Chapter 7 - The Key In The Glass
The room was spinning.
Luca kept the gun trained on the hallway, but he turned his head to look at the old woman.
“June?” Luca asked, his voice cracking. “What vault?”
June Whitaker didn’t look like a sweet grandmother anymore.
She stood completely straight, her posture rigid, her eyes sharp and calculating.
She held the brass key tightly in her wrinkled hand.
“The vault beneath the old apartment building, Luca,” June said, her voice entirely stripped of its usual warmth.
“The one Michael built to hide the real leverage.”
Michael let go of my shoulder. He took a step toward her.
“You promised me you destroyed that key thirty years ago.”
“I lied,” June said simply.
I looked back and forth between them.
“What is she talking about? What leverage?”
Michael closed his eyes.
“The Bellini family wasn’t just crushing factory workers, Emma. They were trafficking them. Moving undocumented families through the shipping yards. I kept the ledgers. The proof.”
He pointed a shaking finger at June.
“I gave the ledgers to her to burn. To keep us all safe.”
“Burning them wouldn’t have kept us safe,” June snapped.
“It would have left us with nothing to trade when the devil finally came knocking!”
Vanessa, still crouching behind the curtain with her gasping father, suddenly stood up.
“You have the ledgers?” she asked, her voice trembling. “The shipping logs?”
June looked at Vanessa.
“Yes, I do, dear.”
Richard Bellini groaned from the floor.
“If those ledgers go public… the FBI will dismantle the entire family. We’ll spend the rest of our lives in federal prison.”
Vanessa looked at Luca.
“Luca, please. You can’t let her release them. My father is an old man!”
Luca stared at the woman he was supposed to marry.
“Your father ordered the murder of his own brother. He ruined Emma’s life. Why should I protect him?”
“Because,” Vanessa said, tears finally spilling down her perfect makeup.
“If my father goes to prison… the rival families will slaughter every single person connected to the Bellinis. Including the heir.”
She pointed a shaking finger directly at me.
“Including Emma. And including the boy in the trunk.”
The room went dead silent.
She was right.
If the Bellini empire fell to the FBI, the vacuum would start a bloodbath in Chicago. And as the majority shareholder, I would be the prime target.
June walked over to the unconscious Daniel on the floor.
She calmly reached into his pockets and pulled out a set of car keys.
“Let’s go get your brother, Emma,” June said.
“Wait,” Luca said, raising the gun slightly.
“June. Who do you work for?”
June paused at the door.
She looked back at Luca, her eyes softening just for a fraction of a second.
“I work for your mother, Luca.”
Luca froze.
“My mother died of cancer when I was twelve.”
June shook her head slowly.
“No, sweetheart. She didn’t.”
June tossed the brass key to the vault onto the dining table.
“Your mother went into hiding to protect you from the crossfire. And she’s waiting in the car with Toby.”
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TITLE: The Woman In The Car
