Chapter 3 - Tomas Rowan’s Blue Box
Tomas did not answer his phone.
That alone scared me.
He answered everyone.
Telemarketers.
Wrong numbers.
Mia calling from my phone just to ask whether pigeons slept.
Nobody went unanswered.
By the third call, Luca had already ordered a car.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“No?”
“This is my father-in-law.”
“And my family.”
“You learned that forty minutes ago.”
“And it became less true?”
I hated that logic.
We went together.
Mia stayed at the estate with Mrs. Bellamy, the senior housekeeper, under enough security to guard a head of state.
I objected.
Luca said:
“If anyone wants what Daniel knew, they may eventually understand Mia is connected.”
That ended my argument.
Tomas lived above his jewelry shop in Astoria.
ROWAN WATCH & REPAIR.
The sign had faded.
The bell over the door rang.
No Tomas.
Luca’s security men checked upstairs.
Empty.
Kitchen light on.
Coffee cold.
No signs of struggle.
I went to the bedroom.
Sock drawer.
Blue box.
Gone.
I sat on the bed.
Luca stood behind me.
“Clara.”
“He wouldn’t leave.”
“Maybe someone called.”
“He wouldn’t leave without locking the shop.”
Luca examined the room.
Then stopped near a framed photograph.
Daniel at twenty.
Standing beside Tomas.
A third man partly cropped from the image.
Luca took it down.
“That’s my father.”
I stared.
Lorenzo Valente smiled beside my husband.
Young Daniel looked uncomfortable.
Tomas looked furious.
On the back:
THE LAST DAY. 2009.
Luca whispered:
“Daniel left the estate in 2009.”
Ten years before Lorenzo died.
No.
Wait.
The sealed study had been ten years.
Daniel worked there earlier.
So why had the study note referenced him years later?
Because Lorenzo continued investigating.
Or hiding.
The phone in the shop rang.
I nearly screamed.
Luca answered.
“Tomas?”
Silence.
Then Tomas’s voice.
“Put Clara on.”
I grabbed the receiver.
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Is Mia with you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Grandpa Tomas—”
“Clara, listen.”
His voice shook.
I had never heard Tomas afraid.
“Do not let Luca open anything else in that study.”
Luca heard.
His jaw tightened.
“Why?”
Tomas said:
“Because Lorenzo did not seal that room to hide what Daniel found.”
“Then why?”
“To hide what he did after.”
Luca took the phone.
“What did my father do?”
Tomas went silent.
Luca’s voice softened strangely.
“Tomas. If Daniel was my cousin, then whatever happened belongs to all of us now.”
Tomas exhaled.
“Meet me at Saint Michael’s Cemetery.”
Forty minutes later, rain had returned.
Tomas waited beneath a stone angel near a family mausoleum.
He wore his brown coat.
No hat.
No umbrella.
He looked ten years older than yesterday.
When he saw me, he opened his arms.
I hit him first.
Not hard.
Chest.
Once.
“How could you not tell me?”
He let me.
“Daniel made me promise.”
“He’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Mia deserved to know her family.”
“She deserved to survive.”
That stopped me.
Luca stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
Tomas looked at him.
“You look like Lorenzo.”
“I’m told.”
“You have his worst habit.”
“What?”
“You think knowledge makes you safer.”
Luca almost smiled.
“Usually.”
“Not this time.”
Tomas removed something from his pocket.
The blue velvet box.
He opened it.
Inside was the black onyx ring.
Same bird.
Luca held his hand beside it.
Identical.
“Who did this belong to?”
Tomas said:
“Elena.”
Luca’s aunt.
Daniel’s mother.
My husband had inherited it.
Then Tomas kept it after Daniel died.
“Why didn’t Daniel wear it?”
“He hated what it represented.”
“What did it represent?” I asked.
Tomas looked at Luca.
“Loyalty.”
He laughed bitterly.
“In that family, loyalty meant silence.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“What did Daniel find?”
Tomas looked toward the gravestones.
“Proof Elena’s car accident was arranged.”
