Chapter 6 - The Betrayal Inside Castell House
“My father didn’t die in an accident.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
Tessa backed away.
“How?”
“He found me.”
“Who?”
“Salvatore.”
Tessa’s childhood memories came in fragments.
Police lights.
Rain against a hospital window.
Her father’s watch returned in a plastic bag.
A detective saying the brakes had failed.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Your father discovered I was alive.”
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Tessa felt sick.
“He was coming to you.”
“Yes.”
“And Salvatore killed him.”
“I believe so.”
“You believe?”
“We never proved it.”
Roman stood silently nearby.
Tessa turned on him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
She searched his face.
He wasn’t lying.
For once, that almost made things worse.
At eleven thirty, they prepared for Pier Nine.
Roman refused to send Tessa into the center of the exchange.
This time, however, he did not command her.
He explained the risks.
Then asked.
“What do you want to do?”
The question surprised her.
“I’m going.”
He nodded once.
“Then I go with you.”
They arrived at Pier Nine minutes before midnight.
Fog rolled between stacked containers.
Marcus stood beneath a floodlight.
Daniel sat nearby, wrists bound.
Salvatore emerged from behind him.
Roman had not seen his uncle in fifteen years.
The older man smiled.
“Look at you.”
Roman’s voice was flat.
“Release Daniel.”
“First the necklace.”
Tessa stepped forward.
Salvatore studied her.
“Eleanor’s daughter.”
“You killed my father.”
“I’ve killed many fathers.”
Roman moved.
Tessa caught his wrist.
Salvatore smiled wider.
“There. That’s the weakness everyone warned me about.”
Roman looked at Tessa.
“No.”
He faced his uncle.
“That’s the difference between us.”
Tessa removed the necklace.
Marcus approached.
She held it out.
“Daniel first.”
Marcus cut Daniel’s restraints.
Daniel ran toward Chloe’s waiting position.
Tessa gave Marcus the necklace.
He handed it to Salvatore.
Salvatore opened the pendant.
Empty.
His smile disappeared.
Tessa said, “You really thought I’d bring the original?”
Sirens erupted in the distance.
Daniel had transmitted the evidence hours earlier.
Federal agents surrounded the terminal.
Salvatore pulled a gun.
Roman shoved Tessa behind a container.
Shots exploded.
Marcus fired toward Roman.
Then suddenly stopped.
His weapon fell.
Chloe stood twenty feet away, holding a pistol with shaking hands.
Marcus collapsed, wounded but alive.
Salvatore fled between containers.
Roman chased him.
“Tessa, stay here!”
She almost shouted after him.
Instead she followed.
Some habits died harder than others.
She found Roman near the water.
Salvatore stood at the edge of the pier, weapon aimed at Roman.
“You destroyed your family for a secretary,” Salvatore spat.
Roman’s voice remained calm.
“No.”
He glanced at Tessa.
“I saved it because of her.”
Agents closed in.
Salvatore lowered his gun.
For a moment, surrender seemed possible.
Then he smiled.
“You still don’t know.”
Roman frowned.
Salvatore looked at Tessa.
“Ask Eleanor why Vittorio Castell put your name in his private will.”
Roman froze.
Tessa stared.
“What?”
Agents tackled Salvatore.
The pier erupted in shouting.
But Tessa barely heard it.
Because Roman was staring at her as though he had remembered something.
“What?” she demanded.
Roman slowly turned toward the harbor.
“My father had a sealed will.”
“And?”
“It could only be opened under one condition.”
“What condition?”
Roman looked back at her.
“When Eleanor Hayes returned.”
May you like
Behind them, Eleanor had just arrived.
And in her hand was a sealed black envelope bearing Tessa’s name.
