Chapter 5 - THE MONEY MY MOTHER NEVER EXPLAINED
Lucia said my father escaped the warehouse through a service tunnel before the roof collapsed.
Marco found him near the river with burns along one arm and smoke damage in his lungs.
Thomas begged Marco not to return him to the estate.
He believed Vincent and Lucia would kill him before he could expose the missing restitution money.
According to Lucia, Thomas agreed to disappear permanently if the DeLucas paid my mother every year and kept me away from the family.
“Why would you honor that bargain?” I asked.
Lucia smiled without warmth.
“Because Lorenzo ordered it.”
Carmine looked toward Marco.
“Is she telling the truth?”
Marco remained outside the locked door.
“Some of it.”
“Which part?”
“I found Thomas alive.”
My knees weakened.
Ada guided me onto the stool.
“Where did he go?” I asked.
“I do not know.”
“You let him leave?”
“I drove him to a bus station in New Hampshire.”
“Did he contact my mother?”
Marco looked toward Lucia.
That hesitation answered me.
Carmine ordered the estate accountant to search every payment connected to Helen Hale.
My mother’s small checking account had received annual deposits through a charitable fund called Harbor Widows Relief.
The deposits began one month after the warehouse fire.
They continued for eighteen years.
My mother never told me.
The money paid our rent, school expenses, and later part of my community college tuition.
I believed she worked double shifts to keep us alive.
She did work.
She also accepted money from the family she warned me never to approach.
The final payment occurred eleven months earlier.
Three days before she disappeared.
It was ten times larger than the others.
The transfer came from Vale Fiduciary Services, a company controlled by Marco’s brother.
“Did you pay her to leave?” I asked Marco.
“No.”
“Then why did your family send the money?”
“I did not authorize it.”
Lucia interrupted.
“Helen was becoming unstable. She threatened to tell Ivy everything.”
“Everything about what?” Carmine asked.
Lucia looked at him.
“About your father.”
Carmine’s face remained unreadable.
She claimed Lorenzo ordered Thomas to create false records making Lucia appear responsible for the missing trust funds. Lorenzo planned to remove her from the family foundations and transfer control to Carmine.
Thomas became frightened when he realized the evidence was fabricated.
He threatened to expose Lorenzo.
The warehouse fire occurred before he could.
“Your version makes every dead man responsible,” Carmine said.
“My version explains why Thomas ran.”
“It explains why you needed him silent.”
Lucia turned toward me.
“Ask your mother.”
“She is missing.”
“Then ask Marco where he sent her.”
Marco struck the door with his palm.
“I did not send Helen anywhere.”
The sudden force made me recoil.
Carmine stepped closer to the glass.
“You will keep your hands visible.”
Marco obeyed.
For the first time, I saw fear beneath his anger.
Not fear of Carmine.
Fear of what I might remember.
I looked at the scratches on his hand.
One mark curved across his knuckles.
My nails had caused it.
He had been the man who grabbed me near the pantry stairs.
I remembered his voice behind my ear.
You were warned never to search this house.
I remembered another detail.
When I struggled, Marco whispered my mother’s name.
Helen made the same mistake.
“You know where she is,” I said.
Marco’s face changed.
Lucia watched him carefully.
He had reached the point where every answer betrayed someone.
Carmine unlocked only the upper glass panel, leaving the main door sealed.
“Marco, speak through the opening.”
The security captain stepped closer.
His voice became low.
“Your mother contacted me after receiving the final payment. She said Thomas was alive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“She had a recent photograph.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
“Did you meet her?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She gave me an envelope for you.”
I stared at him.
“Why did I never receive it?”
“Because Vincent said the letter contained instructions to kill Carmine.”
Vincent laughed once.
“This is absurd.”
Marco reached inside his coat.
Every guard in the hallway shifted.
Carmine raised one hand.
Marco removed a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it in my mother’s handwriting.
He had carried it for eleven months.
Ada opened it after I gave permission.
Inside was no murder instruction.
There was a photograph of my father taken beside Boston Harbor.
The date printed on the back was fourteen months earlier.
Thomas Hale had been alive.
Beneath the photograph, my mother had written:
Ivy, the DeLucas did not kill your father. He stayed away because he discovered who your real employer would become.
Carmine looked toward me.
I turned the page.
The final sentence was worse.
May you like
Carmine approved your hiring before you ever applied.
Continue to the next part: Carmine must explain how he knew Ivy would come to Bellgrave, while Marco admits the attack was intended to stop her from opening a room beneath the kitchen.
