Chapter 10 - THE LAST BELLANDI
The warehouse stood beside the river.
Abandoned.
Black windows.
Broken loading doors.
Nico’s men surrounded the property without lights.
Serafina led us through a drainage passage beneath the eastern wall.
I was not supposed to be there.
Neither was my mother.
But my father’s location was somewhere inside Rafael’s files.
And Tomas had once been saved by Daniel Ellison.
I could not stay behind.
Inside, we heard voices.
Rafael.
And Tomas crying.
Nico closed his eyes for one second.
Then moved.
We found them in the old counting room.
Rafael had Tomas tied to a chair.
Not hurt.
Terrified.
On a metal table sat the Bellandi pocket watch.
He still believed it mattered.
Nico held the real necklace.
“Let him go.”
Rafael smiled.
“Put it down.”
Nico set the velvet box on the floor.
Tomas looked at him.
“Uncle Nico.”
“I’m here.”
The boy started crying harder.
Rafael pointed his gun.
“Open the necklace.”
Nico looked toward my mother.
She stepped forward.
“I can do it.”
Rafael frowned.
“Who are you?”
“The woman whose husband you spent three years hunting.”
His face changed.
“Helen Ellison.”
“Yes.”
“You know where Daniel is.”
She smiled sadly.
“No.”
That was a lie.
I knew it immediately.
So did Rafael.
He aimed the gun at her.
“Open it.”
My mother removed the necklace.
She pressed a tiny tool beneath the emerald setting.
The back plate lifted.
Inside, beneath the stone, were six tiny engraved numbers.
Rafael’s eyes lit up.
“Read them.”
My mother leaned closer.
Then laughed.
Rafael’s expression hardened.
“What?”
“You still don’t understand.”
“Read them.”
“They aren’t coordinates.”
Silence.
“They’re a date.”
Nico looked toward her.
My mother read the numbers.
October 14.
Nine years earlier.
The day my father first began working for the Bellandis.
Rafael stared.
“No.”
My mother turned the necklace over.
“The Bellandi vault was never money.”
Teresa had been wrong.
Everyone had been wrong.
The hidden record was evidence.
A sealed archive Nico’s grandfather created late in life.
Murders.
Bribes.
Deals.
Including every operation involving the Rinaldis.
Including the orders that had started the war.
The necklace did not lead to cash.
It led to proof.
Proof that both families had spent decades killing each other over lies told by men who were already dead.
And Daniel Ellison knew where the archive was hidden.
That was why Rafael hunted him.
Not because he was a witness to one murder.
Because Lucia had told him how to find the archive.
Rafael looked at my mother.
“Where is he?”
She said nothing.
He raised the gun.
Serafina moved.
Rafael fired.
The bullet struck her in the side.
She fell.
Nico lunged.
Rafael grabbed Tomas.
And I saw the heavy silver pocket watch on the metal table.
Weight.
My mother had taught me that lesson before I could drive.
Heavy objects carried momentum.
I grabbed the watch.
And threw it.
It struck Rafael above the eye.
His head snapped sideways.
Tomas dropped.
Nico crossed the distance in two steps.
He hit Rafael hard enough to send both of them into the concrete wall.
The gun fell.
One of Nico’s men kicked it away.
Tomas ran.
Straight into my arms.
I dropped to my knees and held him.
“You’re okay.”
He buried his face against my shoulder.
Behind me, Nico pinned Rafael to the floor.
He did not kill him.
That surprised everyone.
Especially Rafael.
Nico leaned close.
“You’re going to live.”
Rafael laughed weakly.
Nico continued.
“You’re going to explain every name, every death, every account and every order.”
May you like
Rafael’s smile disappeared.
“For the first time in your life, dying would be easier.”
