Chapter 7 - THE GOLD BUTTON
Sebastian stared at the button.
“That proves nothing.”
Elena laughed through her tears.
“That is exactly what you told me eleven years ago.”
Vincent took the rosary.
The button was small.
Gold.
Hand-engraved with the same Marconi crest as Dominic’s cufflink.
Grace felt something cold move through her.
Two objects.
Two deaths.
Two pieces of Sebastian Marconi left behind.
“The cufflink was with Dominic,” Grace said.
Elena nodded.
“And this was at Antonio’s body.”
“Yes.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“I was in the room. Of course something from my coat could have fallen.”
Elena looked at him.
“Not where I found it.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
“In Antonio’s hand.”
Silence.
Sebastian’s face finally changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
Grace understood before anyone spoke.
Antonio had grabbed Sebastian.
Possibly during the final shot.
Possibly after.
Vincent walked toward Sebastian.
“You knew my father had this.”
“No.”
“Elena?”
She nodded.
“I took it before police arrived.”
“Why?”
“Because I recognized it.”
“And you protected him.”
“Yes.”
“For eleven years.”
“Yes.”
Vincent’s mouth tightened.
Elena removed the engagement ring from the table where she had carried it from Blackthorn and placed it beside the gold button.
The diamond suddenly looked ridiculous.
“I can’t undo that.”
“No.”
“I can tell the truth now.”
“That would have meant more before tonight.”
“I know.”
Grace watched her.
Elena did not ask for forgiveness.
That helped.
Sebastian sat again.
The confidence was disappearing.
But he still wasn’t defeated.
“You have a cufflink and a button.”
Grace looked at him.
“And two dead Bellinis.”
His eyes shifted toward her.
“You want me to be the answer because it makes the story simple.”
“No.”
Grace’s voice remained steady.
“I want the truth even if it makes everybody ugly.”
Salvatore looked at her.
Maybe that sentence hurt him most.
Vincent placed the button beside the watch.
“Antonio grabbed Sebastian. That still doesn’t prove who fired in the dark.”
“No,” Grace said.
“It doesn’t.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
Then Grace looked at Elena.
“What else happened after the lights came back?”
Elena thought.
“My father was beside Antonio.”
“Salvatore?”
“Near Gabriel.”
“Where was the gun?”
“By Gabriel’s hand.”
Grace looked at Salvatore.
“You said you and Sebastian moved the bodies.”
“Yes.”
“Who put the gun there?”
Silence.
Vincent stepped toward him.
“Salvatore.”
The old man’s shoulders fell.
“I did.”
Grace stared.
“Why?”
“Sebastian told me if police believed Gabriel came to kill Antonio, nobody would ask why he was meeting him.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Because investigators would find the federal cooperation.”
“Yes.”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“So protecting me again.”
Salvatore’s eyes filled.
“I thought I was.”
“You keep saying that like it’s a blessing.”
“I know.”
Grace looked at Sebastian.
“You let Gabriel take the blame.”
“Yes.”
“And Elena?”
Sebastian’s mouth tightened.
“I told her silence protected her mother.”
Elena looked at him.
“Mom was dying.”
“She needed treatment.”
“You told me Vincent would retaliate against all of us if he learned Gabriel was innocent.”
Sebastian glanced toward Vincent.
“Would he not have?”
Vincent answered himself.
“In 2015?”
A long pause.
“I don’t know.”
Grace appreciated that.
A lie would have been easier.
Vincent continued.
“But I deserved the choice.”
“Yes,” Elena whispered.
Grace picked up Gabriel’s rosary.
“Why did my mother say Elena knows?”
Elena looked at the beads.
“Because I met Maria after the funeral.”
Grace froze.
“You saw my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Eleven years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A motel outside Milwaukee.”
Grace could barely process it.
“My mother met you.”
“She contacted me through Gabriel’s old email address.”
“What did she want?”
“To know how he died.”
Grace’s anger shifted toward Maria now.
Everyone had met everyone.
Everyone had hidden something from her.
