Chapter 4 - WHY VINCENT WANTED THE CHILD
Gemma stared at her mother.
“What does that mean?”
Anna’s face had gone gray.
“The first motel was in Fort Wayne. You were asleep in the bathroom because the crib wouldn’t fit anywhere else.”
Gemma almost objected to the absurd detail.
She didn’t.
“I came back from work and the room had been searched. Nothing valuable was gone.”
“The coat?” Leo asked.
“Still there.”
“The ring?”
“Hidden in my shoe.”
“Then how do you know they wanted Gemma?”
Anna looked at her daughter.
“Because someone wrote on the mirror.”
Gemma’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Where is the little girl?”
Nobody spoke.
Leo’s expression became something Gemma had not seen before.
Fear.
Not for himself.
“Why would Vincent want her?”
Anna stood.
“I never knew.”
Leo looked at the photograph of Michael Hayes again.
Then at Gemma.
“Michael knew too much.”
“He was dead.”
“If he hid something—”
“Gemma was three months old.”
“People like Vincent don’t always think rationally when they’re afraid.”
Gemma folded her arms.
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Leo took out his phone.
She bristled.
“Who are you calling?”
“Nobody.”
He opened a photograph.
An old family picture.
Leo at maybe twenty-four.
Vincent beside him.
A younger man stood behind them.
Gemma stared.
“That’s the guy from Danny’s photo.”
Leo nodded.
“Salvatore Rizzi.”
“Who is he?”
“Vincent’s driver back then.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Still working for you?”
“No. He owns a tire shop in Berwyn.”
Gemma grabbed her coat.
Anna stood.
“No.”
“Mom.”
“No.”
“You hid this from me my entire life.”
“To keep you alive.”
“Maybe.”
Anna flinched.
Gemma hated herself for it.
But she continued.
“Or maybe because you were scared.”
“Yes.”
Anna’s answer stopped her.
“I was terrified.”
She stepped closer.
“I was twenty-three. My brother was missing. Michael was dead. Leo belonged to the family I thought caused both. I had you.”
Her voice broke.
“I didn’t make perfect decisions. I made the decisions that got you to twenty-two.”
Gemma looked away.
That was hard to argue with.
Leo said quietly, “She doesn’t go to Rizzi.”
Gemma turned on him.
“You don’t decide.”
“No.”
His eyes met hers.
“But I won’t take you to a man who may have helped kill your father.”
“Then I’ll go alone.”
Leo almost smiled.
“You really were impossible at two.”
“I learned from Mom.”
Anna nearly laughed through tears.
It was the first warmth in the room.
Brief.
Fragile.
Leo finally agreed to approach Rizzi himself first.
Not secretly.
Gemma insisted on waiting in the car across the street.
Arthur drove.
Anna refused to come.
“You go,” she told Gemma. “I’ve spent twenty-one years running from those faces.”
Gemma touched her mother’s shoulder before leaving.
Not forgiveness.
But not distance either.
Salvatore Rizzi’s tire shop sat beneath the elevated tracks.
At eleven in the morning, Leo entered alone.
Gemma watched through the windshield.
Arthur sat beside her.
“You always this cheerful?” she asked.
“Mostly.”
“You carry a gun?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t show me.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
Then Rizzi appeared in the doorway.
He was older now.
Heavyset.
White hair.
He saw the SUV.
Saw Gemma.
And dropped the cigarette in his hand.
That was enough.
“He recognizes me.”
Arthur looked over.
“Maybe.”
“No.”
Gemma opened the door.
Arthur caught her sleeve.
“Leo said—”
“I’m getting really tired of Leo saying things.”
She crossed the street.
Rizzi backed into the shop.
Leo came after him.
“Gemma.”
She ignored him.
Rizzi stared at her face.
“Jesus.”
“Do I look like Michael?”
He stopped.
Leo’s gaze sharpened.
Rizzi sat down on a stack of tires.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
She pulled out Danny’s photograph.
“You were there.”
Rizzi looked at it.
“I drove Vincent.”
“When my father died?”
Silence.
“When Uncle Danny disappeared?”
Silence.
Gemma stepped closer.
“Pick one.”
Rizzi’s face crumpled in a way she had not expected.
“He was trying to help them.”
“Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Two women from the club. They were brought in from overseas. Told they’d work restaurants.”
Leo’s jaw tightened.
Rizzi continued.
“Mike figured out they were trapped. He stole keys. Got them out.”
“What happened?”
“Vincent found out.”
Gemma’s voice fell.
“Did he kill him?”
Rizzi shook his head.
“No.”
She stared.
“No?”
“No. Mike died because I ran a red light.”
Everything stopped.
Rizzi rubbed both hands over his face.
“Vincent told me to bring Mike to a warehouse. I was driving too fast. We got hit by a delivery truck.”
Gemma felt the room tilt.
“A car accident.”
“Yes.”
“Then why was it called a construction accident?”
“Vincent moved everything.”
Leo swore under his breath.
“Why?”
“Because Mike was alive.”
Gemma froze.
“What?”
“For eleven minutes.”
Rizzi’s eyes filled.
“He told me to get something to Anna.”
Gemma stopped breathing.
“What?”
“A bracelet.”
Leo looked at him.
“What bracelet?”
“Brown leather. Little silver plate.”
Rizzi stood and walked into the office.
He opened an old metal cash drawer.
From the back, he removed a faded leather bracelet.
The silver plate was scratched almost smooth.
Three letters remained.
G.H.
Gemma Hayes.
Rizzi put it into her hand.
“He said it was for his daughter.”
Her fingers shook.
“He knew my name?”
“He picked it.”
Gemma covered her mouth.
For twenty-two years she had believed Michael Hayes was a man who had left before she could know him.
Now she held the last thing he had tried to send her.
Rizzi continued.
“Vincent arrived before the ambulance.”
Leo’s face darkened.
“What did he do?”
“Took Mike’s wallet. Took his phone.”
“And?”
Rizzi looked at Gemma.
“Mike kept saying Anna’s name.”
Gemma whispered, “Did Vincent let the ambulance come?”
“Yes.”
“So he didn’t kill him.”
“No.”
Another reversal.
Not innocence.
But not murder.
“Then Danny?” Leo asked.
Rizzi looked toward the garage door.
“That’s different.”
Gemma tightened her hand around the bracelet.
“What happened to him?”
“Danny found me two months later.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“He knew about my father?”
“Everything.”
“Then where did he go?”
Rizzi’s face filled with shame.
“He went to Vincent.”
Leo stepped closer.
“Why?”
“To trade.”
“For what?”
“Anna and the little girl.”
Gemma’s throat tightened.
Rizzi looked directly at her.
“Danny gave Vincent the photographs and promised to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because Vincent told him if he didn’t, he’d take you from Anna.”
Gemma whispered, “Take me where?”
Rizzi’s answer chilled the room.
“To Leo.”
Leo stared at him.
Rizzi continued.
“Vincent said Leo had already decided Gemma belonged in the DeLuca family.”
Leo’s face changed.
“That’s a lie.”
“I know.”
Gemma looked at him.
“How?”
“Because I was trying to adopt you legally.”
“And Vincent?”
“He wanted Anna to think I was stealing you.”
Rizzi nodded.
“That was the point.”
Not to kill Anna.
Not to kill Gemma.
To make Anna fear Leo enough to vanish forever.
Gemma looked at the leather bracelet.
“Why?”
Rizzi answered.
May you like
“Because Anna was the one person who could make Leo leave Vincent.”
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