Chapter 6 - THE PEARL NECKLACE
The air in the greenhouse felt heavy, suffocating.
Matteo walked slowly toward the rotting wooden table, his eyes locked on the pearl necklace. He reached out with trembling fingers, brushing the smooth, iridescent spheres.
“My father gave this to her on their twentieth anniversary,” Matteo said, his voice barely a whisper. “When she died, I placed it around her neck myself before they closed the casket. The family mausoleum requires three separate keys to open.”
Answer One: The person orchestrating this nightmare wasn't just a rival boss looking for territory. It was someone who hated Matteo enough to desecrate his mother’s grave just to send a psychological message.
But Open Two: Who had access to all three keys?
“Boss,” Vince said, holding Mia tightly against his chest. “We need to get the girl back to the main house. Whoever was guarding her might come back.”
“Nobody was guarding her, Vince,” a voice echoed from the shadows of the greenhouse.
Matteo instantly raised his gun, pointing it toward the dark corner near the dead orchids. I gripped the heavy silver pistol in my hands, my heart hammering in my throat.
A figure stepped out of the darkness.
It wasn't a heavily armed thug.
It wasn't a rival mob boss.
It was Clara.
Matteo’s sister.
She was no longer crying. The hysterical, terrified mother from the dining room was gone. She stood tall, her posture rigid, her eyes cold and empty.
“Clara?” Matteo breathed, lowering his gun a fraction. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in the dining room with Leo.”
“Leo is safe,” Clara said, taking a step forward. Her elegant evening gown brushed against the dead leaves on the floor. “I left him with my personal guards. I had to come see if your clever little maid actually figured out the drawing.”
Clara looked at me. A smile of pure condescension twisted her lips.
“You really are a nuisance, Natalie. I put the blue coat in your closet. I placed the poison on Bianca’s cake. You were supposed to stay quiet and take the blame when Marco confessed. But you just couldn't keep your mouth shut.”
Reversal: Bianca wasn't the mastermind. Clara was. Matteo’s own sister had orchestrated the poisoning of her own son and the attempted assassination of her brother.
“You poisoned Leo?” Matteo roared, his voice shaking with a rage so profound it seemed to vibrate the glass walls of the greenhouse. “You nearly killed your own child?!”
“It was a micro-dose, Matteo!” Clara snapped back. “Just enough to make him sick! Just enough to plant the seed of doubt about Bianca’s fitness to be in this family! I had to get rid of her!”
“Why?” I asked, stepping forward, unable to stay silent in the face of such absolute madness. “Why use Bianca? Why kidnap Marco’s daughter?”
Clara glared at me. “Because Bianca wasn't just a gold-digger. She was dangerous. I found out who she really is. I confronted her, and she threatened to expose me. She told me that if I interfered with the wedding, she would tell Matteo the truth about what I did.”
Answer One: Clara used the poisonings to frame Bianca, aiming to break the engagement and silence her blackmailer in one stroke.
“What truth?” Matteo demanded, his gun raised again, aiming directly at his own sister. “What did you do, Clara? What could possibly be worth destroying our family?”
Clara looked at the pearl necklace on the table. Tears finally welled in her eyes, but they were tears of deep, agonizing guilt.
“I didn't dig up mother’s grave, Matteo,” Clara whispered. “I didn't have to.”
Clara reached into the small beaded clutch she was holding. She pulled out a small, wrinkled piece of paper and dropped it onto the dirt floor.
I stepped forward and picked it up.
It was a faded, punched train ticket.
New York to Montreal.
Dated exactly fifteen years ago. The exact night their mother died in a tragic car accident.
“Mother wasn't wearing the pearls when she died,” Clara sobbed, covering her face with her hands. “Because she gave them to me at the train station. She was trying to help me run away. She was in the car driving home alone when the brakes failed.”
Matteo stared at the train ticket, the realization hitting him with the force of a physical blow.
May you like
But before he could speak, the glass roof of the greenhouse shattered.
Gunfire rained down from the tree line.