“What did you tell her?”
“The same thing I believed.”
“That Salvatore shot Antonio?”
“Yes.”
“And your father killed Gabriel.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she send me here?”
“Because she didn’t believe me.”
Grace stared.
Elena looked ashamed.
“Maria said Gabriel would never point at Salvatore unless he meant something specific.”
Salvatore stiffened.
Grace caught it.
“What specific thing?”
No answer.
“Salvatore.”
He looked at Grace.
“Gabriel knew about Dominic.”
“We know that.”
“He also knew I helped Maria leave.”
“So?”
“He didn’t believe I killed Dominic.”
Grace frowned.
“But he pointed at you and said, ‘Tell Vincent what you did.’”
Salvatore nodded slowly.
“He wasn’t talking about Antonio.”
Vincent went still.
“What was he talking about?”
Salvatore looked at the watch.
Then the black lion medallion around Grace’s neck.
“Your father’s plan.”
“What plan?”
Salvatore’s face crumpled.
“Antonio wanted out.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“You said he was cooperating.”
“More than that.”
Salvatore rubbed his forehead.
“He was going to divide the legal businesses, close the criminal operations, and give evidence against the men who refused.”
“Including you.”
“Yes.”
“And Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
Grace understood.
Gabriel pointing at Salvatore had not been an accusation of murder.
It had been an accusation of betrayal.
He was demanding Salvatore tell Vincent that Antonio wanted the Moretti world changed.
That shattered the interpretation everyone had carried for eleven years.
Elena covered her mouth.
“Oh God.”
Salvatore nodded.
“That’s why I argued with him.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You didn’t want me to know.”
“I thought the old structure was the only thing keeping you alive.”
“And my father?”
“He thought it was killing you slowly.”
Vincent’s face went still.
That sentence landed somewhere private.
Grace looked at Sebastian.
The suspicion had shifted again.
Not vanished.
Sharpened.
Salvatore had fired the first shot.
But Gabriel’s accusation had not been about murder.
Sebastian had killed Dominic.
Sebastian had killed Gabriel.
Antonio had held Sebastian’s gold button.
The direction was clear.
But Grace wanted more than direction.
She wanted truth.
“Maria,” she said.
Vincent looked at her.
“What?”
“I want my mother.”
Grace’s voice cracked for the first time.
“Not another photograph. Not another story somebody tells me about her.”
She held up the child’s drawing.
“I want to hear why she let me hate my father for twenty years.”
Elena wiped her eyes.
“Do you know where she is?”
Grace looked toward the rain-dark windows.
“Yes.”
Everyone stared.
Vincent frowned.
“You know?”
“She moved again three years ago.”
Grace swallowed.
“She lives two hours north of here.”
Salvatore looked stunned.
“You knew where Maria was?”
“Of course I knew where my mother lived.”
“Then why did she send you alone?”
“Because she said if I brought her here before the necklace was recognized, she would leave and I would never see her again.”
Vincent looked at Grace.
“So this was a test.”
“Yes.”
“For us?”
“For all of you.”
Grace picked up Dominic’s coat and folded it over her arm.
Then she took Antonio’s watch.
Vincent noticed but didn’t object.
“Where are you going?”
“To my mother.”
Vincent reached for his coat.
Grace looked at him.
“You don’t have to come.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at the cracked watch in her hand.
“Because my father’s truth is in the same graveyard as yours.”
Sebastian spoke from the desk.
“You won’t get what you think from Maria.”
Grace turned.
“What does that mean?”
He said nothing.
Elena’s face changed.
“Dad.”
Sebastian looked toward the gold button.
Then at Grace.
“Ask your mother why she disappeared before the car burned.”
Grace stared at him.
“She saw Dominic alive.”
The room froze.
Salvatore whispered, “Sebastian.”
Grace’s voice went cold.
“My mother told me she arrived after the shooting.”
Sebastian nodded.
“She lied.”
Grace felt the ground shift again.
“About what?”
Sebastian looked directly at her.
May you like
“Maria was there before your father was shot.”
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