Chapter 16 - The Third Pearl
Nico refused to panic.
That terrified everyone around him.
His face became completely calm.
He picked up Elena's dress.
He counted the pearls.
Twelve.
Two had already been opened.
Ten remained.
Teresa had Vivia.
And Teresa believed a third pearl contained something important.
Rafe searched the security feeds.
“She left through the underground parking exit.”
“How?”
“Using Isabella's credentials.”
Nico looked at his mother.
Isabella was crying.
“I trusted her for eighteen years.”
Marcella laughed bitterly.
“That seems to be our family talent.”
Nico ignored them.
He examined the dress.
“Vivia found the second because it made noise.”
Rafe nodded.
“The third may have another chip.”
Nico shook each button.
Nothing.
Luca approached.
“Elena wouldn't make all three identical.”
Nico looked at him.
“What do you know about the dress?”
“It belonged to our mother.”
Nico frowned.
“Elena told me it was her grandmother's.”
“She lied.”
“Why?”
Luca touched the lace.
“Our mother made it herself.”
“She was a seamstress.”
“She taught Elena every hidden stitch in this dress.”
Nico looked closer.
“Hidden stitch?”
Luca turned the dress inside out.
Near the hem were tiny embroidered stars.
Vivia had carried the dress for hours.
No one had examined the pattern.
Luca counted.
“Eleven.”
Nico frowned.
“Stars?”
“Yes.”
“There should be twelve.”
“How do you know?”
“Our mother always embroidered twelve stars.”
“One for every month.”
Rafe examined the hem.
“There.”
One star had been removed.
But beneath it was a tiny pocket.
Empty.
Nico stared.
“Teresa already took it.”
Luca nodded.
“What was inside?”
No one knew.
Nico's phone rang.
Teresa.
He answered.
Vivia's voice came first.
“Daddy?”
Nico closed his eyes.
“I'm here.”
“I'm okay.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“A lady gave me cookies.”
Nico almost laughed from relief and fury.
Teresa took the phone.
“She is unharmed.”
“Keep her that way.”
“I intend to.”
“What do you want?”
“The third key.”
“You already took something from the dress.”
“A map.”
Nico frowned.
“To what?”
Teresa laughed.
“If I knew, I wouldn't need you.”
Nico looked at Luca.
“The missing star contained a map.”
Teresa continued.
“Elena designed it for you.”
“Meet me at the family crypt.”
“Bring the dress.”
“No police.”
“No Rafe.”
“No Marcella.”
“No Isabella.”
Nico glanced at everyone.
“Vivia comes home first.”
“No.”
“Then no deal.”
Teresa became quiet.
“You sound like Salvatore.”
“He raised me.”
“He stole my childhood.”
Nico looked toward Isabella.
“What did he do to you?”
Teresa's voice hardened.
“He let Sofia raise me in hiding because Isabella would have destroyed us.”
Isabella shouted.
“That's a lie.”
Teresa laughed.
“There she is.”
Nico spoke.
“Teresa.”
“What?”
“Vivia didn't do anything to you.”
“I know.”
“Then don't make her part of this.”
“She became part of it before birth.”
“That's exactly what everyone keeps saying.”
“And that's why my wife is dead.”
Silence.
Nico continued.
“You want the Bellandi inheritance?”
“I want what my father denied me.”
“Then come argue with adults.”
“Stop using a child.”
Teresa's voice softened.
“You really do sound different from them.”
“Prove you are too.”
Teresa hung up.
Nico looked at Rafe.
“Family crypt.”
Rafe nodded.
“We prepare surveillance.”
“She said no Rafe.”
Rafe smiled coldly.
“She isn't getting what she wants.”
The Bellandi crypt stood beneath a private chapel.
Nico arrived carrying the dress.
He appeared alone.
Rafe's team remained hidden farther away.
Teresa stood beside the altar.
Vivia sat on the front pew.
She was unharmed.
Nico's chest loosened slightly.
“Daddy.”
Teresa raised a hand.
“Stay there.”
Nico stopped.
“Show me the map.”
Teresa unfolded a tiny piece of silk.
A series of stitched lines formed a pattern.
Nico recognized nothing.
Vivia did.
“It's Mommy's game.”
Teresa looked down.
“What?”
Vivia pointed.
“The lines.”
“She made them when we went to the cemetery.”
Nico stared.
“The cemetery?”
Vivia nodded.
“We played find the angel.”
Teresa looked impatient.
“Which angel?”
Vivia pointed toward the crypt.
“The one with no wings.”
Nico remembered.
Salvatore's tomb had a carved angel.
During restoration, one wing had broken and been removed.
They entered the crypt.
Teresa kept Vivia beside her.
Nico carried the dress.
They reached Salvatore's tomb.
The wingless angel stood above it.
Vivia pointed.
“Mommy touched his eye.”
Nico pressed the marble eye.
A panel opened.
Inside was a small steel box.
Teresa inhaled sharply.
“Give it to me.”
Nico removed the box.
“Vivia first.”
Teresa's jaw tightened.
“You're in no position—”
Nico threw the box toward the opposite wall.
Teresa instinctively turned.
Vivia ran.
Nico grabbed her.
Rafe entered from the side passage.
Teresa spun.
“You lied.”
Nico handed Vivia to Rafe.
“Yes.”
“I'm becoming comfortable with family traditions.”
Rafe almost smiled.
Teresa ran toward the box.
Marcella stepped from behind a column and picked it up first.
Teresa froze.
Marcella held it.
“You wanted the heir?”
Teresa stared.
Marcella threw the box to Nico.
“Deal with the heir's father.”
Nico opened it.
Inside was no money.
No legal document.
No DNA report.
Only a cassette tape.
And a small key.
Written across the tape in Elena's handwriting were four words.
SALVATORE'S FINAL CONFESSION.
Nico inserted the tape into an old chapel recorder.
His father's voice filled the crypt.
“My name is Salvatore Bellandi.”
“If this recording is being heard, then my family finally discovered what I did.”
Everyone became still.
Salvatore continued.
“I created the council.”
“I financed it.”
“I empowered Sofia.”
“I taught Isabella how to hide money.”
“I taught Marcella that loyalty meant silence.”
Marcella began crying.
“And I made cowards of people I claimed to love.”
Nico closed his eyes.
Salvatore's voice continued.
“But there is one crime for which Sofia has blamed me falsely.”
“Teresa is not my daughter.”
Teresa stopped breathing.
Isabella stared.
Salvatore continued.
“Sofia told Teresa that lie from childhood.”
“Because she needed an heir she could control.”
Teresa whispered.
“No.”
The recording continued.
“Teresa's biological father is Corrado Vale.”
Teresa stumbled backward.
Nico stared at her.
Salvatore's voice became softer.
“And if Sofia ever tells Teresa otherwise, then my greatest punishment will be knowing another child suffered because of this family.”
Teresa sank onto a pew.
“No.”
Vivia watched from Rafe's arms.
Teresa began sobbing.
“My mother lied.”
Marcella whispered.
“We all had one.”
Before anyone could respond, applause echoed from the crypt entrance.
Corrado stood there.
Sofia beside him.
May you like
Corrado looked at Teresa.
“Hello, daughter.”
