Chapter 2 - THE LETTER MRS. HESS HID FOR FIFTEEN YEARS
Mrs. Hess returned carrying a yellow envelope.
My mother’s handwriting was on the front.
I knew it immediately.
Some memories live in muscle.
Birthday cards.
Grocery lists.
Notes inside my lunch box.
Margaret Hess. Personal.
Mrs. Hess handed it to me instead of Roman.
I stared.
“You never opened it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother asked me not to.”
“You let her stay blamed for fifteen years because she asked nicely?”
Pain crossed her face.
I regretted the cruelty immediately.
Not enough to apologize yet.
Mrs. Hess said:
“I was afraid.”
“Of Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
That name again.
Roman said:
“Open it.”
I looked at him.
“It’s addressed to her.”
He stopped.
Right.
Mrs. Hess nodded.
“I want Maeve to.”
My hands shook as I broke the seal.
The paper inside smelled like nothing.
I had somehow expected Mom.
Instead, old paper.
Ink.
Fifteen years of silence.
I read aloud.
Margaret, if you are reading this, either Salvatore can no longer hurt my daughters or the boys have finally begun questioning what they were told.
Declan stopped breathing.
I continued.
I did not poison Lucia.
Gabriel looked away.
I tried to save her.
Roman’s hands closed on the back of a chair.
Lucia discovered that Salvatore had been moving money through false shipping companies and selling Falcone cargo routes to men who attacked their own trucks. She asked me to help copy the records because she no longer knew whom inside the family she could trust.
I looked at them.
Nobody spoke.
The night Lucia died, she planned to confront Vittorio. Salvatore knew. After dinner, Lucia became ill. I called for the doctor. Salvatore arrived before the ambulance. By morning he was telling everyone I had poisoned her.
My voice cracked.
I kept reading.
He told me Maeve would disappear from school if I stayed. Nora was still a baby. I believed him. Maybe that makes me a coward. I have spent every day since wondering.
My younger sister.
Nora.
One year old then.
I sat down.
The brothers no longer looked dangerous.
They looked thirteen.
Roman whispered:
“Keep going.”
I took copies of Lucia’s records. Salvatore knows I have them. Vittorio knows more than he admits. If the boys ever learn the truth, tell them to look inside the green recipe tin. Lucia made sure the evidence would stay somewhere no Falcone would think to search.
I stopped.
Green recipe tin.
My heart hammered.
I had it.
In my apartment.
On top of my refrigerator.
Inside were my mother's biscuit recipe.
Pot roast.
Peach cobbler.
The potatoes currently burning in a mafia mansion kitchen.
Roman saw my face.
“You have it.”
“Yes.”
Declan moved toward the door.
“Let’s go.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“I’m not bringing three mafia brothers to my apartment at six in the morning.”
Gabriel almost smiled despite everything.
“Reasonable.”
Roman said:
“You can retrieve it yourself.”
I looked at him.
“You're letting me leave?”
Something changed in his expression.
“Maeve, despite our behavior over the last forty-eight hours, you have always been allowed to leave.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Have I?”
Silence.
The eviction notice in my pocket suddenly felt heavy.
The fifty thousand dollars he placed in front of me.
Gabriel digging through my finances.
Declan throwing glass near me.
I looked at all three.
“You've spent two days making sure I knew exactly how powerful you are.”
None answered.
“So don't stand there acting surprised that it didn't feel like freedom.”
Roman’s face hardened.
Not at me.
At himself.
I grabbed my coat.
“I’m getting the box.”
Mrs. Hess asked:
“Do you want someone with you?”
“No.”
Then I looked at Roman.
“And nobody searches my apartment before I get there.”
He almost looked offended.
Then remembered who he was.
“You have my word.”
May you like
I left.
For the first time since arriving at Falcone Manor, none of the three brothers tried to stop me.
