Chapter 6
The Bennett token belonged to Thomas Bennett.
A retired Bellini captain who vanished from active family life nineteen years earlier.
Claire knew the name differently.
“My foster father.”
I stared at her.
She shook her head as though the answer hurt to say.
“Evelyn died when I was five. Thomas Bennett and his wife took me in.”
Rafe leaned back.
“That wasn’t chance.”
No.
Nothing about Claire’s life looked accidental anymore.
Thomas Bennett had once controlled the south cafe routes for my father. He had never been powerful enough to threaten Lucia, which probably made him perfect.
Invisible men survive longer.
I called him.
He answered on the second ring.
“Adrian.”
He knew.
No surprise.
No confusion.
I looked toward Claire.
“She’s here.”
Silence.
Then Thomas exhaled.
“Rachel’s daughter?”
Claire closed her eyes.
I hated hearing someone else confirm her life before she had been allowed to understand it herself.
“Come to the cafe.”
Thomas hesitated.
“Is Lucia there?”
“Yes.”
“Then keep Claire away from the kitchen corridor.”
I looked toward Rafe.
“Why?”
Thomas’s answer changed everything again.
“Because that’s where Rachel was taken.”
Lucia stood.
I turned toward her.
She did not deny it.
Thomas arrived forty minutes later.
Seventy-one years old. White hair. Cane he did not need as much as he pretended.
Claire stared at him.
He stopped several feet away.
“I’m sorry.”
She cried immediately.
Not loudly.
That was worse.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“My whole life?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Thomas looked toward Lucia.
“Because Rachel made me promise your life mattered more than your name.”
Claire’s voice shook.
“She was alive?”
Thomas hesitated.
That hesitation told me the answer was not simple.
“She was alive after the night Lucia took her.”
Marco looked up.
Lucia’s face hardened.
I leaned forward.
“For how long?”
Thomas stared at the floor.
“Six years.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Rachel had lived until Claire was six.
Close enough to know her daughter survived.
Far enough away not to touch her.
Thomas continued.
“She lived under protection in one of the old Bellini farmhouses. Only three people knew.”
“Who?”
“Me. Evelyn.”
He looked at Rafe.
“And your father.”
Rafe sat back.
The Calder token.
His father had been one of Rachel’s protectors.
I looked at Lucia.
For the first time, uncertainty entered her face.
May you like
Because if Rachel had survived six years beyond the night Lucia claimed victory, then Rachel may have left more than one recording.
And the people Lucia dismissed as servants and minor captains had been keeping a secret from her for decades.
