Chapter 6 - THE SILVER STAR
Vincent froze. “A locket?”
I carefully pried open the tiny silver star with my thumbnail. It was incredibly stiff, as if it hadn't been opened in years.
With a soft click, it popped open.
Inside the tiny space was a micro-SD card.
A heavy silence fell over the three of us. My Aunt Margaret stepped closer, her eyes widening. “Isabella was thorough, right until the end.”
Vincent took the micro-SD card from my trembling fingers. “Let’s go to my office.”
We left the ruined dining room behind. The flashing red and blue lights of the police cruisers illuminated the hallway windows as we walked to Vincent’s heavy oak-paneled study.
He booted up his laptop and inserted the card.
A single video file appeared on the screen.
Vincent clicked play.
The screen flickered, showing the pale, beautiful face of Isabella Moretti. She was lying in a hospital bed, a nasal cannula delivering oxygen. She looked exhausted, but her eyes were fiercely bright.
Lily gasped, gripping my hand tightly. “Mommy.”
“Hello, Vincent,” Isabella’s recorded voice echoed in the quiet study. “If you are watching this, it means my failsafe worked. It means Margaret and Grace successfully navigated the nightmare I had to leave you in.”
Vincent touched the screen, a tear sliding down his cheek.
“I didn't tell you I was being poisoned because I knew what you would do,” Isabella continued, coughing weakly. “You would have gone to war with your own mother. You would have killed Carlo. And in doing so, you would have destroyed your own soul, Vincent. I couldn't let Lily grow up with a father consumed by vengeance.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“I took the poison meant for Lily. I bought us time. Time for Margaret to build a legal case that would take your mother down without you having to pull the trigger.”
Isabella took a shaky breath.
“But there is one more thing you need to know, Vincent. The real reason I chose Grace to watch over our daughter.”
I stiffened. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Grace’s parents didn't die in a random factory fire twenty years ago,” Isabella said.
My heart stopped.
“Your mother ordered that fire, Vincent,” Isabella confessed, crying now. “To clear the land for the Moretti shipping warehouses. Grace’s parents were innocent collateral damage. When I found out, I was sick with guilt. We built our wealth on her family’s ashes.”
The room spun. I backed away from the desk, my hands flying to my mouth.
“I brought Grace into this house not just to protect Lily,” Isabella whispered. “But so that when the dust settled, you could finally make things right. You have to break the cycle, Vincent. For Lily. And for Grace.”
The video faded to black.
Vincent sat completely frozen in his leather chair.
I couldn't breathe. My parents. The fire that had left me and Aunt Margaret struggling in poverty for two decades. It was Rosa.
Aunt Margaret walked over and wrapped her arms around my shaking shoulders. “I didn't know, Gracie. I swear to God, I didn't know.”
Vincent slowly stood up. He looked at me, a man completely broken by the sins of his family.
“Grace,” he whispered, taking a step toward me.
Before he could say another word, the heavy oak doors of the study burst open.
Standing there was a man in a police uniform. But he wasn't a real cop. I recognized the jagged scar on his neck.
It was one of Rosa’s loyal enforcers, a hitman named Sal.
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And he had his gun pointed directly at Lily’s head.
“Rosa says goodbye,” Sal sneered, and pulled the trigger.
