Chương 7 - THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE BRACELETBianca sat down.
Not gracefully.
Not carefully.
Her knees seemed to stop holding her.
Luca stared at his sister.
“Tell me he’s wrong.”
Bianca looked at Matteo.
“He isn’t.”
Luca crossed the room.
Elena stepped between them before he reached her.
“Move.”
“No.”
“She was there.”
“And if you frighten her into silence, we learn nothing.”
Luca’s eyes burned.
“That is my sister.”
“Exactly.”
The word landed.
Bianca covered her mouth.
“I didn’t kill Sofia.”
Luca laughed without humor.
“You had her blood on your hands.”
“Because I tried to stop it.”
“Stop what?”
Bianca looked at Matteo.
Elena took the boy’s hand.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
Matteo held tighter.
“I wanna know about Mama.”
Elena’s throat tightened.
“You shouldn’t have to carry grown-up secrets.”
“I already do.”
Nobody had an answer to that.
Bianca began slowly.
“Sofia came to me three days before she died.”
Luca remained standing.
“What did she want?”
“She knew about the shipments. The drugs. The weapons. Vittorio’s side business.”
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
Bianca’s eyes filled.
“She wanted me to help her take Matteo and leave Sicily.”
Luca flinched.
“The ferry ticket.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she ask me?”
“She had.”
“No.”
“She told you to leave everything behind.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“To her it was.”
Bianca wiped her eyes.
“You told her you needed time. She believed time would get her killed.”
Elena watched Luca absorb that.
Not betrayal.
Fear.
Bianca continued.
“Sofia planned to hand evidence to Magistrate Carmela Rizzo in Naples.”
Marco looked up.
“The anti-Mafia prosecutor?”
Bianca nodded.
“I panicked.”
“Why?” Elena asked.
“Because the evidence didn’t only expose Vittorio.”
She looked at Luca.
“It exposed everyone.”
Luca understood.
“You.”
“Me. You. Men who had worked for our father. Companies. Accounts. Judges. Police.”
“You chose the family.”
“I chose Matteo.”
Luca’s eyes flashed.
“Don’t use my son to excuse this.”
“I thought if Sofia delivered those files, you would go to prison and every enemy our father ever made would come for Matteo.”
Her voice cracked.
“I thought stopping her was protecting him.”
“What did you do?”
Bianca looked down at her sapphire bracelet.
The same bright blue stones from Matteo’s drawing.
“I told Vittorio where she would be.”
Luca’s face went empty.
Elena felt the room change.
“Why him?”
“Because he said he could talk her down.”
Luca whispered, “You gave him my wife.”
“I gave him a location.”
“You gave him my wife.”
Bianca began crying.
“I know.”
Matteo moved closer to Elena.
Bianca forced herself to continue.
“I followed them because something felt wrong.”
“To the crash site?”
“Yes.”
“What did you see?”
“Sofia was already on the ground.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Vittorio was standing over her.”
“With a gun?”
Bianca hesitated.
“Yes.”
Matteo whispered, “The lion gun.”
Luca’s head snapped toward him.
“What?”
Matteo drew a shape with his finger.
“Papa’s lion.”
Luca’s face drained.
Elena looked at him.
“You own a gun with a lion?”
“My father’s pistol.”
“Where is it?”
“Missing since that night.”
Bianca whispered, “Vittorio had it.”
Luca turned away as though the room had tilted.
Bianca reached into her handbag.
She removed a gold necklace.
A simple oval pendant.
Matteo immediately recognized it.
“Mama’s.”
Bianca began sobbing.
“I took it from her.”
“Why?” Luca asked.
“She grabbed me.”
Bianca touched her wrist.
“She said, ‘Give this to Matteo when he is safe.’”
“You kept it eighteen months?”
“I was afraid.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Bianca didn’t hide behind family.
“Yes.”
She placed the necklace on the table.
“I was a coward.”
Luca did not forgive her.
But he listened.
That was different.
Elena opened the pendant.
Inside was a miniature photograph.
Sofia.
Luca.
Baby Matteo between them.
On the back was engraved one sentence.
A family is where the truth is safe.
Luca sat down.
For several seconds, the feared man of Sicily simply stared at his wife’s face.
Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Marco reached for his weapon.
Three Santoro guards entered.
Behind them walked Vittorio Mancuso.
He was fifty, silver at the temples, dressed impeccably.
He looked more like a banker than a killer.
His eyes went first to Luca.
Then Bianca.
Then the necklace.
“So.”
His voice was almost sad.
“We finally arrived here.”
Luca stood.
“You told my son to forget.”
Vittorio looked at Matteo.
“I tried to spare him.”
“You murdered his mother.”
“No.”
Bianca rose.
“You were standing over her with Luca’s gun.”
Vittorio’s jaw tightened.
“You saw the end of an argument. Not the beginning.”
Elena stepped forward.
“She was shot in the back.”
Vittorio looked at her.
“And you must be the nurse.”
Something about the way he said it made Elena cold.
“You ordered tonight’s attack.”
“I ordered nothing against the boy.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“It isn’t.”
Luca moved closer.
“Why are you here?”
“To stop this before you destroy what remains.”
Vittorio removed his square black watch.
The twin of Luca’s.
He placed it on the table.
The leather strap had been replaced.
But the back of the case was scratched deeply.
Matteo stared at it.
Vittorio saw.
“You remember.”
The boy hid behind Elena.
Luca’s voice was deadly.
“What happened that night?”
Vittorio looked at him with something almost like grief.
“You have believed for eighteen months that your wife died because of your enemies.”
He nodded toward Bianca.
“Now you believe your sister killed her.”
Then toward himself.
“And now you believe I did.”
“Did you?”
Vittorio ignored the question.
Instead, he looked at Matteo.
“You keep asking about the watch.”
He pushed it across the table toward Luca.
“That isn’t the important thing.”
Luca didn’t touch it.
“What is?”
Vittorio’s eyes stayed on the child.
“Ask your son what I was holding in my other hand.”
Matteo began to shake.
Elena knelt beside him.
“You’re safe.”
The little boy looked at his father.
Then at Vittorio.
May you like
And whispered,
“Papa’s gun.”
