Chapter 3 - The Room Beneath the Library
The estate locked down in forty-seven seconds.
Bruno knew because Desmond had designed the procedure himself.
Steel gates closed.
Exterior doors sealed.
Security teams swept every floor.
The disturbance downstairs turned out not to be an attack.
It was something worse.
A distraction.
Someone had thrown a chair through a glass conservatory door while another person disabled two cameras near the library.
Whoever had done it was already inside.
Bruno moved Anna and Lucy to his private bedroom while Desmond searched the estate.
Lucy thought it was an adventure.
Anna understood it was not.
“Stay here.”
Bruno turned toward the door.
Anna caught his arm.
“Wait.”
His eyes dropped to her hand.
She released him.
“My mother mentioned a library.”
Bruno stopped.
“What about it?”
“She said Vittorio kept his most dangerous truth where nobody reads.”
Bruno frowned.
His father had loved riddles.
Bruno hated them.
Where nobody reads.
The Castellano library contained nearly four thousand books.
But one wall held decorative books—leather-bound volumes purchased by Bruno’s grandfather because they looked impressive.
Nobody read them.
Bruno called Desmond.
Five minutes later, they stood before the false bookshelves.
Anna ran her fingers across the spines.
Lucy sat safely upstairs with Mrs. Mercer and two guards.
“Anything?” Desmond asked.
Anna removed her necklace.
The silver key fit into a nearly invisible opening beneath the shelf.
A click sounded.
The entire section shifted.
Behind it was a narrow staircase.
Bruno stared downward.
“I've lived here thirty-five years.”
“Apparently your father had trust issues,” Anna said.
“That may be hereditary.”
She gave him a look.
They descended.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
The silver key opened that too.
Inside was a room barely larger than a closet.
A desk.
Two filing cabinets.
An old tape recorder.
And photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Bruno stepped closer.
Vittorio with politicians.
Businessmen.
Police officers.
But many photographs featured Ellen.
Anna stopped beside one.
Her mother stood holding a newborn baby.
Bruno noticed the date.
Thirty-one years ago.
Anna’s age.
He looked at her.
She understood immediately.
“No.”
Neither of them said the possibility aloud.
Anna snatched the photograph.
On the back:
Anna, three weeks old. Keep her safe. —V
Anna's hands trembled.
Bruno felt strangely unable to breathe.
Could Anna be his sister?
“No,” she whispered again.
Desmond opened a cabinet.
“There's more.”
A folder marked HART.
Bruno opened it.
Birth certificate.
Anna Hart.
Mother: Ellen Marie Hart.
Father:
Blank.
Anna stepped backward.
“This isn't happening.”
Bruno found another envelope.
Inside was a letter in Vittorio's handwriting.
He read silently.
Then his shoulders relaxed.
“What?”
Bruno handed Anna the letter.
She read.
Ellen,
I know you refuse my help, but the child deserves safety. Michael would have wanted that. I failed him once. I will not fail his daughter.
Anna closed her eyes.
“Michael.”
“Who was he?”
“My father.”
“You knew his name?”
“Yes. Michael Nolan. My mother said he died before I was born.”
Bruno felt an emotion dangerously close to relief.
Anna wasn't his sister.
The realization created another problem.
He had no business being that relieved.
Desmond found a cassette.
“There's a date.”
Nine years ago.
Three days before Vittorio died.
Bruno put it into the recorder.
Static.
Then Vittorio's voice.
Older.
Tired.
“If Bruno hears this, then I failed.”
Bruno froze.
Anna slowly looked at him.
The recording continued.
“Salvatore has been moving money through the northern properties for eleven years. Michael Nolan discovered it. Salvatore killed him.”
Anna covered her mouth.
Bruno stared at the recorder.
“He threatened Ellen and the baby. I helped them disappear. I should have killed him then. I thought exile would be enough.”
Vittorio coughed.
“I was wrong.”
Bruno closed his eyes.
His father’s final secret unfolded through static.
Salvatore DeLuca had stolen millions.
Michael Nolan discovered it.
Salvatore murdered him.
Vittorio protected Ellen and Anna but lacked evidence strong enough to expose Salvatore without starting a war.
Then came the final sentence.
“If I die suddenly, look at my medicine.”
The tape clicked off.
Nobody moved.
Anna whispered, “Your father knew.”
Bruno's jaw tightened.
Before he could answer, footsteps sounded overhead.
Desmond reached for his weapon.
A shadow crossed the stairs.
Then a man appeared.
White hair.
Scar along his cheek.
Salvatore DeLuca.
He held Lucy by the hand.
Bruno's entire body went cold.
Lucy smiled innocently.
“Mr. Bruno! I found the candy man.”
Salvatore rested one hand on her shoulder.
“Hello, godson.”
Bruno's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Take your hand off her.”
Salvatore smiled.
“I will.”
His other hand appeared.
May you like
It held a pistol.
“When you give me the ledger.”