My stomach dropped.
“By who?”
“Your grandfather.”
Luca did not react visibly.
But something in his eyes changed.
“Why?”
“She planned to testify.”
“Against him?”
“Yes.”
“And my father knew?”
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“After Daniel came here.”
Luca whispered:
“So Daniel showed him.”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Daniel came looking for records. Lorenzo discovered the truth himself.”
“And did nothing?”
“At first.”
That word mattered.
“At first?”
Tomas opened the ring.
The onyx face lifted.
Hidden compartment.
Inside was a tiny key.
Luca stared.
“The rings have compartments?”
“All three.”
“What does that key open?”
“Drawer 9 in Lorenzo’s desk.”
The sealed study.
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Luca said:
“We’re going back.”
Tomas grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Luca looked down at the hand.
Tomas released him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why not?”
“Because Drawer 9 contains Lorenzo’s confession.”
Silence.
“To Elena’s death?”
“No.”
Tomas looked at him.
“To something else.”
“What?”
Tomas’s face filled with grief.
“Daniel’s death.”
My body went cold.
“No.”
Tomas looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“Clara—”
“Daniel died in a construction accident.”
“That’s what the report said.”
I stepped backward.
Luca caught my elbow.
I pulled away.
“No.”
Tomas’s eyes filled.
“Daniel returned to Valente House four years ago.”
I stared.
Four years ago.
The week before he died.
“He told me he had overtime.”
“He came here.”
“Why?”
“Lorenzo asked him.”
“But Lorenzo was already—”
I stopped.
The dates aligned.
Lorenzo Valente died four years ago?
No.
Ten years? Wait.
I had misunderstood the timeline.
The study was sealed after Lorenzo’s death ten years earlier.
But if Daniel returned four years ago, how could Lorenzo call him?
Tomas saw my confusion.
“Lorenzo did not die when the public believed he did.”
Luca’s face emptied.
“What?”
Tomas whispered:
“Your father lived another six years in secret.”
Silence.
Even the rain seemed to pause.
Luca laughed once.
Not humor.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish.”
“My father had a funeral.”
“Yes.”
“I saw his body.”
“No.”
Luca stared.
Tomas continued.
“You saw a closed casket.”
Luca said nothing.
I remembered hearing stories.
Private funeral.
No viewing.
Family tradition, they said.
Tomas whispered:
“Lorenzo staged his death because federal investigators were closing in.”
Luca’s hands curled.
“And Stefano?”
“Knew.”
“Who else?”
“Very few.”
“And Daniel found him.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the east study.”
“That room was sealed.”
“Publicly.”
Luca looked as if someone had removed the floor beneath him.
Tomas continued.
“Hidden access through the library.”
“And my father lived there?”
“Not full time.”
“But he came back.”
“Yes.”
“For six years.”
I could barely breathe.
“My husband met him.”
“Yes.”
“Then Daniel died.”
“Yes.”
“What did Lorenzo do?”
Tomas looked at me.
“He asked Daniel to take something out of the country.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
“Daniel refused?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
Tomas closed his eyes.
“Two days later, Daniel fell from a construction platform.”
Luca whispered:
“My father had him killed.”
Tomas said:
“I don’t know.”
“You just said confession.”
“I said the confession is about Daniel’s death.”
“What does it say?”
“I never read it.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Lorenzo called me the night Daniel died.”
Tomas’s voice broke.
“He said, ‘I did what I swore I would never do again.’”
I covered my mouth.
My knees nearly gave way.
Luca caught me.
This time I did not pull away.
Tomas continued.
“He told me he had written everything down.”
“In Drawer 9?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you expose him?”
Tomas looked at me.
“Because Lorenzo said if the confession became public before the ledger was secured, the people named in it would come after Daniel’s family.”
Me.
Mia.
I whispered:
“So you protected us by saying nothing.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him.
Part of me did.
Then Luca asked:
“Where is Lorenzo now?”
Tomas looked at him.
And that answer changed everything again.
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Luca went completely still.
“He may still be alive.”
