Chapter 10 - No More Good Daughters
Serena backed toward the front door.
Carlo moved to block the hallway.
Vincent noticed.
“She came to talk.”
Carlo glanced at him.
“You’ve talked enough.”
Patricia pulled free of her husband and kept walking toward the office.
Vincent reached for her again.
This time, she slapped his hand away.
“Don’t.”
Serena had never heard her mother speak like that.
Carlo took another step.
“Your husband has something of mine.”
“What?”
“Money.”
“Then ask my father where he put it.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Serena.”
“No.
You don’t get to say my name like I’m the problem.”
Outside, a car door closed.
Carlo looked toward the sound.
Serena used the moment to pull the front door open.
Dante stood at the bottom of the steps.
He had seen Carlo through the side window.
“Come outside,” he said.
Carlo caught Serena’s upper arm.
She froze.
Dante stopped moving.
“Let her go.”
Vincent looked past him toward the street.
Another vehicle had pulled up.
Then another.
Uniformed officers stepped out.
Carlo’s grip loosened just enough.
Serena twisted away and stumbled through the doorway.
Dante caught her.
Behind them, Patricia shouted.
The office door banged against the wall.
Vincent came out carrying a gray document case.
Carlo lunged for it.
The two men collided in the foyer.
For years, Serena had imagined them as one solid wall.
Now they were pulling at the same handle, each willing to destroy the other to keep possession.
“Police!” someone shouted.
Carlo shoved Vincent against the stair rail.
The case fell open.
Papers spread across the floor.
Patricia dropped to her knees and gathered them.
“Leave those!” Vincent roared.
She looked up at him.
“No.”
An officer reached the doorway.
Carlo disappeared through the back of the house.
Two officers moved after him while another ordered Vincent away from Patricia.
Dante held Serena behind him until she stepped to his side.
Together, they watched her mother carry the open case into the morning light.
Patricia’s hands were shaking.
But she did not drop it.
Then a sharp crash came from behind the house.
A vehicle engine roared.
An officer shouted for everyone to get down.
Carlo’s SUV tore through the rear gate.
He was gone.
And Vincent, standing in the doorway with an officer beside him, began to laugh.
May you like
“You think the papers are the worst of it?” he asked Dante.
“Wait until you hear your father.”
