Chapter 3 - THE SILVER WATCH THAT BOUGHT A BETRAYAL
Luca stared at the silver watch in my hand.
The heavy steel band. The cracked glass face.
“That’s Marco’s,” Luca said.
His voice didn’t rise. It just went terrifyingly flat.
Marco had been Luca’s right-hand man for a decade. He was the man guarding the estate right now. The man watching Vanessa.
“Mr. Moretti,” I whispered. “If Marco took Isabella... why would he leave this here?”
Luca didn’t answer.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Marco’s number.
It rang once. Twice.
Then a voice answered. But it wasn’t Marco.
“Hello, Luca.”
It was Marcus Bellini. Vanessa’s father.
Luca’s grip on the phone tightened. “Where is my sister, Marcus?”
“She’s safe. For now. Along with the boy.”
“If you touch Leo—”
“I don’t want to hurt a child, Luca,” Marcus said smoothly. “But Isabella found the ledger. She found the proof of the debts my family owes. Your mother hid it perfectly in that piano bench seventeen years ago.”
Marcus sighed.
“Vanessa was supposed to marry you. Combine the families. Erase the debt. But Isabella ruined it. She took the ledger.”
“Where is Marco?” Luca demanded.
“Marco made a business decision,” Marcus replied. “He brought them to me. But sadly, Marco’s price was too high.”
The line went dead.
Luca stared at the phone.
He looked around the empty warehouse.
“They were here,” Luca said. “But they moved them.”
“Sir.”
I pointed my flashlight toward a rusted metal door at the back of the warehouse.
There were drag marks in the dust.
We walked over. The door was locked from the outside with a heavy padlock.
Luca drew his gun. He shot the lock twice. The metal shattered.
He kicked the door open.
It was a small office. Smelling of mildew and old paper.
Sitting in a chair in the center of the room was Marco.
He wasn’t moving.
His hands were tied. His shirt was covered in blood.
Luca rushed forward. He checked Marco’s pulse.
Faint, but there.
“Marco,” Luca slapped his face lightly. “Wake up.”
Marco groaned. His eyes fluttered open.
When he saw Luca, shame washed over his bloody face.
“I’m sorry, boss,” Marco choked out. “Bellini... he promised me a million. To bring her to him.”
“Where did he take them?” Luca asked.
“The rail yards,” Marco coughed, blood spitting from his lips. “Private train. Leaving at midnight. Taking them to New York.”
Luca’s jaw clenched. “You sold out my family.”
“I tried to stop him when he grabbed the kid,” Marco cried. “Bellini shot me. Left me here to die.”
Marco looked at me.
“The maid... Emma.”
I stepped closer. “What?”
Marco reached into his pocket with a trembling, bloody hand.
He pulled out a heavy, tarnished silver rosary.
“Isabella dropped this,” Marco whispered. “When we grabbed her at your house. She said to give it to the maid.”
Luca looked at me, confused.
I took the rosary.
It was beautiful. Heavy silver beads. A delicate cross.
But it wasn’t Isabella’s.
“My mother made this,” I breathed, staring at the small engraving on the back of the cross.
It read: For S.
“Your mother?” Luca asked.
“She fixes things,” I said, my mind racing. “Clothes, jewelry, pianos. But she hasn’t made a rosary in ten years.”
I looked at Marco. “Why did Isabella want me to have this?”
Marco closed his eyes. “Because Isabella didn’t figure out the Bellini debt on her own. Your mother gave her the ledger.”
I froze.
My mother?
A quiet, arthritic seamstress who barely left her apartment?
“Emma,” Luca said sharply. “Where is your mother right now?”
I pulled out my phone. My hands were shaking.
I called her apartment. No answer.
I called her cell. It went straight to voicemail.
“She’s not answering.”
Luca grabbed my arm.
“Bellini doesn’t just have my sister and nephew,” Luca said.
He pointed at the rosary.
May you like
“He has your mother, too.”
TITLE: THE TICKET TORN IN HALF
