Chapter 6 - The Girl Bellano Could Never Control
The warehouse filled with armed men.
Adrian pushed me behind him.
Lucy stood beside Daniel.
Nolan raised his weapon.
Bellano laughed.
“You still don't understand, Adrian.”
“Explain it.”
“Your father wasn't a hero.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Bellano tossed a folder across the floor.
“Read it.”
Adrian didn't move.
Bellano continued.
“Henry Vale planned to betray me.”
“So you burned my house.”
“No.”
Bellano smiled.
“Your father burned his own house.”
I felt the air leave the room.
“That’s a lie,” Adrian said.
“Ask Elena Bell.”
I stepped forward.
“My mother is dead.”
“Yes.”
Bellano's smile disappeared.
“But her work survived.”
He pointed at me.
“Your mother stole the final account.”
“Why would she help you?”
“She didn't.”
Adrian spoke.
“Who started the fire?”
Bellano looked at Lucy.
“She did.”
Everyone froze.
Lucy shook her head.
“No.”
“You were there.”
“I was seven.”
“You were playing with matches in the kitchen.”
Lucy cried.
“That isn't true.”
Bellano shrugged.
“Memory is convenient.”
Adrian stepped toward him.
“Enough.”
Bellano continued.
“Henry discovered your mother was moving evidence.”
“My mother was moving evidence to protect Lucy.”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked stunned.
Bellano smiled.
“And your father realized the only way to keep his daughter alive was to make the world believe she was dead.”
Lucy whispered.
“Then why did he die?”
Bellano's expression hardened.
“Because Henry refused to give me the final account.”
Adrian understood.
“You killed him.”
“Of course.”
The warehouse went silent.
Adrian raised his gun.
Bellano laughed.
“Do it.”
Adrian didn't.
“Where is the final account?”
Bellano pointed toward me.
“She has it.”
I shook my head.
“I don't have anything.”
“You do.”
He looked at my apron.
“The locket was only the first key.”
I pulled it out.
Bellano's eyes narrowed.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He nodded.
One of his men pointed a gun at Daniel.
I stepped forward.
“Wait.”
Adrian grabbed my arm.
“Mara.”
“I'll give it to him.”
“No.”
“He'll kill Daniel.”
“He'll kill you next.”
Bellano smiled.
“You're learning.”
I looked at the locket.
Then I remembered the coat.
The torn lining.
The hidden seam.
The tiny brass button.
There had been something else.
Something I had assumed was part of the coat.
I reached into my pocket.
A small brass piece.
Bellano's face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“In the lining.”
Adrian stared.
“What is it?”
I pressed it against the locket.
It clicked.
The locket opened differently.
A false compartment slid out.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
Bellano swore.
Nolan moved first.
Gunfire exploded.
Adrian dragged me behind a concrete pillar.
Lucy pulled Daniel down.
Nolan shot one attacker.
Another ran.
Bellano escaped through a side door.
Adrian started after him.
I shouted.
“Adrian!”
He stopped.
“Lucy!”
His sister was trapped beneath a fallen shelf.
He turned back.
Together, Adrian and Nolan lifted it.
Lucy crawled free.
She was shaking.
“I'm okay.”
Adrian hugged her.
Then Nolan spoke.
“Adrian.”
He held up the microfilm.
“It's fake.”
I stared.
“What?”
Nolan examined it.
“The real one was never in the locket.”
Adrian looked at me.
“Then where?”
I suddenly remembered my mother.
After she died, I kept one thing from her.
A little wooden music box.
She had told me never to throw it away.
I always thought it was because it had been my grandmother's.
But the tune—
I knew the tune.
A children's song about a little lark.
My hands went cold.
“I know where it is.”
Adrian stared.
“Where?”
“At my apartment.”
We drove through the night.
When we arrived, the apartment door was open.
Daniel's phone lay on the floor.
My mother's old music box was gone.
Someone had beaten us there.
I began crying.
Adrian put his hand on my shoulder.
“We'll find it.”
Then Lucy pointed at the floor.
A piece of paper lay beneath the couch.
Three words.
COME TO THE LIGHTHOUSE.
Adrian looked at it.
“The old harbor lighthouse.”
I knew that place.
My mother used to take me there when I was little.
She always told me the same thing.
“Your father will come back when the song ends.”
I had never understood.
Now I did.
May you like
The song hadn't been about me.
It had been about Lucy.
