear to God—”
“You swore to God you protected her!” Luca roared, closing the distance between them and shoving Michael hard against the basement wall. “You told me you hid her! You told me you paid for this place!”
“I did!” Michael shouted, shoving back. “I loved her too, Luca! She was my sister!”
I stood between them, holding the rosary tightly.
“Stop it!” I yelled, surprising even myself.
Both men froze, looking at me.
“My mother is missing,” I said, my voice shaking with rage and terror. “Isabella is missing. If you two tear each other apart, they are going to die. Look at the rosary, Michael. Really look at it.”
I held it up to the dim bulb swinging from the ceiling.
The silver chain was covered in a thick, dark tarnish. But the cross itself was polished clean.
“Someone has been wearing this recently,” I pointed out, tracing the shiny silver cross. “Someone who wanted us to find it.”
Luca stepped back, running a hand over his wet hair.
“Vanessa,” he muttered.
Michael shook his head. “Vanessa is tied up in my car. She couldn’t have planted this here.”
“No,” I realized, my blood running cold. “But she could have given it to the men who took them. She wanted to frame you, Michael. If the police found this, or if Luca found it, you would take the fall for Isabella’s murder.”
Luca’s expression darkened.
“Vanessa has been playing us from the start. She manipulated my father, she manipulated me, and now she’s trying to eliminate the only people who can expose her.”
He walked past us and headed straight up the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked, following him.
“To get answers,” Luca said coldly.
We ran out of the shattered house and back to the SUV parked down the block.
Teresa was in the front seat, holding a sleeping Lily in her arms.
But the back door of the SUV was wide open.
The zip-ties were lying on the pavement, sliced cleanly in half.
Vanessa was gone.
“Damn it!” Michael cursed, kicking the tire. “She had a knife hidden on her. I should have searched her better.”
Luca didn’t panic.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“She’s running back to the mansion,” Luca said, dialing a number. “She needs to secure the estate before I can legally challenge my father’s will.”
He put the phone to his ear, waiting for his head of security to answer.
But it went straight to voicemail.
Luca dialed again. Same result.
“She bought them,” Luca realized, lowering the phone. “She paid off my own security team.”
“Luca,” Teresa called out softly from the passenger seat.
We walked over.
The old woman was pale, but her eyes were sharp and clear.
“Vanessa didn’t act alone four years ago,” Teresa said quietly. “And she isn’t acting alone now.”
Luca frowned. “What do you mean, Mom?”
Teresa gently stroked Lily’s hair.
“When your father died, he left a private ledger. A list of offshore accounts he never told anyone about. I found it in his study a week after the funeral.”
Michael leaned in. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because the accounts were empty,” Teresa explained. “Someone had drained millions of dollars the night he died. I always thought it was the Rossi family. But last week, I found a bank statement hidden in Vanessa’s vanity.”
Teresa reached into her cardigan and handed Luca a folded piece of paper.
“She didn’t just want to marry you, Luca. She’s been funding a private militia for four years. She’s planning a hostile takeover of the entire Moretti syndicate.”
Luca unfolded the paper.
His eyes scanned the numbers, and the muscle in his jaw twitched.
“She’s bringing them to the mansion tonight,” Luca said. “Under the guise of the engagement party.”
I looked at the house I had grown up in, now shattered and empty.
My mother was out there somewhere, terrified and hurting.
“We have to call the police,” I said.
“The police can’t touch Vanessa inside that estate,” Michael told me gently. “She has lawyers. She has politicians in her pocket. If they raid the house, she’ll have Isabella and your mother killed before the cops even breach the gates.”
I felt a tear slip down my cheek.
“Then how do I get my mom back?”
Luca turned to me.
The cold, ruthless mafia boss was gone.
In his place stood a father, a son, and a man who had finally woken up.
May you like
“We don’t call the police,” Luca said, loading a fresh magazine into his handgun.
“We go back to the party. We walk right through the front door. And we tear her empire to the ground.”
