Chapter 4 – The Carved Wooden Rosary Beads

“Sarah!” Frank screamed again, scrambling to his feet with a sudden, desperate surge of energy.

He tried to run toward the grand foyer, his worn shoes slipping on the marble floor.

I threw my arms around him, pulling him back with all my strength.

“Frank, wait! Stop!” I begged, crying as I held him tight against my chest.

He was thrashing, his eyes wild with a father’s primal panic. Even though his mind was fading, even though he sometimes forgot my name, he knew his child was in danger.

“Let me go, Ruth!” he cried, tears streaming down his weathered face. “I have to help her! They’re going to hurt her!”

“Luca!” Teresa Moretti screamed, grabbing her son’s arm. “Do something!”

Luca didn’t hesitate.

He pulled a heavy black radio from the belt of one of his unconscious guards and pressed the button.

“Marco,” Luca barked, his voice echoing with absolute authority. “I need a strike team at Ruth Bennett’s address immediately. Lethal force authorized. Get her daughter out alive.”

“On our way, Boss,” a gruff voice replied.

Luca tossed the radio aside and grabbed Vanessa by the hair, dragging her to her feet.

“If one single hair on that girl’s head is harmed,” Luca whispered directly into her ear, “I will make sure your family doesn’t have a legacy left to mourn.”

Vanessa laughed—a high, hysterical sound that sent shivers down my spine.

“It’s too late, Luca,” she sneered, spitting blood onto the pristine floor. “They’ve been at her house for twenty minutes. They already have her. And they have the documents proving Ruth stole your money.”

I felt like I was going to throw up.

I looked at Frank. He had stopped struggling, but he was staring at the floor, his chest heaving as he gasped for air.

He looked so frail. So terrified.

I fell to my knees in front of him, taking his shaking hands in mine.

“Honey, listen to me,” I cried, trying to keep my voice steady. “Luca’s men are going to save her. Sarah is going to be fine.”

But Frank wasn’t looking at me.

He was staring at his empty, calloused hands.

“The key,” he muttered, his brow furrowing as the fog in his mind swirled violently.

“What key, sweetheart?” I asked gently.

Frank tapped his temple again. Hard.

“The brass key,” he whispered, his eyes squeezing shut in painful concentration. “I told her… I told her not to wait for me.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Frank? What did you tell Sarah?”

He opened his eyes. They were bright with sudden, sharp clarity.

“When Jean left tonight,” Frank said slowly, forcing the words out of his damaged memory, “Sarah called on the phone. She said she was coming over.”

I held my breath. “And what did you say to her, honey?”

Frank looked at me, his chin trembling.

“I told her I was coming to the big house to bring you your supper,” he said. “I told her I didn’t want her waiting on the porch in the dark. So I told her to go to Jean’s house across the street. I gave her the brass key to Jean’s back door.”

I stared at him, my mouth falling open.

“Frank…” I whispered. “Did Sarah go to our house?”

He shook his head firmly.

“No. She said she would wait at Jean’s house until we got home.”

A massive wave of relief crashed over me so hard my knees went weak.

My daughter wasn’t in our house.

She was safely across the street, hidden away at our neighbor’s house, because my husband—despite his failing mind—had instinctively wanted to keep his little girl out of the dark.

I burst into tears, throwing my arms around Frank’s neck.

“You saved her, Frank,” I sobbed into his jacket. “You saved our baby.”

Vanessa heard him.

Her hysterical smile vanished instantly.

“No,” she whispered, her eyes darting back and forth in panic. “No, that’s impossible. My men said they saw someone go inside!”

Luca stepped closer to her, his smile cold and terrifying.

“Your men broke into an empty house, Vanessa,” Luca said. “And my strike team is about to lock them inside.”

Before Vanessa could respond, Luca’s radio crackled to life.

“Boss,” Marco’s voice came through, sounding out of breath. “We’re at the Bennett house. It’s a mess. They tore the place apart.”

“Did you get the Bellini men?” Luca demanded.

“Yeah. We caught three of them trying to rip up the floorboards in the bedroom,” Marco reported. “They’re restrained. But Boss… you need to hear this.”

“What is it?”

There was a pause on the radio.

“They weren’t planting fake embezzlement documents, Boss,” Marco said quietly. “They were looking for something. They had crowbars. They were tearing down the drywall.”

Luca frowned, exchanging a confused look with his mother.

“Looking for what?”

“They wouldn’t say,” Marco replied. “But whatever it is… they didn’t find it. The house is completely gutted, but they came up empty.”

Vanessa’s face turned ashen. She collapsed to her knees, looking completely defeated.

“No…” she whimpered. “It has to be there.”

I looked at Frank.

He was staring at his blue lunchbox again, looking deeply troubled.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a string of beautifully carved wooden rosary beads.

I recognized them instantly. Frank had carved them himself, fourteen years ago. He always carried them when he was nervous.

But as he held them out, I saw that his hands were covered in plaster dust, and his knuckles were bleeding.

“Ruth?” Frank whispered, holding the rosary toward me.

“Yes, honey?”

He looked up at me, his eyes filled with a secret that had been buried for over a decade.

“They didn’t find it,” Frank said softly, “because I didn’t hide it in the bedroom.”