Chapter 6 - What Was Hidden Inside the Silver PendantI examined the pendant under magnification.
There was a tiny seam.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
The evidence.
Names.
Accounts.
Photographs.
Orders.
The truth about the attack on our family.
And one photograph showed Bellini standing beside a man I recognized.
My uncle.
The brother of my father.
He had been alive all along.
Maria stared at the photograph.
“Uncle Stefano.”
I remembered him.
He had disappeared before the attack.
We thought he had been killed.
He hadn't.
He had betrayed us.
And he was still alive.
We found him living under a false identity.
When I confronted him, he confessed.
Bellini had threatened his family.
He gave them our location.
But he claimed he didn't know Bellini intended to kill everyone.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was twenty-four.”
“You were our uncle.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
He lowered his head.
“You escaped.”
“And you survived.”
“I've spent thirty years regretting it.”
“Regret doesn't bring back our mother.”
He looked at Maria.
“She survived.”
Maria froze.
“What?”
“Bellini kept her alive because she knew where the evidence was.”
“Where?”
Stefano pointed toward the sea.
“An island.”
Before he could say more, a sniper shot through the window.
Stefano collapsed.
I grabbed Maria.
“Down!”
Lily screamed.
Another bullet struck the wall.
We escaped through the back entrance.
But Stefano was dying.
With his final breath, he gave me a location.
Then he whispered:
“Your mother waited for you.”
I closed his eyes.
For the first time in thirty years, I allowed myself to cry.
May you like
Not for the man who betrayed us.
For the mother who had waited.
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