Chapter 11
Finding the ring in Samuel Price’s room was almost too easy.
Sarah said it immediately.
Arthur agreed.
Daniel wanted him hunted.
That told Sarah everything about how little her uncle had changed.
“You see a ring and want a man dead.”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“He has Elias.”
“Maybe.”
“He has Emma’s sock.”
“In his room.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Sarah shook her head.
“That is what someone wants us to conclude.”
Daniel looked toward Arthur.
“Your daughter is exhausting.”
Arthur almost smiled.
“She gets it from me.”
Sarah looked at him.
“No.”
Arthur accepted the correction.
They searched Price’s history.
Not paperwork.
Memory.
Old guards.
Retired cooks.
Drivers.
People who knew how he moved.
Price had served Bellacorte for thirty-six years.
Never married.
No children anyone knew.
He entered Vittorio’s house at nineteen.
Catherine Bellacorte trained him.
There it was.
Arthur felt it.
“If Catherine was Custodian…”
Daniel continued:
“She could have chosen Price.”
Maybe.
But Price had also protected Arthur repeatedly.
He once took a bullet during a street ambush.
He carried Sarah from a car after she broke her arm at nine.
He taught Emma how to feed the estate horses.
People could love and still betray.
That truth no longer surprised Sarah.
Arthur found Price before sunset.
Not hiding.
Sitting inside an abandoned greenhouse on Bellacorte land.
Waiting.
He looked at Arthur.
“You took longer than your father would have.”
Arthur stopped.
“That may be a compliment.”
“It is.”
Sarah stood beside Arthur.
Daniel behind.
Price looked at Sarah.
“You brought her.”
“She brings herself.”
Price smiled.
“Good.”
Arthur held up the second signet.
“Yours?”
Price shook his head.
“Never.”
“Catherine?”
“Yes.”
“Who after?”
Price looked at Sarah.
“Your mother.”
Arthur stopped breathing.
Sarah stared.
“My grandmother?”
Arthur’s wife, Sarah’s mother, had died ten years earlier.
Maria Bellacorte.
Warm.
Elegant.
The one person Arthur rarely discussed because grief altered his voice.
Sarah whispered:
“Mom?”
Price nodded.
Arthur’s face became dangerous.
“Careful.”
Price remained calm.
“Maria inherited the ring from Catherine.”
“Why?”
“Because Catherine believed a Bellacorte wife could restrain a Bellacorte boss better than another man.”
Arthur stared.
“Maria never told me.”
“No.”
“Did she act against me?”
“Twice.”
Arthur’s expression changed.
“When?”
“Once when you wanted war with the Rossini family.”
Arthur remembered.
A shipment disappeared.
Then suddenly reappeared.
Evidence surfaced proving an internal theft.
He always thought luck prevented war.
Price continued:
“Maria stopped it.”
“And the second?”
“When you ordered Daniel found ten years ago.”
Daniel went still.
Arthur looked at his brother.
Price continued.
“Maria learned one of your men located him.”
Arthur remembered.
A lead vanished.
He blamed incompetence.
“Maria protected Daniel.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“Because she knew Arthur would kill first and discover the truth later.”
Arthur lowered his eyes.
Again.
His reputation had shaped other people’s secrecy.
“What happened to the ring after Maria died?”
Price’s expression changed.
“She gave it away before.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she stopped trusting me too.”
Price’s honesty made the answer harder to dismiss.
Sarah stepped forward.
“Where is Elias?”
Price looked at her.
“Alive.”
Daniel moved.
Arthur blocked him.
“Where?”
Price looked toward Daniel.
“If I tell you, you will turn this into revenge.”
“He is my son.”
“And Sarah is Arthur’s daughter.”
Price’s voice sharpened.
“Look what both of you did in their names.”
Silence.
Daniel stopped.
Price continued.
“Elias came to me three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“He found Catherine’s old network.”
“Who has him?”
“No one.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“He disappeared voluntarily.”
“Why?”
“To find the current Custodian.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
“Then the photograph?”
“Staged.”
Daniel looked furious.
“My son let me think—”
Price cut him off.
“He learned from you.”
That landed.
Manipulation inherited.
Price looked at Sarah.
“Emma’s sock was not part of Elias’s plan.”
Sarah went cold.
“So someone else inserted themselves.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Price looked toward the estate.
“Current Custodian.”
Arthur’s voice lowered.
“Name.”
Price shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Sarah almost laughed.
The most dangerous organization in Bellacorte history seemed designed so nobody knew enough to end it.
Price continued:
“But I know where Maria hid her last message.”
Arthur froze.
“Where?”
May you like
Price looked directly at Sarah.
“In your daughter’s wedding ring.”
