Chapter 5 - What Elizabeth Left Behind
Two days later, Audrey stood before a weathered Sicilian villa overlooking the Mediterranean.
Two stone lions guarded its entrance.
Lorenzo walked beside her.
“You all right?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“Good?”
“If you said yes, I'd know you were lying.”
Inside, Lorenzo's father waited.
Salvatore Falcone looked nothing like the monster Audrey had constructed in her imagination.
He looked old.
His eyes filled the instant he saw her.
He didn't approach.
“May I?”
Audrey understood.
“No.”
Salvatore stopped.
She appreciated that.
“My mother hated you.”
“I know.”
“Did you deserve it?”
“Some of it.”
Lorenzo glanced at him.
Salvatore continued.
“I was young. Proud. Married to the family before I understood what family should mean.”
“You left her.”
“Yes.”
“Then don't rewrite it.”
“I won't.”
Audrey's anger weakened—not because he excused himself, but because he didn't.
She showed him the key.
“Where?”
Salvatore led them upstairs.
Behind an old portrait was a narrow wooden compartment.
The key fit.
Inside sat a metal box.
Audrey opened it.
Documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
And a cassette recording.
Lorenzo found an old player.
A woman's voice filled the room.
Audrey immediately recognized her mother.
If Alessandra hears this, then she survived.
Audrey gripped the table.
Elizabeth explained everything.
Carlo Bellandi had been secretly selling information about both families. Vincenzo discovered it.
Carlo killed him and arranged the fire to destroy the evidence.
But Elizabeth had copied his records first.
Names.
Accounts.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officials.
Businessmen.
Everything.
Salvatore stared at the documents.
“This could destroy Carlo.”
Lorenzo corrected him.
“It could destroy dozens of people.”
Audrey looked through the records.
Then she found something else.
Evidence linking Carlo to the recent kidnapping scheme.
She looked at Lorenzo.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Dante examined the page.
“He manipulated our dock operation.”
Lorenzo's jaw hardened.
“Carlo wanted a war.”
“With the Russians?” Audrey asked.
“With everyone.”
Salvatore looked at his children.
“We take this to the authorities.”
Lorenzo nodded.
Audrey studied him.
“That easy?”
“No.”
He looked at the records.
“But necessary.”
A car engine sounded outside.
Dante moved toward the window.
“Company.”
Lorenzo looked at Audrey.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Audrey.”
“I spent fifteen years running from Carlo.”
She picked up the metal box.
“I'm finished running.”
They descended together.
Carlo Bellandi stood beyond the villa's open courtyard with several men.
He smiled when Audrey appeared.
“Alessandra.”
“Audrey.”
“You have something of mine.”
Audrey held up the box.
“No.”
She looked directly at him.
“This belonged to my mother.”
Carlo's smile vanished.
“Give it to me.”
Lorenzo stepped beside her.
“You heard my sister.”
Carlo laughed.
“Your sister?”
Then Audrey smiled.
“You made one mistake, Carlo.”
“What?”
“You spent fifteen years looking for a frightened fourteen-year-old girl.”
She held up her phone.
“You should've been looking for the woman she became.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
Carlo's face changed.
Audrey had already sent copies of every document to investigators.
Lorenzo looked almost impressed.
“When?”
“In the car.”
“You didn't tell me.”
“You didn't ask.”
Dante laughed.
Carlo backed toward his vehicle.
But the road behind him filled with police cars.
May you like
For the first time since Palermo, Audrey watched Carlo Bellandi realize he had nowhere left to run.
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