Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Had Been Dead for Twenty-One Years
Gemma read the message three times.
“St. Agnes.”
Leo’s expression darkened.
“You know it?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“An abandoned Catholic school in Queens.”
“That sounds inviting.”
“It isn’t.”
Arthur stepped into the bedroom.
“Boss, we should assume this is Salvatore.”
Leo handed him the phone.
“We assume nothing.”
Gemma looked at him.
“That may be the first intelligent thing anyone has said tonight.”
Arthur raised an eyebrow.
Leo ignored both of them.
He studied the photograph of Elena in the car.
“Her hands.”
“What?”
“She’s holding the ring in her right hand.”
“So?”
“Elena wore jewelry on her left. Always.”
Gemma looked closer.
Her mother’s right thumb pressed against the emerald.
Three fingers were visible.
Index.
Middle.
Ring.
Her little finger was hidden.
“She’s signaling something?”
Leo nodded.
“When we were young, we used hand positions during card games.”
Gemma stared.
“Your romantic history was apparently sponsored by organized crime.”
Arthur looked away to hide a smile.
Leo zoomed in.
“Elena is showing three.”
“Third entrance?”
“Third floor?”
“Third person?”
“No idea.”
Gemma hated that answer.
Leo turned to Arthur.
“Pull every property record around St. Agnes. Cameras, traffic, utilities. Quietly.”
Gemma stepped between him and the door.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
He caught himself.
“Bad wording.”
“Very.”
Leo took a breath.
“I would prefer you not walk into a trap designed by a man who has already entered your home.”
“My mother is in that trap.”
“I know.”
“Then I’m going.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“Fine.”
Gemma blinked.
“Fine?”
“Do not make me regret learning.”
That almost made her laugh.
Instead, she grabbed a clean sweater and shoved it into a tote bag.
While Arthur coordinated security, Gemma searched her mother’s drawers.
Most were empty because Elena owned almost nothing that could not fit into two suitcases.
In the back of a sewing tin, Gemma found an envelope addressed to her.
Not new.
The paper was yellow at the edges.
GEMMA — IF THE RING EVER FINDS US.
Her hands began shaking.
Leo saw the envelope but did not reach for it.
Good.
Gemma opened it.
Inside were two pages in her mother’s handwriting.
Baby,
If you are reading this, I failed to keep the past away from you.
There is a man named Leo Moretti. You may hear terrible things about him, and some will be true. But the worst thing I ever believed about him was a lie someone needed me to believe.
Your father did not abandon you.
He never knew you existed.
Gemma stopped.
The room disappeared.
Leo said nothing.
Arthur silently stepped into the hall.
Gemma read the sentence again.
Your father did not abandon you.
Her throat tightened.
She looked at Leo.
He did not look powerful now.
He looked terrified.
“No.”
It came out as a whisper.
Leo’s face went pale.
Gemma forced herself to continue.
The man who separated us was Salvatore Moretti.
He told me Leo had ordered my brother’s death and would kill my unborn child if I went to him. I had proof Salvatore was stealing from the Moretti family, but not enough proof to survive accusing him.
I ran.
I changed my name.
I raised you where no one from that life could reach us.
If Leo ever sees the ring, he will understand one thing: I did not sell it because some promises survive even when people do not.
I am sorry I kept your name from him.
I am more sorry I kept his name from you.
Gemma’s vision blurred.
She lowered the paper.
Leo had not moved.
“How old are you?” he asked quietly.
“Twenty-two.”
“When is your birthday?”
“October eighteenth.”
Leo closed his eyes.
Gemma hated him for that reaction because she did not understand it.
“What?”
He opened them.
“The rings were finished October eighteenth.”
Gemma looked at the ring on his hand.
“Elena said she wanted that date inside them.”
Leo removed his ring.
He had not done that once in the diner.
Inside the band, barely visible, was an engraving.
10.18.
Gemma sat on the edge of the bed.
“This does not prove anything.”
“No.”
“I need you to say that.”
“It does not prove anything.”
“Good.”
“But I want to know.”
“So do I.”
The honesty hurt.
Arthur returned.
“We found something.”
He placed a tablet on the dresser.
St. Agnes had been abandoned for twelve years, but a shell company purchased the property six months ago.
Owner: Bellwether Restoration LLC.
Gemma read the registered address.
“That’s three blocks from my diner.”
Leo nodded.
Arthur continued.
“The diner owner owes Bellwether forty-eight thousand dollars.”
Gemma’s skin prickled.
Her employer had spent months complaining about “private lenders.”
“Your people?” she asked Leo.
“No.”
“Could be lying.”
“Yes.”
Again, no defensiveness.
That unnerved her more.
Arthur swiped to another document.
Bellwether’s managing agent was Salvatore Moretti’s attorney.
There it was.
A line connecting her cheap diner, the abandoned school, and Leo’s uncle.
Gemma felt suddenly watched by her entire life.
“Did Salvatore know who I was before tonight?”
Leo looked at Arthur.
“Find out.”
Gemma’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered before either man could stop her.
“Mom?”
Elena whispered, “Gemma.”
Her voice was breathless.
“Where are you?”
“I got away.”
Gemma stood.
Leo’s eyes sharpened.
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Who took you?”
Elena was silent.
“Mom.”
“Salvatore’s men.”
Leo looked away.
“Why St. Agnes?”
“Because he wants Leo angry.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
A train horn sounded faintly through Elena’s phone.
Gemma knew that sound.
Elevated line.
Queens.
“Mom, listen to me. Leo is here.”
Elena’s breath stopped.
Gemma continued.
“I read the letter.”
A long silence.
Then Elena began to cry.
Not loudly.
Gemma had heard her mother cry many times behind bathroom doors.
Never like this.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m coming to you.”
“Mom—”
“Do not go to St. Agnes.”
“Why?”
“Because the school is not where he plans to hurt Leo.”
Leo stepped closer.
Elena heard his breathing.
Her voice changed.
“Leo?”
He spoke for the first time.
“Elena.”
Twenty-one years collapsed into one word.
Neither said anything else.
Then Elena whispered, “Salvatore still has your father’s ledger.”
Leo’s face changed.
“What ledger?”
“The one that proves he killed him.”
The call ended.
Leo stood motionless.
Gemma had thought the night was about a ring.
Then about her mother.
Then maybe about her father.
Now she understood they had touched something older.
Something people had killed to keep buried.
Arthur’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“Boss.”
Leo looked up.
“Salvatore is on his way to St. Agnes.”
Gemma folded her mother’s letter and put it in her pocket.
Leo said, “You stay here.”
Gemma stared.
He exhaled.
“Right. Still learning.”
“Very slowly.”
She grabbed her coat.
“If Salvatore built my whole life close enough to watch, I’m done being the person everyone moves around.”
Leo held the door open.
May you like
This time he did not tell her where to go.
He waited for her to choose.
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