Chapter 6 - THE ROSARY
The gunfire didn’t come.
Instead, the armed men lowered their rifles, standing like stone statues behind Isabella. She stood in the center of the dirt road, the morning mist swirling around her white coat. She didn’t look like a terrified hostage. She looked like a queen surveying her chessboard.
“Stay in the car,” Gabriel ordered, his voice tight. He unlatched his door and stepped out, keeping his body positioned between the windshield and the men.
I couldn’t stay behind. My hands gripped the wooden music box tightly against my chest as I pushed my door open and stepped onto the gravel behind him.
Isabella watched us approach. Up close, she was breathtakingly beautiful, but her blue eyes were cold and sharp like cut glass. She dropped the rusted shovel onto the dirt with a heavy thud.
“Gabriel,” she said smoothly. “It’s been a while.”
“Isabella,” Gabriel replied, his tone guarded. “Luke told us you were being held hostage by your father.”
A bitter, humorless laugh escaped her lips. “Luke is a fool. He’s always been a fool. My father isn't holding me hostage. My father sent me to clean up his mess.”
I stared at her, horrified. “You knew? You knew Luke hurt my brother? You knew he ruined my family to force this marriage?”
Isabella’s eyes shifted to me. There was a flicker of genuine pity in them before it vanished. “I didn't know about your brother, Claire. Truly, I didn't. But I knew about the marriage. I helped draft the contract.”
“Why?” Gabriel demanded, stepping closer, his cane biting into the dirt. “If your father wanted the Bennett land, why not just buy it directly?”
“Because of what’s buried there,” Isabella said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “Twenty years ago, my father didn’t just take a bribe from your father, Gabriel. He took a body. A rival boss your father killed. My father buried it on Claire’s grandfather's land to hide the evidence. It’s what sealed their alliance.”
The pieces slammed together in my mind, sickening and clear. “My grandfather’s land… it’s a graveyard.”
“Yes,” Isabella said. “And a month ago, the state approved a new highway expansion. They’re going to bulldoze that entire forest. If they dig up that land, they find the body. If they find the body, the trail leads back to my father’s offshore accounts. He loses the election, he goes to federal prison, and the Callahan name is destroyed.”
“So he needed the land back,” Gabriel concluded, his eyes dark. “He needed to own it so he could stop the highway project.”
“Exactly,” Isabella nodded. “But Claire’s grandfather put a clause in the will. The land couldn't be sold until Claire turned thirty, unless she was married. If she married, the property rights transferred to her and her husband jointly.”
“Hence, the forced marriage to a Moretti,” I said, the sick reality washing over me. I was nothing but a loophole in a real estate contract.
Isabella reached into her pocket. She pulled out a delicate, silver rosary with deep blue glass beads.
Gabriel went completely rigid.
“My mother’s rosary,” he whispered.
“Luke gave it to my father as a token of submission,” Isabella said quietly. She held it out to Gabriel. “He stole it from your private safe, Gabriel. He gave it to my father to prove he would do whatever it took to keep me safe. Luke thought he was protecting me from my father. He didn't realize I was working with him.”
Gabriel took the rosary. His hands, which hadn't shaken when facing down a gun, trembled slightly as his fingers brushed the glass beads.
“You played him,” Gabriel said softly.
“I did what I had to do to protect my family,” Isabella replied, lifting her chin. “Just like you’re doing now. I have the land deed right here.”
She gestured to one of the men behind her, who stepped forward holding a leather folder.
“Sign over the property rights to my father,” Isabella said. “Give us the land. You keep the twenty-five million. Claire’s family debt is wiped clean. You both walk away, and nobody else gets hurt.”
I looked at the folder. All I had to do was sign my name. The debt would be gone. My parents would be safe. Leo would be safe.
But I thought about Leo lying in that hospital bed. I thought about my father beaten and thrown in a trunk. I thought about Gabriel taking three bullets for a brother who sold him out.
I looked at Isabella. “And if we don't sign?”
Isabella’s gaze hardened. “My father doesn't leave loose ends, Claire. If you don't sign, those men behind me will bury you both next to the body in those woods.”
Gabriel stepped in front of me, shielding me entirely from their view.
“You made a mistake, Isabella,” Gabriel said softly.
“What mistake?”
Gabriel wrapped the silver rosary around his knuckles. “You assumed the men standing behind you still work for your father.”
Isabella frowned, glancing over her shoulder.
The man holding the leather folder didn't move. But the three men with the assault rifles slowly lowered their weapons. They didn't point them at the ground.
They pointed them directly at Isabella.
Isabella’s face drained of color. “What is this?”
Gabriel smiled, a cold, terrifying expression. “Did you really think I wouldn’t trace the offshore accounts? Did you think I didn't know who my own men were taking bribes from? I bought Callahan’s security detail two hours ago, while you were busy digging holes.”
Isabella took a step back, her composure shattering.
Gabriel turned to me. “Give her the music box, Claire.”
I hesitated, then handed the wooden box to Isabella. She took it with shaking hands.
“Open it,” Gabriel ordered.
She lifted the lid. She saw the photograph. She saw the forged receipt.
“We aren't signing anything,” Gabriel said. “We are taking that evidence to the FBI. Your father’s career is over.”
Isabella looked up, tears of sheer panic welling in her eyes. “Gabriel, please. He’ll kill me. If I fail, he’ll kill me.”
Before Gabriel could answer, a phone rang.
It was Isabella’s cell phone. She pulled it from her pocket, looking at the screen. She went completely pale.
She answered on speakerphone.
“Is it done?” Senator Callahan’s voice crackled through the speaker, arrogant and impatient.
Isabella swallowed hard. “Dad, they… they have proof.”
There was a heavy pause on the line.
“That’s a shame,” Callahan said smoothly. “Put Gabriel on.”
Gabriel stepped forward. “Callahan. It’s over.”
“Not quite, Gabriel,” the Senator replied, a sickening smile evident in his tone. “You bought my men. Clever. But I didn't put all my eggs in one basket. Check your phone.”
Gabriel pulled out his phone. A text message had just arrived. He opened it.
I watched the color drain from Gabriel’s face. The man who feared nothing suddenly looked utterly terrified.
He turned the phone screen toward me.
It was a live video feed.
It showed a dark, damp basement. Sitting in a chair, tied with heavy ropes, was a twelve-year-old boy in a halo brace.
Leo.
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“The hospital guards?” Gabriel whispered to the phone, his voice shaking with fury.
“Your men are loyal, Gabriel,” Callahan chuckled. “But the nurses? The nurses are very easy to bribe. Bring me the deed, the photograph, and the girl. Or I burn the basement down with the boy inside.”
