Chapter 5 - THE BRACELET FROM THE GRAVE
The call disconnected with a hollow click.
The silence in the dining room was absolute. Every guest, every guard, and Luca himself had heard Michael’s voice echoing from my phone.
"Check the pocket," Luca ordered, his voice terrifyingly flat.
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the heavy black peacoat. I dug my fingers into the inner breast pocket.
My fingers brushed against cold, heavy metal.
I pulled it out.
It was a thick, antique gold bracelet, heavily tarnished and twisted into the shape of a serpent with emerald eyes.
I didn't understand what it meant. But the moment the gold hit the dim emergency lighting, Luca Moretti stepped back as if he had been shot in the chest.
All the color drained from his face.
"Where did you get that?" he whispered, his voice cracking for the first time since I’d met him.
"It was in the coat," I stammered, holding it out to him. "Luca, what is it?"
He didn't take it from me. He just stared at it, his breathing turning ragged.
"Twenty-two years ago," Luca said, his eyes entirely hollow, "my mother was killed in a hit-and-run on the South Side. The police said it was a random robbery. Her purse was gone. And they took the bracelet right off her wrist."
The room was deathly quiet.
"Michael was fourteen," Luca continued, staring at the emerald eyes of the serpent. "He was the one who found her body in the alley. He swore to my father he didn't see who did it."
My stomach plummeted.
Michael hadn't just found her.
"He kept it," Luca breathed, the realization settling over him like a suffocating blanket. "My own brother. He took it off her wrist."
"Luca..." Claudia whimpered from the fireplace, her voice trembling. "Michael didn't kill her. Your father did."
Luca snapped his head toward her, pulling his gun from his shoulder holster in one fluid motion. He pointed it directly at his fiancée’s chest.
"What did you just say?"
Claudia fell to her knees, sobbing openly now. "Michael told me! The old man ordered the hit because she was going to the feds! Michael was in the alley waiting to retrieve the evidence she was carrying. He took the bracelet to keep it safe from the cops."
"And you knew this?" Luca roared, the gun steady in his hand. "You sat at my table, wore my ring, and conspired with my brother?"
"He threatened me!" she screamed. "He said if I didn't help him get rid of Noah, he would tell you about my past! About the money I embezzled before we met! He said Noah was the only thing standing between him and the head of the family."
"Noah is a child!" I yelled, stepping between Luca's gun and Claudia. "He's deaf, not a threat to a mafia empire!"
"You don't understand," Claudia spat, looking at me with pure venom. "By syndicate law, the eldest son inherits the seat. But if the son is deemed 'unfit' or 'disabled,' leadership passes to the brother. Michael needed Noah gone. And he needed Luca broken by the betrayal of a trusted servant." She glared at me. "You."
Noah tugged frantically on my sleeve.
I looked down. His brown eyes were wide with urgency.
Uncle Michael has a secret room, Noah signed rapidly. In the carriage house. Behind the old cars. I saw him put boxes there.
I looked at Luca and translated. "Noah says Michael has a hidden room in the carriage house."
Luca slowly lowered his gun. He looked at his son, then at Claudia.
"Lock her in the wine cellar," Luca told the guards. "If she speaks, gag her."
As they dragged a screaming Claudia away, Luca turned to me. The mafia boss facade had slipped, revealing a deeply wounded, dangerous man.
"Stay here with Noah," he commanded.
"No," I said firmly, grabbing his arm. "Michael has my family. I'm going with you."
Luca looked at my hand on his arm, then up to my eyes. He gave a single, tight nod.
We ran across the dark lawn toward the carriage house. Luca kicked the heavy wooden door open. Inside, it smelled of motor oil and dust.
Following Noah's description, Luca moved a heavy tarp covering a vintage Mustang. Behind it was a reinforced steel door.
Luca didn't bother picking the lock. He shot it off the hinges.
We stepped inside.
The room was a makeshift office, walls covered in surveillance photos of Luca, of me, and of Noah.
But sitting on the center desk was a thick, manila medical file with Noah's name on it.
I opened it.
May you like
My breath caught in my throat.
"Luca," I whispered. "Noah wasn't born deaf."
