Chapter 11 - THE LAST THING ROSE LEFT
Nell read the letter twice.
The first time, she understood almost none of it.
The second time, every sentence hurt.
Rose had spent years believing Carmine had ordered their deaths.
Then Daniel Price’s widow had found copies of old business papers among belongings she had packed away after his funeral.
One of them was the warehouse authorization.
The signature matched the one on the threat.
Exactly.
Even the stray mark beneath Carmine’s last name.
Daniel had been investigating money Vittorio moved through Bellwether.
He had copied the papers before he died.
His widow eventually traced Rose through a former neighbor.
By then, Rose had already built a whole life around fear.
I should have questioned more, the letter said.
But when the house burned, I stopped caring about being right. I only cared about keeping you breathing.
Nell pressed the page against her mouth.
She remembered her mother wrapping wet towels around her.
The kitchen door refusing to open.
Glass breaking.
Running barefoot through cold mud while flames climbed the windows behind them.
Mara sat beside her.
No advice.
No comforting lie.
Just a chair pulled close.
The recorder contained an older conversation between Rose and Daniel.
Daniel’s voice was nervous.
If I take this to Carmine, Vittorio will tell him I’m stealing. He’s already setting it up.
Rose answered.
Then we take it outside the family.
Agent Bell stopped the playback.
“We’ll examine the original device and records.”
Nell nodded.
“Will this be enough?”
“It gives us places to look.”
Again, an honest answer.
Her phone lit up.
Carmine.
She let it ring.
Then a message appeared.
You do not have to speak to me. Tomas says you are safe. That is all I needed to know.
Nell stared at it until the screen went dark.
That night, she called him.
He answered before the first ring ended.
“Her letter says you searched.”
Silence.
Then a breath that sounded broken.
“I did.”
“She wanted to come home.”
“I wish she had.”
Nell closed her eyes.
For the first time in sixteen years, she let herself picture him searching empty hospitals.
Looking at unidentified faces.
Opening doors she wasn’t behind.
Then she remembered Daniel Price.
“I believe you loved us,” she said.
Carmine didn’t interrupt.
“That doesn’t mean you were a good man.”
“No,” he answered.
When the call ended, Mara’s assistant knocked.
A delivery had arrived for Nell.
Inside the package lay her mother’s wedding ring.
May you like
Wrapped around it was a note.
THE LETTER LEFT OUT HOW SHE DIED.
