Chapter 5 - THE SILVER BRACELET
The silence that followed was suffocating. I watched Luca’s hands shake as he held the silver cuff. His mother had passed away from what everyone was told was a tragic fall down the estate's grand staircase when Luca was a boy.
“Vanessa,” Luca said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “My mother wore this bracelet every day of her life. The coroner said it must have slipped off when the paramedics moved her. I’ve looked for it for twenty years.”
He stepped closer to her, the heartbreak evident in every line of his face. “Why is it in your purse?”
Vanessa covered her mouth with her trembling hands. She couldn't speak.
Frank stepped forward again. “Leave her be, Luca. She didn't steal it.”
“Then who did?!” Luca exploded.
“I didn't steal it,” Vanessa finally whispered, tears streaming down her face. “She gave it to me.”
Luca stared at her. “You were ten years old when my mother died. You lived in Chicago.”
“No,” Vanessa said, her voice shaking. “I lived here. In the staff quarters.”
I gasped. The staff quarters? I had worked in this house for ten years, and I had never known Frank had a child living on the property.
“My mother was a maid here,” Vanessa continued, her eyes fixed on the floor. “When she got sick, your mother... your mother was the only one who showed us any kindness. She used to come down to the quarters and bring me books. The night she died, she came to my room.”
Vanessa looked up at Luca, her eyes filled with a decades-old sorrow. “She was terrified, Luca. She pressed the bracelet into my hands and told me to hide. She said if anything happened to her, I needed to keep it safe.”
“Terrified of what?” Luca demanded.
Before Vanessa could answer, Carmine let out a sharp, mocking bark of laughter.
“Are we really going to listen to the delusions of a maid's brat?” Carmine scoffed. “Is this what my family has come to? Believing the hired help over your own blood?”
Luca didn't even look at him. “Keep talking, Vanessa. Who was my mother afraid of?”
Vanessa looked at Carmine. The old mafia boss’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
“Don't do it, little girl,” Carmine warned quietly.
Frank moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his daughter. “Tell him, Nessa. It's time.”
“She was afraid of Carmine,” Vanessa said, her voice finally steady. “She heard him on the phone that night. She heard him ordering the hit on your father.”
The room exploded.
Guards reached for their holsters. Associates shouted. I pulled little Leo behind the heavy velvet curtains, shielding his eyes from the violence I feared was about to erupt.
“Liar!” Carmine roared. “I loved my brother!”
“You loved his money!” Frank shouted back. “You wanted the family business, but Antonio was going to take it legitimate. He was going to cut you out!”
Luca looked between his uncle and the driver who had practically raised him. The man he shared blood with, and the man who had shown him nothing but loyalty.
“Frank,” Luca said, his voice cracking. “Is this true? Did Carmine kill my father?”
Frank nodded slowly. “Yes. And when your mother found out, he killed her, too.”
Carmine pulled a gun from his jacket.
The movement was so fast I barely registered it. He aimed it squarely at Vanessa’s chest.
“I should have gotten rid of you twenty years ago,” Carmine spat.
But before he could pull the trigger, Frank reached into his worn, charcoal suit jacket. He didn't pull out a weapon.
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He pulled out a small, heavy object wrapped in oilcloth and threw it onto the table.
“Shoot her,” Frank said, his voice echoing with absolute authority. “And the police get that ledger tomorrow morning.”
