Chapter 8 - The Fiancée's Price|
Camila refused to speak inside the chapel.
She demanded a private meeting in a place of her choosing, without Matteo's guards, without recording devices, and without Norah.
Matteo rejected all three conditions.
“You can speak here,” he told her, “or you can explain your involvement to the police.”
Camila laughed bitterly.
“You still believe this is about whether I'm a good woman or a bad one.”
“I believe you had a woman tied to a chair.”
“And I believe that woman is connected to the person who destroyed your brother.”
Norah stepped forward.
“Then tell us what you know.”
Camila studied her.
For the first time, there was no mockery in her expression. Only exhaustion.
“My father has been working with someone inside the Falcone organization for years. I don't know when it started. I don't know every name involved. But I know the arrangement was already in place before Adrian died.”
“Who?” Matteo demanded.
“Your father's closest adviser.”
Matteo's face hardened.
“Salvatore DeLuca?”
Camila nodded.
Salvatore had served the Falcone family for nearly thirty years. He had managed the organization's finances, settled disputes, and advised Matteo after his father's death. Matteo had trusted him with access to nearly every major operation.
“He helped your father hide the payments,” Camila said. “He also helped my father buy influence in the city.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because my father has decided I am no longer useful.”
Norah folded her arms.
“And you want us to protect you.”
“I want to survive.”
The honesty in Camila's voice was startling.
“You tortured me to protect your position,” Norah said. “Now that your position is threatened, you expect us to care?”
“No. I expect you to understand that my father will kill anyone who knows what happened.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
Camila's jaw tightened.
“I was told you had stolen the memorandum. I was told you were planning to expose my father and destroy the marriage alliance. I believed I could frighten you into surrendering whatever you had found.”
“You could have asked me.”
“I didn't want answers. I wanted you gone.”
Norah's expression remained cold.
“Then why should I believe you now?”
Camila looked down.
“Because the man who gave me the information about the memorandum also told me your mother was dead. He showed me a death certificate and photographs. Then, two nights ago, I received a message saying Elizabeth Bennett had been seen alive.”
Matteo lowered his weapon slightly.
“Who sent it?”
“An account I couldn't trace.”
“Show me.”
Camila handed over her phone.
The message contained a photograph of Elizabeth outside the Blue Star Diner. The image had been taken from a different angle than the one Norah had found.
Below it was a sentence.
If the girl finds the original, kill her before she reaches her mother.
Norah felt the floor shift beneath her.
Matteo took the phone.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
“Because I knew what you would do. You would investigate, and then you would find evidence connecting me to the assault.”
“You're not wrong.”
Camila gave a small, humorless smile.
“That's why I came to the chapel. I need the ledger. It contains the only proof that can stop my father.”
Matteo closed the book.
“You're not getting it.”
“Then he'll destroy everything.”
“That's a risk you'll have to accept.”
Camila's face hardened.
“You don't understand how far this reaches. Salvatore has judges, police officials, and half the captains in the city under his control. If you expose him, your organization will split. Your men will turn against you. People will die.”
“People are already dying.”
“Then give me the ledger.”
“No.”
Camila looked toward Norah.
“Your mother has another copy of the records. That's why she survived.”
Norah's breath caught.
“What?”
“My father told me that Elizabeth took the original list from the warehouse. The list was divided into three parts. Adrian hid one. Your mother kept another. The third was given to someone your family trusts.”
Matteo's expression darkened.
“Who?”
Camila shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Then how do you know the rest?”
“Because I heard my father arguing with Salvatore. They were discussing a woman who had escaped them eleven years ago. My father called her Elizabeth. Salvatore called her the last witness.”
Norah stepped closer.
“Where is she?”
Camila took a folded paper from her pocket.
An address was written on it.
A small apartment building near the lake.
“That's where the message said she was hiding.”
Matteo handed the paper to Gabriel.
“Verify it.”
Camila's shoulders relaxed slightly.
“You're going to help me?”
“I'm going to find Elizabeth. What happens to you depends on what we learn.”
She looked at Norah.
“I'm sorry.”
Norah felt anger rise so sharply that for a moment she could not speak.
“You don't get to apologize because you're afraid of the consequences.”
Camila flinched.
“You're right.”
It was the first honest thing Norah had heard from her.
The team reached the apartment building just before sunset. The front door stood open, and the hallway smelled of smoke.
Matteo entered first, followed by Gabriel and two guards. Norah remained close behind them.
The apartment at the end of the hall had been ransacked.
Drawers were overturned. A lamp lay broken on the floor. Blood stained the carpet beside the kitchen table.
Norah rushed forward.
“Mom?”
There was no answer.
A photograph lay beneath a chair.
It showed Elizabeth holding Norah as a baby.
On the back, someone had written a date from twenty-four years earlier and a name Norah had never seen.
NORA MARIE VALE.
Norah stared at it.
“That's not my name.”
Matteo took the photograph carefully.
“Maybe it's the name your mother gave you before she changed it.”
“Why would she change my name?”
Neither man answered.
A floorboard creaked in the bedroom.
Matteo raised his gun.
“Come out.”
A small voice answered.
“Please don't shoot.”
A girl of about twelve stepped into the doorway, holding a kitchen knife in both hands. Her face was streaked with tears.
Norah lowered her gaze to the knife.
“What's your name?”
“Lily.”
“Did you see a woman here?”
The girl nodded.
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“Men in black coats. One of them said they were taking her to the old train station.”
Matteo moved closer.
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
“Did you hear them say anything else?”
Lily swallowed.
“One man said the boss wanted the girl alive.”
Norah's stomach tightened.
“What girl?”
Lily looked directly at her.
“You.”
A phone began ringing in the next room.
Gabriel found it beneath a pile of clothing. The screen showed an unknown number.
Matteo answered.
A familiar voice filled the apartment.
Salvatore DeLuca.
“Matteo, my boy. I hear you've been asking questions.”
Matteo's eyes turned cold.
“Where is Elizabeth?”
“Safe, for the moment.”
“If you touch her—”
“You'll what? Kill me? You've been threatening people with death since you were twenty-five. It's become predictable.”
Matteo tightened his grip on the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger. The original, not your father's copy.”
“And if I refuse?”
Salvatore paused.
Then he spoke softly.
“Ask Norah why Elizabeth changed her name. Ask her who her father was. And ask yourself why Adrian spent his final night trying to protect a child who wasn't supposed to exist.”
The call ended.
Norah stood motionless.
Matteo looked at the photograph again.
May you like
The name Nora Marie Vale stared back at him.
And for the first time, he wondered whether the conspiracy surrounding his brother had begun long before Norah Bennett was born.
