Chapter 5 - THE UNCLE WHO BROUGHT ME INTO THE HOUSE
Victor Falcone wanted the black box.
That became clear within minutes.
The caller gave no location.
No terms.
Only one instruction.
Bring Nora Carter’s box to the old marina at midnight.
Roman immediately called his security chief.
Declan began checking weapons.
Gabriel took my phone and photographed the number.
I snatched it back.
“Don’t take my phone.”
He handed it over immediately.
“Sorry.”
My hands were shaking.
“Lily is sick.”
Roman looked at me.
“What condition?”
I hated the question.
It felt too personal.
Then I remembered someone already bought her records.
“Cardiomyopathy.”
Declan swore quietly.
“She needs medication on schedule.”
“When?”
“Ten p.m.”
Roman checked the clock.
8:17.
“We get her before ten.”
His certainty made me angry.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
He met my eyes.
“But we’re going to try.”
Gabriel opened Mom’s flash drive.
Encrypted.
The silver key from the box had an engraving.
E.F. - 17
Roman recognized it.
“Elena Falcone. Seventeen.”
“What’s seventeen?”
“Our mother had a safe deposit box under a false name.”
Declan looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“She used seventeen for everything. Birthday reversed.”
“Where?”
“First Atlantic Bank.”
Gabriel stood.
“If Victor wants Nora’s box, he probably doesn’t know what’s inside.”
“So we don’t give him the real evidence,” Declan said.
Roman shook his head.
“We involve law enforcement.”
That surprised me.
“You’re mafia.”
Declan barked a laugh.
Roman ignored him.
“Our uncle may be a criminal. That does not give us permission to solve this by becoming executioners.”
I looked at Declan’s bruised knuckles.
He noticed.
“Bar fight.”
“Sure.”
“Okay, debt collector.”
“Better.”
Despite myself, I almost laughed.
The police were contacted through a federal task force already investigating Victor’s companies.
I learned then that Roman had quietly spent two years separating the legitimate Falcone businesses from the criminal structure their father left behind.
Gabriel had refused the inheritance.
Roman had accepted it to control the transition.
Declan handled security.
Their reputations were darker than the reality.
Not innocent.
But not what the city believed.
At 9:06, federal agents located Lily’s phone.
Old Falcone marina.
Exactly where Victor demanded the exchange.
Then Gabriel cracked one file from Mom’s drive.
A video.
Nora Carter appeared on-screen.
My mother.
Alive six years ago.
The night before she died.
She looked directly into the camera.
“If Victor Falcone brings Maeve into the manor, it means he finally found out who she really is.”
I stared.
“Who I really am?”
Mom continued.
“Maeve is not only my daughter.”
Roman went pale.
The video froze.
May you like
Then one final line appeared:
HER FATHER WAS ADRIAN FALCONE.
