Chapter 6 – THE SILVER BRACELET ON THE FLOORBOARDS

“Marco?” I breathed, stepping back until my shoulders hit the cold stone of the fireplace.

The dining manager, the man who had given Lily the birthday cake, stood in the doorway with his gun raised. His face was etched in sorrow, but his hands didn’t shake.

“I’m sorry, boss,” Marco said, his voice heavy with regret. “But I can’t let you take that ledger.”

Luca didn’t raise his hands. He just stared at the older man, his godfather, the man who had raised him after his father died.

“You,” Luca said. The word was a gunshot. “You gave David the bracelet.”

Marco swallowed hard. “He needed insurance, Luca. David found out Carlo Bellini ordered the hit. When David threatened to go to the police, Carlo ordered Vanessa to kill him. I tried to help the boy escape. I dug up the grave. I took the bracelet to prove to David that I knew the truth.”

“You dug up my mother’s grave?” Luca’s voice cracked.

“To save a boy’s life!” Marco shouted, tears shining in his eyes. “David was just a kid who got in too deep to pay for his wife’s medical bills when she was pregnant!”

I gasped. When I was pregnant with Lily, I was on bed rest for three months. We had no insurance. The hospital bills were astronomical. Suddenly, they were paid off. David told me he got a loan from a friend.

That friend was Marco.

“I owed David’s father a debt,” Marco confessed, looking at me with deep sorrow. “I got David the job as a driver to help him pay the bills. I didn’t know Carlo would use him for a hit. When David stole the ledger to blackmail Carlo into leaving his family alone, I helped him hide it here.”

“Then why are you pointing a gun at me now?” Luca demanded, stepping forward, ignoring the weapon.

“Because Vanessa knows,” Marco said desperately. “She figured it out tonight when you found the watch. She knows David hid the ledger here. And she has my daughter, Luca.”

The room went dead silent.

“Vanessa called me ten minutes ago,” Marco choked out. “Her men are holding my daughter at gunpoint in her apartment. If I don’t walk out of here with that ledger, they kill her. And then they come here and kill all of you.”

Luca closed his eyes. The betrayal, the grief, the impossible choices—it was suffocating.

“Marco,” Luca said softly. “If you give Carlo that ledger, he will kill your daughter anyway to tie up loose ends. You know this.”

Marco’s gun trembled. “I have to try. I’m a father.”

“So is the man lying dead in the dirt because of them!” I yelled, stepping in front of Luca. I didn’t care about the gun. I didn’t care about the mafia. I was a widow who had just found out why her husband died.

“David died trying to protect me and Lily,” I said, crying openly now. “He hid that ledger so Vanessa could never hurt us. If you take it, his death means nothing. You’ll be letting Vanessa win.”

Marco looked at me, his face crumbling.

Before he could answer, the roar of engines shattered the quiet night.

Headlights swept across the front windows of the house. Three black SUVs slammed to a halt on the gravel driveway.

“They followed my tracker,” Marco whispered in horror, lowering the gun. “Vanessa didn’t trust me.”

Car doors slammed. The sound of heavy boots hitting the gravel echoed toward the porch.

Luca moved instantly. He grabbed Marco by the collar, slamming him against the wall. “Take Claire and the little girl. Go down into the crawlspace beneath the floorboards. Do not make a sound.”

“Luca, what are you going to do?” I cried, grabbing his arm.

“I’m going to end the Bellini family,” Luca said, his eyes black and deadly.

He shoved the leather ledger into my hands.

“Keep this safe,” he ordered.

Then he pushed me toward the hidden compartment in the floor.

I scrambled down into the dark, damp earth beneath the house. Marco climbed in after me, and Luca slid the heavy stone floorboards shut just as the front door of the house was kicked open.

Through the narrow cracks in the floorboards, I could see the living room.

Vanessa stepped inside, wearing a long trench coat over her red dress. Behind her stood five armed men.

“Where are they, Luca?” Vanessa purred, stepping into the center of the room. “Where is the little maid and her bastard child?”

I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle a sob.

Luca stood casually by the fireplace, his hands empty.

“They’re gone, Vanessa,” Luca lied perfectly. “They ran into the woods. It’s just you and me.”

Vanessa laughed. “I don’t care about the maid. Where is the ledger?”

“Burned,” Luca said. “Ten minutes ago.”

Vanessa’s smile vanished. She raised her hand, and the five men raised their assault rifles, pointing them directly at Luca’s chest.

“Kill him,” Vanessa ordered.

But down in the dark, I felt something hard pressing against my leg in the dirt. I reached down.

It was a small, locked wooden music box.

And taped to the bottom was an envelope with Luca’s name on it.