Chapter 9 - The Sister Hattie Refused to LoseLorraine collapsed before Hattie reached her.
Lorraine’s face filled the screen.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Alive.
“Where is she?” Alessandro demanded.
Vincent smiled.
“You know where.”
The hunting lodge.
“I want the necklace,” Vincent said. “The original. Not a copy.”
“You already know the evidence is with federal investigators.”
“I don’t care about the documents.”
That caught everyone’s attention.
Alessandro frowned.
“Then what do you want?”
Vincent’s smile disappeared.
“There’s something else inside the pendant.”
Isabella grabbed the necklace around her throat.
“What?”
“Ask your mother.”
The call ended.
Hattie turned toward Alessandro.
“We’re going.”
“No.”
“My sister—”
“I’ll get her back.”
“You said that about going alone thirty minutes ago.”
“Hattie.”
“I’m coming.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“So was working in your house.”
Despite everything, Marco laughed once.
Alessandro glared at him.
Marco looked away.
Federal agents strongly opposed any exchange.
They wanted trackers.
Surveillance.
A tactical team.
Vincent knew their methods.
He demanded Alessandro arrive with Isabella and Hattie and only one driver.
No visible weapons.
No police.
The necklace had to be around Isabella’s neck.
“He wants all of us,” Hattie said.
Alessandro nodded.
“He wants witnesses dead.”
Isabella looked at her father.
“Then we give him what he thinks he wants.”
The plan was dangerous.
Which meant Alessandro hated it.
Which meant Isabella insisted.
They arrived at the hunting lodge just after midnight.
Snow covered the ground.
The old wooden building stood between dark pine trees.
Hattie’s heart hammered as they entered.
Vincent waited near the fireplace.
He resembled Alessandro enough that nobody could mistake them for anything but brothers.
Same dark eyes.
Same broad shoulders.
But where Alessandro carried severity, Vincent carried charm.
Even now.
Even holding Hattie’s sister hostage.
“Bella.”
Vincent smiled.
“You’ve grown up.”
Isabella looked at him with disgust.
“You tried to murder me.”
“Twice.”
“Three times,” Vane corrected from behind Lorraine.
Vincent laughed.
“Right.”
Alessandro’s face went blank.
“What third time?”
Vane smiled.
“The car accident last year.”
Isabella froze.
She had spent two weeks in the hospital after her brakes failed.
Everyone called it mechanical failure.
Hattie looked at Alessandro.
Murder lived behind his eyes.
Vincent extended his hand.
“Necklace.”
Isabella removed it.
“Let Lorraine go.”
“First the pendant.”
She threw it across the room.
Vincent caught it.
He opened the locket.
Using a knife, he pried beneath the photograph.
A microSD card fell into his palm.
Hattie stared.
Elena had hidden another file.
Vincent smiled.
“There you are.”
Alessandro said, “You killed Elena for that?”
Vincent looked at his brother.
“No.”
The smile faded.
“I killed Elena because she chose you.”
Alessandro went still.
Vincent continued.
“You always got everything.”
“The businesses. Father’s respect. Elena.”
Hattie realized the truth.
This wasn’t only greed.
It was resentment cultivated over decades.
Vincent had loved his brother’s wife.
Or believed he had.
“When she discovered the accounts,” Vincent said, “I offered her a way out.”
Alessandro’s face tightened.
“You offered my wife what?”
“A life without you.”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“She refused.”
Isabella looked sick.
“So you killed her.”
“She was going to expose everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Yes.”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“Yes, I killed your mother.”
Alessandro moved.
Vane pressed the syringe into Lorraine’s neck.
“Don’t.”
Alessandro stopped.
Vincent inserted the card into a laptop.
Then frowned.
Password protected.
“What’s the password?”
Isabella shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Vincent walked toward her.
“Think.”
“I don’t know.”
He slapped her.
Alessandro lunged.
Two armed men appeared from side rooms.
Rifles aimed.
“Again,” Vincent warned, “and Lorraine dies first.”
Hattie’s entire body shook with anger.
She looked at Isabella.
A bruise was forming across her cheek.
Months earlier, perhaps Isabella would have responded with rage.
Instead, she stared calmly at Vincent.
“My mother was smarter than you.”
His eyes narrowed.
“She hid evidence for five years.”
“Password.”
“You killed her and still couldn’t find it.”
“Password!”
“I don’t know!”
Vincent grabbed Isabella by the throat.
Hattie stepped forward.
“Try Elena’s favorite place.”
Everyone looked at her.
Vincent loosened his grip.
“What?”
“Isabella told me Elena collected postcards.”
Vincent stared.
Hattie continued.
“She loved Coney Island.”
Isabella understood.
“The Cyclone.”
Vincent typed it.
Incorrect.
“Her wedding anniversary,” Alessandro said.
Incorrect.
Isabella closed her eyes.
Then remembered something from Elena’s letter.
Trust carefully.
But do not stop trusting completely.
“Trust.”
Vincent typed.
Incorrect.
Then Isabella whispered, “Little Bella.”
Vincent entered LITTLEBELLA.
The file opened.
A video appeared.
Elena Ventresca filled the screen.
Everyone froze.
She was sitting in Isabella’s childhood bedroom.
“If you’re watching this,” Elena said, “then Vincent found the pendant.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Elena continued.
“And if Vincent found the pendant, he is probably standing near my daughter.”
A beep sounded.
Vincent stared at the laptop.
“What is that?”
Elena smiled on-screen.
“This file automatically transmits its contents and location when opened.”
Vincent slammed the laptop shut.
Too late.
Outside, distant helicopter rotors thundered through the night.
Alessandro smiled for the first time.
“Hello, little brother.”
Vincent raised his gun.
Chaos erupted.
Vane dragged Lorraine backward.
Hattie ran toward her.
Isabella screamed.
May you like
Shots exploded through the lodge.
And as federal agents stormed the property, Vane drove the syringe into Lorraine’s neck.
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