Chapter 10
Rebecca had designed Leo’s nursery.
Not a decorator.
Not Enzo’s mother.
Rebecca.
She chose the wooden shelves.
The wallpaper.
The old rocking horse.
The small music box beside the crib.
Enzo had preserved most of it after her death because grief sometimes disguises itself as interior design.
Maria remained in the hallway with Leo while Enzo and Luca searched.
The boy believed Daddy and Uncle Luca were looking for one of Mommy’s old things.
That was true enough.
Luca paused near the framed photograph above the dresser.
Rebecca holding newborn Leo.
Enzo beside her.
“You were happy.”
Enzo looked at him.
“Yes.”
Luca absorbed that.
Maybe it hurt.
Nineteen missing years contained entire lives.
Maria knocked.
“Leo keeps asking why there are men in his room.”
Enzo stopped.
He looked around.
This was exactly what he promised himself he would not do.
Turn the child’s space into another family battlefield.
“Everyone out.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“Out.”
“We need to find—”
“Not while he’s awake.”
Luca stared.
Enzo’s voice hardened.
“He lost food because adults decided secrets mattered more than him.”
A pause.
“We’re not taking the room too.”
Luca nodded.
No argument.
Progress arrived in strange places.
That evening, after Leo fell asleep in Maria’s room, they returned.
Enzo knew Rebecca.
Not every secret.
But habits.
When frightened, she hid things where beauty made people stop examining function.
He looked at the music box.
A carved carousel.
Rebecca had bought it before Leo’s birth.
Enzo opened the base.
Nothing.
Luca turned the winding key.
Music played.
Then stopped too quickly.
Enzo frowned.
He removed the inner panel.
A small cloth pouch had been wedged behind the mechanism.
Inside:
Rebecca’s bracelet.
Enzo recognized it immediately.
She was wearing it the morning she died.
At least he thought she was.
He had not been with her when she left.
The hospital returned other jewelry.
Not this.
A brass garage token sat beside it.
Stamped with two initials.
O.P.
Owen Pike.
And a miniature cassette.
Rebecca again.
Enzo’s hands tightened around the player.
Her voice:
“If Leo ever hears this, I hope he’s old enough to understand I wasn’t hiding something from him.”
Enzo closed his eyes.
“But if Enzo hears it first…”
A soft laugh.
“…you probably broke the music box.”
He nearly smiled.
Luca looked away to give him privacy while standing five feet away.
Rebecca continued.
“Owen finally told me who kept Luca’s exile alive.”
Enzo stopped breathing.
“He says Damian gave the original orders.”
“Yes.”
“Carmine approved them.”
“Yes.”
“But after Luca escaped, someone else kept paying men to track him.”
Pause.
“Owen says it was Helena’s father for a while.”
Helena knew less than Silvio.
Then:
“After Silvio died, the payments continued.”
Enzo leaned closer.
“Owen found the person.”
Static covered two seconds.
When the voice returned:
“He calls him the Steward.”
Luca frowned.
Rebecca continued.
“It isn’t a formal title.”
“It’s what the old household men called whoever controlled movement inside the family.”
“Cars.”
“Keys.”
“Who slept where.”
“Who was told which door to use.”
“Who arrived first.”
“The Steward could make accidents look like timing.”
Enzo thought of Grant screening Maria’s calls.
The south gate opening.
The car delivered at midnight.
Invisible control.
Rebecca continued:
“Owen thinks the current Steward is inside Enzo’s security.”
Luca whispered:
“Mason?”
Enzo shook his head.
The recording continued.
“But I don’t think it’s one man.”
Both brothers looked at each other.
“There are two.”
“One serving Luca.”
“One serving someone else.”
Mason.
Luca’s watcher.
And another.
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“If I am right, Enzo has spent years standing between two men who report to opposite ghosts.”
Enzo’s mind returned to the opening garage.
He had been speaking with two senior bodyguards.
Mason Reed.
And Grant Hale.
Mason had admitted working for Luca.
The man called Grant had been the other.
Rebecca had seen the structure before death.
The recording continued.
“I don’t know Grant’s real name.”
Mason’s brother’s stolen identity.
“But Owen does.”
Pause.
“If anything happens to me, find Owen before Grant finds him.”
The cassette ended.
Too late.
Owen was now running.
Grant had already disappeared.
Luca sat.
“My watcher.”
Enzo remained standing.
“Your spy.”
“Yes.”
“And Grant worked for—”
“We don’t know.”
Enzo looked at him.
“Rebecca died fourteen months ago.”
“Yes.”
“If Grant was responsible…”
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“We find him.”
Enzo shook his head.
“No.”
Luca frowned.
“We find the truth.”
A subtle difference.
The kind Carmine never taught either of them.
Before Luca could answer, Maria entered.
“Enzo.”
He turned.
She rarely used his first name.
“What?”
“Helena is gone.”
Enzo’s expression hardened.
“From the south property?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She left with someone.”
“Who?”
Maria held up the luxury car key fob.
Helena had left it behind.
Attached to it was a small strip of paper.
Not a legal document.
May you like
Three handwritten words:
I FOUND OWEN.
