Chapter 5 – THE SILVER ROSARY

“What is this?” I sobbed, my hands trembling so violently the silver beads clinked together.

“It belonged to my father’s consigliere,” Gabriel said, his eyes burning with fierce determination. “It’s a symbol of absolute authority in my family. I’m sending you out the back tunnels. When you reach the street, show this to the men waiting in the black SUVs. They will do whatever you say.”

“Gabriel, my mother—” I choked on the words. She was helpless. She wouldn’t understand who these men were or why they were taking her.

Margaret walked over and wrapped her fragile arms around me. “He won’t let them hurt her, sweetheart. Trust him.”

Gabriel gripped my shoulders, forcing me to look at him.

“I swear on my mother’s soul, Claire. Arthur Hale will not touch a single hair on your mother’s head. But I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?”

I swallowed hard, wiping my tears. I nodded.

“Good. Get to my men. Tell them to converge on the rail yard, but stay out of sight.”

Gabriel turned to his remaining guards. “Keep Margaret safe. If anyone comes through those doors, shoot to kill.”

Ten minutes later, I was sprinting through the damp, narrow brick tunnels beneath the mansion. The air was cold, and my lungs burned, but all I could see was my mother’s confused, terrified face.

I pushed open the heavy iron grate at the end of the tunnel and stumbled out into the rainy Chicago night.

Two black SUVs were idling at the corner.

Before I could take a step, a massive man in a suit stepped out of the shadows, blocking my path.

“You’re lost, little girl,” he growled.

I didn’t back down.

I held up the heavy silver rosary, the cross catching the dim light of the streetlamp.

The man froze. He stared at the beads, then looked at me with sudden, absolute respect.

“What are your orders, ma’am?” he asked, bowing his head slightly.

“Mr. Vescari needs every man you have at the 4th Street rail yard,” I said, my voice finally steadying. “And we are going to get my mother back.”

Meanwhile, across the city, Gabriel arrived at the rail yard alone.

The rain was pouring down in sheets, washing over the rusted train cars and cracked concrete.

Standing under a single flickering floodlight was Arthur Hale.

He looked exactly like the man in the photograph—silver hair, sharp jaw, wearing the same gray trench coat. Victoria stood beside him, clutching an umbrella, looking nervous.

And next to them, sitting in a wheelchair, wrapped in a thin hospital blanket, was my mother.

“Mom!” I screamed from the edge of the yard, running forward before the guards could stop me.

One of Arthur’s men stepped in my way, pointing a gun at my chest.

Gabriel didn’t even blink.

He walked calmly toward Arthur, holding up the gold rose key.

“Let the woman go, Arthur,” Gabriel said. “You want the key to my family’s vault? Take it. But the innocent people leave.”

Arthur smiled, a cold, reptilian grin. “You’ve grown soft, Gabriel. Your father would have let the old woman die just to prove a point.”

“I am not my father.”

Arthur signaled his men. They shoved my mother’s wheelchair forward.

I ran to her, falling to my knees in the wet gravel. “Mom? Mom, it’s me. It’s Claire.”

She looked at me with vacant, frightened eyes. “Claire? Why is it raining inside?”

“I’ve got you,” I sobbed, pulling her into my arms. “I’ve got you.”

Gabriel tossed the gold key.

It landed in the mud at Arthur’s feet.

Arthur bent down to pick it up, his eyes shining with greedy triumph. “Finally. After twenty-nine years. The Vescari ledger is mine.”

He turned to Victoria. “Kill them both. The boss and the maid.”

Victoria raised a handgun, pointing it directly at Gabriel’s chest.

But Gabriel didn’t flinch. He just smiled.

“You should look closer at that key, Arthur,” Gabriel whispered.

Arthur frowned, wiping the mud off the gold rose.

He turned it over.

The stem was empty. The actual lock mechanism was completely missing, snapped off cleanly.

Arthur’s face contorted in rage. “Where is the rest of it?!”

Gabriel pulled a heavy diamond bracelet from his pocket and threw it into the mud.

“You dropped this in my hallway, Victoria,” Gabriel said coldly. “Did you really think I’d come here unarmed?”

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