Chapter 7 - CHAD’S CONFESSION
Sebastian hit Chad before he realized he had moved.
One punch.
Chad fell against the stone wall.
Anthony stepped between them.
“Boss.”
Sebastian stopped.
Not because Chad did not deserve it.
Because Leo did not need another adult confusing violence with answers.
Sebastian stepped back.
“Why Leo?”
Chad wiped blood from his mouth.
“I don’t know.”
“You met this man for six weeks.”
“Twice.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew my father.”
Helena’s dead husband, Paolo.
Chad looked toward the tape recorder.
“He said Paolo didn’t die in a hunting accident.”
Sebastian stared.
“What did he say?”
“That Vittorio had him killed after Paolo tried to expose the second seat.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Because Helena told you the same story?”
Chad froze.
Sebastian understood.
“Your mother raised you on it.”
Chad’s jaw tightened.
“She raised me on what happened.”
“No.”
Sebastian’s voice remained cold.
“She raised you on what she believed happened.”
Chad looked away.
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Sebastian thought of Adrian.
“That difference buried my brother.”
Chad’s anger faltered.
Sebastian continued:
“What did the burned man promise you?”
Chad said nothing.
“Chad.”
“The family.”
Anthony looked over.
Sebastian almost smiled.
“There.”
“He said the fifth seat belonged to Paolo’s line.”
“So you thought tormenting a three-year-old would make you boss.”
“I thought Leo had the key.”
“You thought wrong.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Chad’s face hardened.
Sebastian stepped closer.
“What did you think would happen when you put your knee on him?”
“He’d give it to me.”
“He didn’t have it.”
“I know.”
“Then you kept going.”
Chad looked toward the floor.
That was the important part.
Manipulation ended where choice began.
“I lost control.”
Sebastian’s expression went flat.
“My father used that sentence.”
Chad looked up.
“So did mine.”
Silence.
A mirror neither wanted.
Chad continued:
“The burned man knew where Paolo was shot.”
“Hunting lodge.”
“No.”
Chad shook his head.
“Stairwell beneath the old council house.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Paolo died outside the city.”
“That’s what Helena was told.”
Another false death location.
“How does this connect Adrian?”
“The man said Adrian found Paolo’s blood there.”
“Twenty-five years later?”
“Stain under the floor.”
Possible.
Not proof.
But enough to make Adrian investigate.
Chad continued:
“He said Adrian realized the same person who betrayed Paolo was still inside the family.”
“The Shadow.”
“Yes.”
“Name?”
“He never gave it.”
“Description?”
“Burned face. Cane. About sixty.”
“Voice?”
“American. Maybe East Coast.”
Not enough.
Sebastian asked:
“Why does he want Leo?”
Chad’s face changed.
“He said Leo remembers Adrian.”
“He was two.”
“He said Adrian gave Leo a phrase.”
Sebastian’s chest tightened.
“What phrase?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Chad hesitated.
“He called it the nursery key.”
Sebastian stared.
Not iron.
Memory.
A phrase embedded in a child’s routine.
A song.
Clara had said Leo hummed a song.
Sebastian returned to the main estate immediately.
Leo was awake.
Sitting on Sebastian’s bed with a toy truck.
Sebastian sat on the floor in front of him.
“Can you sing Daddy’s song?”
Leo looked suspicious.
“Why?”
Good.
Adrian had taught him not to give everything away.
“Because I miss him.”
That was true.
Leo thought.
Then hummed.
Three notes.
Pause.
Two.
Then three again.
Sebastian knew the melody.
A Moretti lullaby his grandmother used to sing.
But Leo changed one note.
Always.
Sebastian listened three times.
Then understood.
The pattern matched the old council-house bell sequence.
Three.
Two.
Three.
Anthony looked at him.
“Code?”
“Probably.”
Sebastian did not ask Leo to repeat more.
The child had already given enough.
“Did Dad say anything when he sang?”
Leo smiled faintly.
“Bird sleeps under water.”
Sebastian went still.
Anthony stared.
Under the river.
The burned man’s meeting place.
Adrian had put a location inside a bedtime phrase.
Sebastian kissed Leo’s forehead.
“Good job.”
Leo grabbed his sleeve.
“You go get Daddy?”
Sebastian stopped.
Children should not be promised miracles.
“I’m going to find out if he can come home.”
Leo looked at him.
“That means maybe.”
Sebastian almost laughed.
“Yes.”
Leo nodded seriously.
“Okay.”
Sebastian stood.
At the door Leo spoke again.
“Uncle Sebastian?”
“Yes?”
“Daddy said if the bad uncle asks for me, don’t go.”
Sebastian turned.
“What bad uncle?”
Leo shrugged.
“Uncle with no face.”
Saint without a face.
Burned man.
Or something else.
Sebastian crouched.
“Did Daddy show you?”
Leo shook his head.
“He said you’d know.”
May you like
Sebastian did not.
That frightened him more than he showed.
