Chapter 6
The first tape was Ellen confronting Thomas.
Her voice filled the small storage room.
“You’re using Richard’s name.”
Thomas laughed.
“I’m using the family’s name.”
“There is a difference.”
“Only to Richard.”
I closed my eyes.
That sounded exactly like my brother.
Ellen continued.
“You moved men without his approval. You opened routes he closed. You’re giving rings to people like they answer to him.”
Thomas answered calmly.
“They answer to Bellacorte.”
“Richard is Bellacorte.”
“No. Richard is temporary.”
My hands tightened.
Mark stood beside me in silence.
Then Ellen asked:
“What happens when Richard finds out?”
Thomas laughed again.
“He won’t.”
Same confidence.
Same arrogance.
The tape continued.
Thomas explained that he did not want my chair. He wanted a structure where no single boss could dismantle the old system again. I had closed extortion routes, stopped using family children as leverage, removed men who mistook cruelty for loyalty.
Thomas called those changes sentimental.
Ellen called them civilized.
That word made him angry.
Then another voice entered the recording.
A young woman.
I looked at Mark.
He looked at me.
The voice was Claudia.
Fifteen years younger.
Still unmistakable.
“You said Richard would never know I helped.”
Thomas answered, “He won’t.”
The tape stopped.
I stared at Mark.
“You married her.”
His face went white.
“I didn’t know.”
I believed him.
For once.
The second tape explained Claudia’s role.
Her father owed Thomas money. Thomas used Claudia as a courier because nobody paid attention to a teenage girl at family gatherings. She delivered copied rings, messages, and envelopes.
Years later, after Thomas died, she still knew who had been part of his network.
And somehow she ended up marrying my son.
Coincidence had just become impossible.
Mark looked sick.
“She came into my life after Sarah died.”
I looked at him.
“How soon?”
“Five months.”
Too soon.
Not emotionally.
Strategically.
Then we found Sarah’s handwriting in one of Ellen’s journals.
A note tucked between pages.
CLAUDIA KNOWS WHO STILL HAS THOMAS’S RINGS.
May you like
Sarah had found Box 27.
And she had already identified Claudia before she died.
