Chapter 2 - THE MAN MY MOTHER NEVER MENTIONED
My mother had died when I was nineteen.
Cancer.
Fast.
Merciless.
And in all the years before that, she had never once mentioned a man named Matteo Moretti.
I stood in the private dining room holding Luca's son while Frank DeSantis stared at the photograph inside my necklace like it belonged in a crime scene.
"What happened to Matteo?" I asked.
Luca answered this time.
"He disappeared twenty-eight years ago."
I looked up.
"Disappeared?"
"My family was told he left the country after stealing money."
Frank laughed bitterly.
"That was the official story."
Luca turned toward him.
"What does that mean?"
Frank looked older suddenly.
"Telling you now means admitting I kept something from your father."
"He's dead."
"That doesn't make it easier."
I shifted Leo higher on my shoulder.
The baby had fallen asleep.
Completely peaceful.
As if the room wasn't collapsing around the adults.
Frank looked at me.
"Marianne Cole worked at a shipping office owned by the Moretti family."
I frowned.
"My mother was a bookkeeper."
"Exactly."
My stomach tightened.
"She found discrepancies."
Luca's jaw hardened.
"What kind?"
"Money moving through shell companies. Cargo manifests being altered. Charity accounts being used to hide cash."
I glanced at him.
"So your family was stealing?"
Frank didn't flinch.
"Some of them."
Luca leaned forward.
"Matteo found out too."
Frank nodded.
"They started investigating together."
I stared at the photograph.
"Then why did my mother never tell me?"
Frank's eyes met mine.
"Because three weeks after Matteo disappeared, Marianne vanished from Philadelphia."
My breath caught.
"She didn't vanish."
"Not permanently."
He corrected himself.
"She came back under another name."
I went cold.
"My mother was always Marianne Cole."
Frank shook his head.
"No."
He looked toward the pendant.
"That wasn't the name she was born with."
I took a step backward.
"What was it?"
Frank hesitated.
Then Luca said quietly, "Tell her."
The older man's voice dropped.
"Marianne Bellini."
The surname hit Luca first.
I saw it in his face.
"Bellini?"
He stood.
Frank nodded.
Luca looked toward me.
"The Bellini family controlled half the Philadelphia waterfront before my father took power."
I swallowed.
"So?"
Frank's expression was grave.
"So Marianne wasn't merely a bookkeeper."
He paused.
"She was the daughter of the man your grandfather blamed for Matteo's disappearance."
I stared.
Then Leo woke in my arms and immediately reached for the necklace again.
His fingers brushed the open pendant.
Something tiny fell onto the white tablecloth.
A brass key.
No longer than my fingernail.
Frank went completely pale.
"I thought that was destroyed."
Luca looked down.
"What does it open?"
May you like
Frank whispered:
"Matteo's safe."
