Chapter 4 - THE GRANDMOTHER'S WARNING|
Nora left the mansion with two guards and a head full of questions.
She hated being escorted. She hated the way strangers watched the black SUV. Most of all, she hated the growing suspicion that her grandmother had spent Nora's entire life protecting her from a danger Nora had never known existed.
At the hospital, Isabella was awake.
She looked smaller than Nora remembered, her silver hair spread over the pillow, her hands resting on the blanket. The doctors had stabilized her condition, but the bills remained frightening.
Nora sat beside her.
“Nonna, I need you to tell me the truth.”
Isabella studied her face.
“What happened?”
“I met Aurelio Vescari.”
The old woman's fingers tightened around the blanket.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she whispered, “I told him never to look for me.”
“He didn't know you were alive.”
“Good.”
“Nonna, he says you're his sister.”
Isabella turned toward the window.
“I was his sister.”
Nora felt a sting behind her eyes.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the truth has teeth, bambina. And once it bites you, it doesn't let go.”
Nora told her about the archive, the stolen file, and the message written in the old dialect.
At the words the girl must never reach the sea, Isabella began to tremble.
“Did you write that message?” Nora asked.
“No.”
“But the handwriting was yours.”
“Someone copied it.”
“Who?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Your great-uncle, Salvatore Vescari, was a cruel man. He believed the family belonged to him, that every child, every business, every marriage existed to serve his ambitions. When I discovered what he was doing, I tried to stop him.”
“What was he doing?”
“Moving money through the port. Paying men to disappear. Using innocent families as cover for shipments they knew nothing about.”
Nora felt sick.
“And you found proof?”
“I found a ledger. Your grandfather wanted it destroyed. Aurelio wanted it hidden. I wanted it delivered to the authorities.”
“What happened?”
“Salvatore discovered the plan. He told the family I had betrayed them. My father locked me in a room until I agreed to marry a man I didn't love.”
Isabella's voice cracked.
“I escaped with the ledger and a letter. I came to America because I believed distance would keep you safe.”
Nora held her hand.
“But someone still knows.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Isabella stared at the ceiling.
“Someone who should have died years ago.”
Before Nora could ask more, a nurse entered with a bouquet of white lilies.
There was no card.
Nora rose.
“Who brought those?”
The nurse checked her clipboard.
“A man dropped them at the front desk. He said they were for Mrs. Bellamy.”
Nora approached the flowers.
Something small had been tucked between the stems.
A photograph.
It showed Isabella standing beside a young man at a harbor. On the back was a date and a name.
SALVATORE VESCARI.
Nora turned the photograph over again.
The young man beside her grandmother was not her great-uncle.
It was Dante's father, Aurelio.
May you like
And beside the photograph was a handwritten note.
Ask your grandmother what happened to the baby.
