Chapter 9 - THE FATHER WHO HID THE TRUTH|
The warehouse lights came back on.
Greco was gone.
The bracelet remained on the table, but the briefcase had disappeared. Dante's guards found no bodies, only blood on the concrete and a trail leading toward the water.
Nora stared at Dante.
“Your father ordered this?”
“I don't know.”
“Your grandfather's records, your uncle's disappearance, my mother's adoption—how much of this has your family hidden?”
Dante didn't answer.
That frightened her more than an argument would have.
They returned to the mansion before dawn. Aurelio waited in his private study, his face gray with exhaustion.
“Tell me what you know,” Dante said.
Aurelio lowered himself into a chair.
“Your grandfather used the port to move money and goods that should never have entered this country. Salvatore managed the operations. I handled the legitimate businesses. Isabella discovered the records and threatened to expose everything.”
“Then why did you let her escape?”
“Because she was my sister.”
“Why did you tell everyone she was dead?”
Aurelio closed his eyes.
“Because our father would have hunted her. I thought if he believed she was gone, he would stop looking.”
Nora folded her arms.
“You thought?”
“I was young. I was afraid.”
“People always say that after someone else pays the price.”
Aurelio accepted the accusation without protest.
He explained that Isabella had taken the ledger and a letter containing the names of those involved. The family had spent decades searching for both. Salvatore had supposedly died while trying to retrieve them, but Aurelio had never been certain.
“And my father?” Dante asked.
“Your father inherited the business after your grandfather died. He wanted to keep the legitimate companies and abandon the criminal operations. Salvatore returned, demanding control of the old network.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I believed I could settle it.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“You have been settling it for thirty years.”
Aurelio looked at Nora.
“Your grandmother's letter was never delivered. It named the people who ordered the murders. If Salvatore finds it, he can destroy anyone who stands in his way.”
Nora's throat tightened.
“Where is it?”
“I don't know. Isabella said she would hide it where no Vescari could find it.”
Nora thought of the old stories her grandmother had told her. The lullabies, the kitchen rituals, the strange habit of repeating certain words whenever the family traveled near the ocean.
She remembered a phrase Isabella had whispered when Nora was little.
When the sea forgets its dead, the daughter will remember.
“Maybe she didn't hide it in a place,” Nora said.
Dante looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“She may have hidden it in a memory.”
She recited the lullaby her grandmother had taught her, translating each line into English.
At the end was a phrase about a bell beneath the water.
Aurelio went pale.
“The church bell.”
“What church?”
“The old church in Calatrano. It was destroyed in a storm. The bell was recovered and brought to America with the village's donated relics.”
“Where is it now?”
Aurelio stood.
“In the Vescari family chapel.”
Dante's phone rang.
He listened, then looked at Nora.
“Someone has broken into the chapel.”
May you like
He grabbed his coat.
“And they've left a message written in your grandmother's dialect.”
