Chapter 6 – THE MOTHER’S VOICE
My small, run-down apartment was a stark contrast to the sprawling Caruso mansion.
Vincent, Elena, Leo, and the baby crowded into my tiny living room. I pulled an old cassette player from a dusty shoebox in my closet—a relic from my late father—and set it on the coffee table.
Vincent’s hands trembled as he took the microcassette from me and inserted it into the player.
He pressed play.
For a moment, there was only static.
Then, a voice filled the room.
“Vincent.”
Vincent closed his eyes. A single tear tracked down his bruised cheek. It was Isabella. Her voice was soft, rushed, and filled with a desperate kind of love.
“If you’re listening to this, it means Daniel finally made his move. It means I wasn’t fast enough.”
Elena covered her mouth, stifling a sob.
“You need to know the truth about the ledger,” Isabella’s voice crackled through the cheap speaker. “Daniel and Sabrina have been looking for it for months. They think your father hid it in Leo’s trust to protect the family.”
There was a heavy pause on the tape.
“They’re wrong, Vincent. Your father didn’t hide the ledger to protect the family. He hid it to destroy Uncle Carmine.”
Vincent opened his eyes, stunned. “What?”
“Your father knew Carmine was cancer,” Isabella continued. “He knew Carmine was planning to wipe out your bloodline to take Chicago. The ledger isn’t a list of bribes your father paid. It’s a list of every single politician and judge Carmine has murdered over the last twenty years. Your father spent his whole life gathering the evidence to take his brother down.”
I gasped. The stakes suddenly completely shifted. Carmine didn’t want the ledger to use it as power—he wanted to destroy it because it was his death warrant.
“I found out Sabrina was leaking information to Carmine,” Isabella’s voice grew quieter, more frantic. “I confronted her. She poisoned my tea. I can feel my heart slowing down. Daniel is putting me in the car.”
Leo buried his face in my side, crying softly. I stroked his hair, my own eyes burning with tears.
“I gave Leo the brass key to the train locker,” Isabella said. “But Vincent, listen to me carefully. The locker is empty.”
Vincent leaned forward, staring at the tape player.
“I knew if they caught me, they would find the key,” Isabella explained. “I knew they would torture you or Leo to get it. So I put the key in Leo’s bear as a decoy.”
“A decoy?” Elena whispered.
“The real ledger isn’t in a locker,” Isabella’s voice cracked with emotion. “I mailed it to the one person I knew Sabrina would never suspect. The one person Daniel thought was dead.”
Isabella let out a shuddering breath on the tape.
“Elena. My beautiful sister. I mailed the ledger to your safe house in New York three days ago. Please, if you find this, give it to Vincent. He’s a good man. He will protect you.”
The tape ended with a soft click.
The apartment was dead silent.
Vincent slowly turned his head to look at Elena.
Elena was staring at the cassette player in absolute shock.
“Elena,” Vincent said softly. “Did you receive a package three years ago?”
Elena shook her head frantically. “No! I swear, Vincent. Daniel controlled my mail. He checked everything that came into the house!”
“If Daniel had intercepted it, he would have destroyed it,” Vincent reasoned. “He wouldn’t have spent the last three years searching for the lockbox key.”
“Then where is it?” I asked.
Suddenly, Leo spoke up.
“Mom always sent things to the secret name,” he whispered.
We all looked at him.
“What secret name, buddy?” Vincent asked gently.
“When Mom wanted to hide my birthday presents so I wouldn’t snoop,” Leo explained, wiping his nose. “She mailed them to the house under her favorite book character’s name.”
Elena gasped. “Jane Eyre.”
“Yes!” Leo nodded. “Jane Eyre.”
Elena grabbed Vincent’s arm. “Vincent. The caretaker at the New York estate. He told me last week there was a box in the attic that arrived years ago for a ‘Jane Eyre.’ He thought it was a prank and just threw it up there!”
Vincent stood up, the exhaustion completely vanishing from his posture, replaced by the lethal determination of a man who finally had the upper hand.
“The ledger is in New York,” Vincent said.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his head of security.
“Fuel the private jet,” Vincent ordered. “And get a team to the mansion. I want Daniel and Sabrina moved to a secure location. Carmine is going to come looking for them.”
Vincent hung up and looked at us.
“Pack whatever you need, Emma,” Vincent said. “You’re coming with us.”
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