Chapter 7 - The Book, the Pier, and the Betrayal Nobody Expected
Natalie did not tell Alessandro about the messages immediately.
That decision would become one of her greatest regrets.
She knew he would insist on contacting the police.
She knew Marco would surround Pier 47 with security.
And she feared that whoever held Mrs. Bell might hurt her if they saw anyone approaching.
So Natalie did something she had not done since she was a frightened eleven-year-old trying to protect Michael.
She decided to carry the burden alone.
At six that evening, she asked Michael to bring their father's copy of Treasure Island to her guest suite.
He arrived with the battered blue book.
Its corners were worn.
The spine had been repaired twice.
Their father's handwriting filled the margins.
Natalie held it carefully.
For several minutes, she simply turned the pages.
Then she unfolded the numerical code from her birthday letter.
The first series contained three numbers.
Chapter.
Page.
Word.
She found the corresponding passage.
The first decoded word was Lily.
The second was Vault.
The third was Twelve.
Natalie frowned.
Lily.
Vault.
Twelve.
She continued.
The message gradually emerged.
Lily vault. Twelve keys. Richard is not alone. Trust Luca's last letter.
Natalie stared at the sentence.
“What does it mean?” Michael asked.
“I don't know.”
“Maybe Luca left a letter somewhere.”
Natalie looked at the blue book.
Her father had concealed a message in a story about buried treasure.
He had been trying to protect something.
Not just money.
Proof.
She remembered Mrs. Bell saying the original documents had been hidden inside something nobody would think to steal.
The letters.
Perhaps another letter existed.
One written by Luca.
She searched the remaining pages.
Near the back cover, a thin envelope had been glued beneath the endpaper.
It was almost invisible.
Michael leaned closer.
“Was that always there?”
Natalie shook her head.
She carefully loosened the adhesive.
The envelope contained a folded letter.
On the front were two words.
For Alessandro.
Natalie stopped.
Michael looked at her.
“You should give it to him.”
She nodded.
But then her phone vibrated.
Another photograph of Mrs. Bell.
This time a man stood behind her, holding a sheet of paper.
Richard Vale.
The accompanying message read:
Bring the original book. If Vitale learns about the letter, she dies.
Natalie felt trapped.
Michael watched her face.
“What happened?”
She forced a smile.
“Nothing.”
“Nat.”
“I'm just tired.”
He studied her.
Then he took the book from her hands.
“You've been lying to me since we were kids.”
Natalie frowned.
“What?”
“You always said you weren't hungry when there wasn't enough food. You said your shoes were comfortable when they had holes. You said college didn't matter because you liked working.”
Her eyes filled.
“Michael—”
“You don't have to protect me from everything anymore.”
She looked at her brother.
The little boy she had once carried to bed was now a grown man.
A man who had fought off armed intruders.
A man who understood sacrifice because he had watched her make it for years.
Natalie took a shaky breath.
Then she showed him the messages.
Michael read them.
His expression changed.
“We tell Alessandro.”
“They said they'd hurt Mrs. Bell.”
“And what happens if you go alone?”
Natalie said nothing.
Michael put the phone down.
“I'm not losing you too.”
Those words ended the argument.
Natalie called Alessandro.
He answered immediately.
“Everything all right?”
“No,” she said.
Then she told him everything.
When she finished, he was silent.
Natalie closed her eyes.
“I know I should have told you earlier.”
“Yes,” he replied.
She winced.
“But I'm glad you told me now.”
The anger she expected never came.
Instead, Alessandro asked to see the messages and the letter.
He arrived minutes later.
Natalie handed him the envelope.
His name was written on the front in Luca's unmistakable handwriting.
Alessandro stared at it for a long time.
Then he opened it.
The letter was dated three days before Luca died.
Ale,
If you're reading this, it means something went terribly wrong.
I need you to understand that Daniel Collins was telling the truth. The foundation accounts are being used to move money that never belonged to us.
