Chapter 6 - WHAT THEY PUT IN MY POCKET
Rafael ordered everyone away from the table.
Nico did not argue.
Not because he was afraid.
Because Tomas was upstairs.
Rafael knew it.
He kept the pistol low.
“If you cooperate, the boy lives.”
Nico’s eyes were murderous.
Serafina looked at Rafael.
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
“The agreement changed.”
“My father said the child—”
“Your father is dying.”
Rafael smiled.
“And your brothers are dead. The old rules belong to old men.”
Something shifted in Serafina’s face.
The loyal daughter disappeared for half a second.
In her place was a woman realizing the family she had served might consume her too.
Rafael pointed toward me.
“And the maid.”
I froze.
“What about her?”
Serafina asked.
“She saw too much.”
Serafina frowned.
Rafael reached into his coat.
He tossed something onto the table.
A wooden rosary.
Dark beads.
Bent silver crucifix.
My knees almost failed.
“No.”
Nico looked at me.
I stepped forward.
“That belongs to my father.”
Everyone turned.
I touched the bent cross.
“I know this.”
My voice broke.
“My father made these beads himself. The cross bent when it got caught in our station wagon door when I was eight.”
Rafael watched me.
Enjoying every second.
My father, Daniel Ellison, had disappeared nine years earlier.
My mother told us he left.
No note.
No body.
No explanation.
I had spent nine years believing a man could decide his family was easier to abandon than love.
“Where did you get this?”
I asked.
Rafael smiled.
“Your father worked for the Bellandis.”
“No.”
“He drove delivery trucks.”
“That’s what your mother told you.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Nico looked at Rafael.
“What did Daniel Ellison do?”
“Contract driver.”
Rafael glanced at me.
“And one night, he drove the wrong car.”
My hands went cold.
Nico stepped closer.
“What night?”
Rafael’s eyes remained on mine.
“The night Lucia Bellandi died.”
I stopped breathing.
“That was three years ago.”
“Yes.”
“My father disappeared nine years ago.”
Rafael smiled.
“Did he?”
The question hit harder than a gunshot.
“You’re lying.”
“Ask your mother.”
I shook my head.
“My father is dead.”
“Your father has been hiding.”
The room fell silent.
Rafael looked at Nico.
“Daniel Ellison was never supposed to be on Lucia’s route. He was a backup driver. He saw me push her car off the road.”
Nico’s eyes sharpened.
“He witnessed it.”
“He did more than witness it.”
Rafael glanced at the broken watch.
“He pulled over.”
My throat closed.
“He tried to help her?”
“Yes.”
Nico became very still.
Rafael continued.
“Lucia was alive for several minutes. She gave him something before the fire reached the front seat.”
“What?”
Nico demanded.
Rafael’s smile disappeared.
“The real reason we never stopped looking for him.”
May you like
He looked at the fake necklace.
“The location of the Bellandi vault.”
