Chapter 12
Sarah stared at her hand.
Her wedding ring.
She had worn it seven years.
David had chosen it.
Or so she thought.
Arthur looked at David when they returned.
“Who bought the ring?”
David frowned.
“I did.”
“Where?”
“My mother arranged the jeweler.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Sarah saw.
“You knew.”
Margaret whispered:
“No.”
“Then why that face?”
“Because the jeweler was Catherine’s.”
Arthur went still.
Catherine had been dead years.
But her old jeweler remained.
Sarah removed the ring.
Her hand felt strangely naked.
Arthur examined the inside.
No hidden compartment.
Nothing obvious.
Price asked for a thin blade.
He pressed beneath the inner band.
A small second layer shifted.
Sarah’s breath stopped.
Inside was a narrow strip of metal.
Not writing.
Tiny engraved marks.
Five names reduced to initials.
A.B.
D.B.
S.P.
M.B.
E.B.
Arthur.
Daniel.
Samuel Price.
Maria Bellacorte.
Elias Bennett.
Sarah frowned.
“Five.”
Price went pale.
“That’s not a message.”
“What?”
“It’s a circle.”
Daniel stared.
“Meaning?”
“Maria chose five people who could break the Custodian system if they ever worked together.”
Arthur almost laughed.
“She included Daniel.”
Price nodded.
“She knew the truth before she died.”
Daniel looked away.
Arthur’s voice became rough.
“She never told me.”
“No.”
“Because she didn’t trust me.”
“Because she hoped time would change you.”
Arthur looked toward Sarah.
Maybe it had.
Maybe not enough.
Sarah asked:
“Why Elias?”
Price shook his head.
“Maria couldn’t have known Elias.”
Daniel corrected him.
“She could.”
Everyone turned.
“Elias met Maria once.”
Arthur stared.
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
“Why?”
“I brought him secretly.”
Arthur’s eyes hardened.
“You brought your son into my house.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted him to see the family he came from.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“And Maria knew.”
“Yes.”
“She said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Again.
Women had carried half the family truth while the men shouted over dinner.
Sarah looked at the initials.
“What are we supposed to do?”
Price answered:
“Stand in one room without trying to destroy each other.”
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“Maria was ambitious.”
Arthur almost smiled.
For the first time, the brothers shared something that was not hatred.
Then Emma entered.
Barefoot.
Holding a small drawing.
Sarah turned.
“Baby, you’re supposed to be upstairs.”
Emma held out the paper.
“Grandma gave me.”
Everyone froze.
“Which grandma?”
Emma pointed toward Margaret.
Margaret went pale.
“I didn’t.”
Emma shook her head.
“Other grandma.”
Sarah’s mother was dead.
David’s mother stood in the room.
Arthur crouched.
“What did she look like?”
Emma thought.
“Old.”
“Where?”
“Garden.”
Price went white.
Arthur saw.
“What?”
Price whispered:
“Maria’s sister.”
Sarah frowned.
“Mom didn’t have a sister.”
Arthur looked at Price.
“Did she?”
Price nodded slowly.
“Half-sister.”
Another erased relative.
“Name.”
“Rose.”
Arthur remembered the name faintly.
A woman Vittorio once called dangerous.
He had assumed she belonged to another family.
“Alive?”
Price looked at Emma’s drawing.
“Apparently.”
The drawing showed a house.
Three stick figures.
Emma.
Sarah.
An older woman.
Behind them, a black circle.
Emma pointed.
“Grandma Rose said this is the bad room.”
Arthur’s voice became quiet.
“What bad room?”
Emma shrugged.
“She said Grandpa knows.”
Arthur frowned.
“I don’t.”
Emma tapped the black circle again.
“Under the horses.”
The estate stables.
Everyone looked toward Arthur.
Price whispered:
“There used to be a room under the old stable.”
Arthur stared.
“What was it?”
Price looked sick.
“Vittorio’s original Custodian room.”
Sarah’s blood turned cold.
The center of the old network was beneath Arthur’s property.
Not hidden across the city.
May you like
Not in abandoned clubs.
Under the place Emma fed horses every weekend.
