Chapter 10 - THE GHOST AT THE GATE
“Hello, Claire. It’s been a long time.”
I dropped the empty coffee mug I was holding.
It shattered across the stone driveway.
My feet were rooted to the ground. My brain refused to process what my eyes were seeing.
The woman standing on the other side of the wrought-iron gate was older, her dark hair streaked with silver, but there was no mistaking her.
“Mom?” I whispered.
The word felt foreign in my mouth.
I had watched her lower into the ground five years ago after a brutal battle with cancer. I had held her hand when the monitor flatlined.
“Open the gate, Claire,” she said, her voice smooth and commanding.
It didn’t sound like the fragile woman who used to bake me cookies. It sounded like someone used to giving orders.
Before I could move, Marco stepped out from the porch, his hand resting on his holstered weapon.
“Who are you?” Marco demanded.
“I’m her mother,” the woman said calmly. “And I need to speak to Luca Moretti.”
The heavy front doors opened.
Luca stepped out, wiping grease from his hands with a rag.
He stopped dead when he saw her.
“Eleanor,” Luca said.
My head snapped toward him. “You know her?”
“Of course he knows me,” my mother said, a bitter edge to her voice. “His father ruined my life.”
Luca walked past me and keyed the keypad. The heavy iron gates swung open.
“Get inside,” Luca said gruffly. “Before someone sees you.”
My mother walked past me without even a hug. She carried a sleek leather briefcase and walked straight into the mansion like she owned it.
I followed them into the library, my mind reeling.
“You’re dead,” I said, my voice rising in panic. “I watched you die!”
My mother set her briefcase on the mahogany desk.
“You watched a woman die, Claire,” she said coolly. “A woman I paid very well to take my place in that hospice bed. I needed the Bellinis to believe I was gone, so they would stop looking for the ledger.”
“You faked your death?” I was trembling. “You left me alone for five years?”
“I left you safe!” she snapped. “If I had stayed, they would have tortured us both to find out what Thomas knew.”
“Eleanor, enough,” Luca intervened, stepping between us. “You shouldn’t be here. The Bellinis were arrested this morning. The feds have the ledger. It’s over.”
My mother laughed. It was a cold, humorless sound.
“You arrogant boy,” she sneered. “You think a single ledger is going to bring down the Chicago syndicate? You think Vanessa and Dominic are the top of the food chain?”
Luca frowned. “The ledger proved everything.”
“The ledger proved what Antonio wanted it to prove,” she corrected.
She popped the latches on her briefcase.
She pulled out a thick, black file folder.
“Your father didn’t just hide evidence against the Bellinis, Luca. He hid evidence against himself.”
She threw the file onto the desk.
“Thomas didn’t just find missing money. He found out who ordered the hit on the old union boss twenty years ago. It wasn’t the Bellinis.”
She looked at Luca, her eyes filled with venom.
“It was Antonio. Your saint of a father.”
Luca stared at the file. “You’re lying.”
“Read it,” she challenged.
Luca opened the folder. His eyes scanned the documents. The color drained from his face.
I looked at my mother. The woman who had abandoned me.
“Why are you here, Mom?” I asked, my voice cracking.
May you like
She didn’t look at me with maternal love. She looked at me like a pawn on a chessboard.
“Because, Claire,” she said flatly. “The feds might have the Bellinis. But I have the truth about the Morettis. And I’m here to take everything Luca owns.”
