Chapter 5
I did not confront Vanessa with the recording immediately.
I wanted to hear all of it first.
Relle had hidden close enough that every word was clear.
Vanessa sounded younger.
Less polished.
More afraid of Caleb than I had ever heard her sound around anyone.
“You promised once I was engaged, you’d stop treating me like one of your soldiers.”
Caleb laughed.
“You’re my daughter. That makes you more useful than a soldier.”
Danielle looked sick.
I understood why.
That was not affection.
It was inventory.
Vanessa continued:
“Julian actually loves me.”
“Good.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he’ll open every door himself.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
They talked about my father.
About Caleb being pushed out of the inner circle before my father died.
About me taking control too young.
About old captains no longer answering to him.
Then Vanessa said:
“And if Julian refuses to bring you back?”
Caleb’s answer was simple.
“Then you make sure he needs you more than he trusts them.”
No murder.
No grand coup.
Something quieter.
Marriage.
Isolation.
Influence.
The exact kind of power old Mafia families hide beneath affection.
Then Relle shifted somewhere near the recorder.
A floorboard creaked.
Silence on the audio.
Vanessa whispered:
“Someone’s here.”
The recording ended.
I sat still for several seconds.
Danielle spoke first.
“Relle heard them.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa found her.”
Most likely.
Then Danielle looked at the sapphire ring.
“Why would she take that?”
I had the same question.
The answer came from Vanessa when I finally returned upstairs.
She looked at the phone in my hand.
Then whispered:
“She wouldn’t tell us where she hid the recording.”
Not wouldn’t.
Wouldn’t.
Present tense slipped out before she could catch it.
I stared.
May you like
“Relle is alive.”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
