Chapter 10 - ELENA'S LETTER CHANGED EVERYTHING
The ruby was not ruby.
Not entirely.
Elias Varga had hollowed the back of a genuine Burmese stone and sealed it with a wafer-thin matching cap.
Inside:
Microfilm.
And a folded fragment of onion-skin paper.
Norah opened nothing herself.
She insisted on preservation specialists.
Sebastian almost protested.
Then didn’t.
He was learning.
The letter was scanned first.
Elena’s handwriting.
Sebastian recognized it.
My Sebastian,
If you are reading this, then I failed to leave safely.
He stopped.
Norah stayed beside him.
Elena wrote that Salvatore discovered she and Isabella had collected records proving corruption, bribery, illegal medical payments, extortion, and murders disguised as accidents.
She feared him.
But she feared what Sebastian might become under him even more.
You are not his blood.
Do not let that become an excuse to become better than him.
Become better because you choose to.
Sebastian read the line twice.
Elena named Julian as his biological father.
Asked Sebastian not to hate him for silence.
Then:
There is one person I trust completely.
Isabella.
If she survives, find her.
If she does not, trust the evidence.
Not the family story.
Then came something unexpected.
Elena did not write that Salvatore ordered her death.
She wrote:
If I die, do not assume Salvatore acted alone.
Sebastian frowned.
The microfilm answered why.
Account records.
Payments.
Names.
One recurring recipient:
A.M.
Adrian Moretti.
Expected.
Another:
C.R.
Carlo Romano.
Sebastian’s uncle.
He looked toward Carlo.
Carlo had confessed helping hide Isabella.
But these payments began years before Elena died.
Carlo looked stricken.
“I can explain.”
Sebastian said nothing.
Carlo did.
He had been paid by Salvatore to monitor Elena.
Not kill her.
Follow her.
Read mail.
Report meetings.
Then Carlo switched sides.
Too late.
“How long did you spy on her?” Sebastian asked.
“Two years.”
“And when did you help her?”
“The last six months.”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this family becomes loyal after billing for betrayal.”
Carlo accepted it.
Then Norah noticed one payment code.
A.M. was obvious.
C.R. obvious.
But another repeated:
M.R.
Matteo Romano?
Sebastian turned toward his brother.
Matteo looked confused.
“I was sixteen.”
The payments predated him being involved in business.
Maybe not Matteo.
Another M.R.
Then Isabella whispered from her hospital bed later:
“Maria Romano.”
Sebastian froze.
His grandmother.
Salvatore’s mother.
Everyone thought she died twenty-five years earlier.
She had not.
She had entered a convent in northern Italy after a family dispute.
And according to Elena’s records, Maria had been receiving payments from Salvatore right up until Elena died.
Why?
Isabella knew.
“Because Maria had the only copy of Salvatore’s first ledger.”
The family’s original crimes.
The foundation.
The murders.
The bribes.
If recovered, it could destroy what remained of the Romano network.
Sebastian looked at Isabella.
“Where is she?”
Isabella answered:
“Still alive.”
“At ninety-six.”
“Probably.”
“Where?”
“Lake Como.”
May you like
Then she revealed the next secret.
“Your grandmother is the one who told Elena how Salvatore killed his own father.”
