Chapter 10 - The Man Beside Vincent
Vincent moved before I did.
“Marco.”
His voice stopped the room.
Marco’s hand emerged slowly.
Holding a phone.
Not a weapon.
He placed it on the altar.
“If I wanted Nora dead, she would not have survived the ballroom.”
I hated how calmly he said it.
Vincent did too.
“Explain the photograph.”
Marco looked at me.
“I followed Elena.”
“Why?”
“To protect her.”
“From whom?”
“Renato.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“You worked for me eleven years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And you found my sister.”
“Yes.”
The betrayal hit him physically.
I saw it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she begged me not to.”
“That excuse is becoming very popular.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“She had cancer.”
“I could have seen her.”
“She didn’t want you to.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“No.”
Marco met his eyes.
“I made the wrong choice.”
Vincent looked ready to break something.
Instead he asked,
“How did you find her?”
“Luca.”
That name again.
“Luca told you?”
“He was afraid Renato had discovered Elena’s location.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
Marco looked at me.
“Your mother moved twice during her final year.”
“Did Renato reach her?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was outside the hospice the night she died.”
I stared at him.
“She died in a hospital.”
“No.”
My entire body went cold.
“What?”
“The hospital record was another cover.”
“Stop.”
“Nora—”
“My mother died at St. Catherine’s Hospital.”
“That is what she wanted you to believe.”
I stood.
The chapel tilted.
“She told me she was being transferred.”
“She was.”
“To a private hospice.”
“Why?”
“Because Renato had found the hospital.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Was I there?”
“No.”
“I left because she told me to go home and sleep.”
“Yes.”
“She died that night.”
“Yes.”
“And I wasn’t with her.”
Marco’s eyes softened.
“She arranged it that way.”
I hated her for one second.
Then hated myself for hating her.
Marco continued.
“She didn’t want your last memory to be watching her die.”
My knees weakened.
Vincent pulled out a chair.
I sat because I had to.
“What happened?”
“She died just after 3:17 in the morning.”
I looked at the paper from the locket.
B.H. 317.
Three seventeen.
Maybe it had two meanings.
“What did she do before she died?”
Marco looked toward Vincent.
“She recorded another message.”
“Where?”
“Luca has it.”
“And Luca?”
“Waiting.”
“Where?”
Marco took the phone.
A location was displayed.
An old church in Brooklyn.
Vincent immediately moved.
I stood.
“You’re not leaving me.”
“Nora—”
“No.”
“This may be dangerous.”
“I was publicly beaten six days ago, shot at three days ago, and informed that half my family has lied to me since birth.”
I picked up my coat.
“My definition of dangerous has become flexible.”
We went.
Luca was waiting inside the church.
Alone.
He looked exhausted.
Vincent approached him.
Twenty-six years of loyalty stood between them.
And one devastating lie.
“You found Elena.”
“Yes.”
“You kept her from me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Luca reached into his coat.
Vincent’s men tensed.
He produced a cassette.
“Because this was what she wanted.”
Vincent stared at it.
Luca looked at me.
“Your mother saved my life before you were born.”
“How?”
“My father worked for Renato.”
Luca’s voice hardened.
“When I learned what he was planning to do to Elena, I tried to warn her.”
“Renato found out.”
“He ordered my father to kill me.”
I swallowed.
“Elena got to me first.”
She hid Luca.
Helped him disappear.
Later, he returned the debt by helping her escape.
“My father killed Dominic,” Luca said.
Nobody moved.
“On Renato’s orders.”
His voice cracked.
“I spent the rest of my life trying to undo what he did.”
Vincent stared at him.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Luca looked at the cassette.
“Because Elena didn’t trust what you had become.”
That landed.
Vincent said nothing.
Luca handed me the tape.
“Her final recording.”
I found an old player in the church office.
My mother’s voice came through.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
“Nora…”
I closed my eyes.
“I don’t have much time.”
She told me she loved me.
She apologized.
Then she addressed Vincent.
“My brother…”
Vincent looked down.
“If you are hearing this, you became exactly as powerful as everyone expected.”
A pause.
“I hope you became better than they expected.”
Vincent’s face tightened.
Then came the warning.
“Renato did not act alone.”
We already knew.
But the next sentence changed the shape of the entire mystery.
“The person who opened Belladonna’s gate was not a soldier.”
“It was family.”
Vincent looked at Luca.
Luca shook his head.
He didn’t know.
My mother continued.
“Vittoria discovered the name before she died.”
“She wrote it in Ledger Three.”
“Page three hundred seventeen.”
B.H. 317.
Belladonna Holdings.
Ledger 3.
Page 17?
No.
Luca opened the third ledger.
Turned to page 317.
The page had been cut out.
Cleanly.
Recently.
Vincent looked around the church.
Only four people had handled the books after we found them.
Me.
Vincent.
Marco.
And Rosa.
Then my phone rang.
Rosa’s number.
I answered.
A man spoke.
“Looking for a missing page?”
Renato.
Behind his voice, I heard someone crying.
An elderly woman.
“Rosa?”
Renato laughed softly.
“Bring me the locket.”
May you like
My blood froze.
“Or your old friend won’t make it home.”
