Chapter 5 - The Woman Edmund Buried
The door opened.
Evelyn Moretti stood there.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Vivian could not move.
Her mother stared at her with tears already falling.
“My baby.”
Vivian stepped backward.
“No.”
“Vivian.”
“No.”
Evelyn stopped.
Victor made a strangled sound.
“Evelyn.”
She looked at him.
For fifteen years of grief, betrayal and impossible hope, neither moved.
Then Victor crossed the room.
Evelyn slapped him.
Hard.
He accepted it.
Then she embraced him.
Vivian watched her parents collapse against each other.
It should have been beautiful.
Instead, rage rose through her.
“You left me.”
Evelyn released Victor.
“I had to.”
“Everyone says that.”
“I know.”
“Don’t.”
Vivian wiped her tears.
“Don’t tell me you disappeared to protect me.”
Evelyn’s face crumpled.
“But I did.”
“Then you did a terrible job.”
Silence.
“I was eleven.”
“I know.”
“I waited for you.”
“I know.”
“I cried into your sweater until Dad threw it away because it didn’t smell like you anymore.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“And you were alive.”
“Yes.”
Vivian turned away.
Edmund stood near the wall.
She suddenly remembered.
“What did the note mean?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Edmund knows.”
“Knows what?”
Edmund’s face was grim.
“Not what you think.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“He helped me disappear.”
Vivian stared at him.
The room vanished around her.
“You knew.”
“I believed she died later.”
“You knew she survived the crash.”
“Yes.”
The slap she gave him was harder than the one she had given him earlier.
“You watched me grieve.”
“I was told you would be killed if you knew.”
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
“You knew my mother was alive for six months?”
“Yes.”
“Where was she?”
“Safe house.”
“And then?”
Evelyn answered.
“The safe house was attacked.”
Edmund looked at her.
“There was blood. Two bodies.”
“Neither was mine.”
“I know that now.”
Vivian laughed through tears.
“You both decided my life for me.”
“I was trying to save it,” Evelyn said.
“Stop calling abandonment protection.”
That silenced everyone.
Evelyn nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
The simple admission hurt more than excuses.
“I was afraid. And I chose for you. I cannot undo that.”
Vivian sat.
“Then tell me why.”
Evelyn did.
The trafficking operation had not been Gabriel Costa’s.
Gabriel had discovered it too.
He and Evelyn had secretly worked together.
The real architect was someone with access to both Moretti shipping routes and Costa security.
Someone who could alter manifests, bribe police and kill witnesses.
“Name him.”
“I never learned the final name.”
Vivian stared.
“Fifteen years and you still don’t know?”
“I know the organization called him the Architect.”
Edmund’s eyes narrowed.
“What about Gabriel?”
“Alive when I disappeared.”
Edmund froze.
“What?”
“Your brother did not die in that explosion.”
Victor looked shocked.
Evelyn continued.
“The body belonged to another man.”
“Where is Gabriel?”
“I don’t know.”
Edmund’s hands curled.
Vivian had never seen him lose control.
Not during gunfire.
Not after being slapped.
But this shook him.
Evelyn took out a key.
“The ledger can tell us.”
Vivian looked at it.
“You know where it is?”
“I know where half of it is.”
“Half?”
“I split the evidence.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked at Vivian.
“You have carried one half for fifteen years.”
Vivian frowned.
“What?”
“Your necklace.”
The silver necklace from the box.
Evelyn opened the pendant.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
“The key opens a deposit box.”
“And the other half?”
“Gabriel had it.”
Edmund turned away.
Alive.
His brother might be alive.
And might have walked into his wedding.
“Was that Gabriel at Table Seventeen?” Vivian asked.
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
Edmund spun back.
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you approach him?”
“Because I don’t know which side he is on anymore.”
That landed heavily.
Vivian remembered the rifle engraved with her name.
“Could Gabriel have arranged the shooting?”
“Yes.”
Edmund’s face closed.
Evelyn continued.
“But if he wanted Edmund dead, he had an easy shot.”
Vivian nodded.
“He deliberately hit the chandelier.”
“Exactly.”
“A distraction.”
“Yes.”
“For kidnapping Dad.”
“Maybe.”
Victor shook his head.
“The man who took me wasn’t Gabriel.”
Everyone looked at him.
“You said Table Seventeen.”
“I said the man told me to look there.”
Edmund’s gaze sharpened.
“So Gabriel was a message.”
“Or a warning.”
Evelyn held out the key.
“Tomorrow morning, Bellhaven National Bank.”
Vivian took it.
“What’s inside?”
“Names.”
“How many?”
“Enough to burn this city.”
Edmund looked at Evelyn.
“Who knows about the box?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
“Gabriel.”
“Then why wait?”
“Because the vault uses timed access. Nine a.m.”
Edmund checked his watch.
Six hours.
They returned to the Costa estate under heavy security.
Vivian refused to sleep.
At eight forty, they left.
At nine, the bank manager led Vivian and Edmund into the private vault.
Box 417.
Vivian inserted the key.
Her hand shook.
Edmund placed his hand over hers.
“Together.”
She looked at him.
Despite everything, she nodded.
They opened it.
Inside lay a black ledger.
And a photograph.
Vivian picked up the photograph first.
It showed Evelyn, Gabriel and another man.
The third man’s face made Edmund go completely still.
Vivian looked from the photograph to him.
“Who is that?”
Edmund did not answer.
She turned the picture over.
A name was written there.
SALVATORE COSTA.
Edmund’s father.
A man who had supposedly died eight years ago.
Then the vault door slammed shut behind them.
The lock clicked.
May you like
And a familiar male voice spoke from the darkness.
“Hello, little brother.”