Richard knows. Arthur Sloan knows. But there's another person involved, someone close enough to our family that I don't dare write the name plainly.
I've hidden the original accounting records in the lily vault. Daniel knows the location. If anything happens to both of us, follow the twelve-petal seal.
Please don't blame yourself for what I chose to do.
You taught me to protect the family. I just believe our family should include the people who trusted us.
Your brother, Luca.
Alessandro read the letter twice.
Then a third time.
Natalie watched his face.
For seventeen years, he had carried the weight of his brother's death.
Now Luca's words were in his hands.
He sat down slowly.
His fingers trembled.
“I told him to stop asking questions,” he whispered.
Natalie knelt beside him.
“He knew you were trying to protect him.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“I should have listened.”
She gently touched his hand.
“You're listening now.”
He looked at her.
Something changed between them.
The distance created by money, reputation, and fear briefly disappeared.
There was only a grieving brother and a woman who understood what it meant to lose family.
Alessandro turned his hand beneath hers.
Their fingers intertwined.
Neither spoke.
Finally, he said, “We're bringing Mrs. Bell home.”
At eleven forty-five, Pier 47 was almost deserted.
Fog drifted across the Hudson.
A cold wind carried the smell of wet concrete and river water.
Richard Vale stood beneath a warehouse light.
Beside him, Mrs. Bell sat in a chair.
Two armed men waited near a black van.
Natalie approached carrying the blue book.
She appeared alone.
At least, that was what Richard believed.
In reality, police detectives had established surveillance from neighboring buildings.
Marco and his security team remained out of sight.
Alessandro had agreed to stay back only after the lead detective insisted that his presence would complicate the rescue.
Natalie had one task.
Keep Richard talking until the officers could intervene.
Richard smiled when he saw her.
“Good girl.”
Natalie stopped several feet away.
“Let her go.”
“Give me the book.”
“Not until I know she's safe.”
Richard laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
Natalie felt her stomach tighten.
“Did you know him?”
“Very well.”
“Then you know he was honest.”
Richard's smile disappeared.
“Honesty is an expensive habit.”
Natalie looked at Mrs. Bell.
The older woman was conscious.
Frightened.
But alive.
“Why did you steal from the foundation?” Natalie asked.
Richard shrugged.
“Because nobody notices money disappearing when it moves through enough legitimate accounts.”
“You stole scholarship funds.”
“I moved underused assets.”
“You stole from children.”
Richard's expression hardened.
“You really are Daniel's daughter.”
Natalie tightened her grip on the book.
“Did you kill my parents?”
Richard's eyes shifted.
Just once.
But she saw it.
“Your parents died in an accident.”
“Did you arrange it?”
Richard took a step closer.
“You should be careful what you accuse people of.”
“Did you?”
He looked directly at her.
Then he said something that made her blood turn cold.
“I wasn't the one who ordered the truck.”
Natalie stopped breathing.
“Who did?”
Richard smiled.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Who had the authority to stop it?”
Before Natalie could respond, headlights flashed across the pier.
A car approached from the far end.
Richard turned angrily.
“Who is that?”
The vehicle stopped.
A man stepped out.
Tall.
Elderly.
Dressed in a dark overcoat.
He leaned heavily on a cane.
Natalie recognized him from photographs displayed throughout Alessandro's mansion.
Vittorio Vitale.
Alessandro's father.
Richard went pale.
“You weren't supposed to come.”
Vittorio looked at him.
His voice was rough from the effects of his old stroke.
“I should have come twenty-three years ago.”
Natalie's breath caught.
Richard stepped backward.
“You don't understand what's happening.”
Vittorio lifted his cane.
“I understand perfectly.”
Then he looked at Natalie.
And spoke the words that would shatter everything she believed about the Collins family's tragedy.
“Your father didn't die because he discovered the stolen money.”
Natalie stared.
May you like
Vittorio's eyes filled.
“He died because he discovered who killed my son.”
