Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO HELD HER HAND AT THE FUNERAL
“Thomas Bellini kissed my mother's coffin before they lowered it into the ground.”
Alessandro stood over the photographs, his voice barely above a whisper.
“He told me he'd do anything to protect our family.”
Robert couldn't meet his eyes.
“Maybe he meant it.”
Alessandro turned sharply.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Thomas loved Elena. Whatever happened that night, I don't believe he wanted her dead.”
“Someone altered the investigation. Someone concealed Daniel. Someone has spent twenty years protecting a lie.”
Robert looked defeated.
“And we're finally asking the right questions.”
Thomas Bellini arrived at the mansion just after lunch.
At sixty-eight, he still carried himself like the respected Boston attorney he had been for forty years.
His gray hair was neatly combed.
His dark overcoat hung perfectly from his shoulders.
When he entered Alessandro's study, he smiled with familiar affection.
“Alex, I heard your father's been unwell. How is he?”
“Safe.”
“Good.”
Thomas glanced at Robert.
Then at Rachel.
His smile faded slightly.
“Is this about Harbor Point?”
Alessandro placed the strip of film on the desk.
“Tell me about September 14, 2006.”
Thomas didn't touch it.
“That was the worst night of our lives.”
“Were you at the warehouse?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Robert looked up.
“You told investigators you were in Providence.”
Thomas sighed.
“I was trying to protect the family from a scandal.”
“Which scandal?” Alessandro demanded.
Thomas removed his glasses.
“Your mother had discovered that Vittorio was moving money through Harbor Point to conceal losses from several failed shipping investments.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Losses?”
“Millions. He feared losing the business. Worse, he feared his employees would lose their pensions.”
“And that justified fraud?”
“No.”
Thomas sat slowly.
“But your grandfather convinced himself that everything would be repaired before anyone noticed.”
“Did my mother know?”
“She found the records.”
“And threatened to expose him?”
“She wanted an independent accountant to review everything.”
Alessandro felt a bitter ache.
His mother had always believed problems could be solved by telling the truth.
Apparently, that belief had cost her life.
Thomas leaned forward.
“Alex, I went to Harbor Point because Elena called me.”
“What did she say?”
“She was frightened. Someone had been following her for days.”
“Who?”
“I never found out.”
Alessandro placed the photograph of young Daniel on the desk.
“Was she protecting this child?”
Thomas stared at it.
His expression softened.
“Daniel.”
“You knew him?”
“Of course. Elena insisted that I help Evelyn Carter prepare a guardianship arrangement in case anything happened to her.”
Robert jerked upright.
“What guardianship?”
Thomas looked at him.
“The one you refused to discuss.”
Robert's face turned red.
“Nobody told me about it.”
“Because you were too concerned about your reputation to claim your own son.”
The room fell silent.
For the first time, Robert looked less like a wealthy businessman and more like a man forced to examine twenty years of cowardice.
Rachel noticed Thomas repeatedly touching the inside pocket of his overcoat.
Not nervously.
Protectively.
“Mr. Bellini,” she asked, “did Elena give you something that night?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Who are you?”
“Rachel Bennett. I work here.”
His expression shifted.
“Bennett?”
She nodded.
“Your mother's name is Margaret Bennett?”
Rachel felt a chill.
“Yes.”
Thomas slowly removed his glasses.
“I know your mother.”
Rachel stared.
“How?”
“She worked for Moretti Maritime twenty years ago.”
Rachel frowned.
“My mother was a hospital receptionist.”
“Before that.”
Rachel remembered her mother rarely discussing her jobs before Rachel finished high school.
But the connection seemed impossible.
“What did she do?”
Thomas hesitated.
“She processed payroll and employee benefit records.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
“Was she at Harbor Point?”
Thomas nodded.
“On the afternoon of the fire.”
Rachel stepped backward.
“My mother never told me that.”
“She had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
Thomas looked directly at Alessandro.
“Because Margaret Bennett was the person who discovered employees' pension accounts were being drained.”
Rachel barely remembered walking into the garden.
Her hands felt cold.
For years, she had believed her mother was simply a hardworking woman who had endured one financial disaster after another.
Now she was learning that Margaret had been connected to the Morettis long before Rachel took the housekeeping job.
Alessandro followed her outside.
“Rachel.”
She turned.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you hire me because of my mother?”
“I hired you because my household manager recommended you.”
She searched his face.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked away.
“My mother has spent twenty years telling me not to trust rich men who promise to fix everything.”
Alessandro gave a humorless smile.
“She sounds sensible.”
Rachel almost smiled back.
Then her expression changed.
“She used to wake up crying whenever she smelled smoke.”
Alessandro went still.
“Did she ever explain why?”
“No. I thought it was because our apartment caught fire when I was little.”
“When?”
Rachel looked at him.
“September 2006.”
They returned to the study together.
Thomas was examining the pocket watch.
“Arthur kept this?” he asked.
“Every day,” Alessandro replied.
Thomas turned the watch over.
His eyes filled.
“Elena bought this with money from her first job. Arthur couldn't afford a proper one when they married.”
Alessandro took it gently.
“Why was the chain broken?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Your father grabbed it during an argument with Daniel.”
Alessandro stared.
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“Were you there?”
“No. Daniel told me afterward.”
Alessandro felt anger rise.
“You've been speaking with Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn't think to tell me?”
“Daniel asked me not to.”
“Everyone seems to have a reason for hiding things from me.”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“You're right.”
That evening, Rachel visited her mother at the dialysis clinic.
Margaret Bennett sat in a reclining chair beneath a soft blanket.
She was sixty-one, with tired blue eyes and the stubborn expression Rachel knew so well.
“Sweetheart, what happened to your hand?”
Rachel sat beside her.
“Mom, did you work for Moretti Maritime?”
Margaret's face changed.
She looked toward the other patients.
“Who told you that?”
“Thomas Bellini.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“I hoped you'd never have to hear that name.”
“Why?”
“Because I made a promise I wasn't sure I could keep.”
Rachel felt her chest tighten.
“What promise?”
Margaret reached for her purse.
Inside was an old envelope, softened by years of handling.
She removed a photograph.
It showed Elena Moretti smiling beside a younger Margaret.
Between them stood two children.
One was a boy.
Daniel.
The other was a little girl wearing a yellow sweater.
Rachel stared.
“That's me.”
Margaret nodded.
“You were eight.”
Rachel's eyes filled.
“Why don't I remember her?”
“You met her only a few times.”
“Why were we together?”
Margaret looked toward the ceiling.
“Elena was helping me protect something.”
“What?”
Margaret gripped her daughter's hand.
“A list of every employee whose retirement money disappeared.”
Rachel frowned.
“Why would anyone want that list twenty years later?”
“Because some of the money was never recovered.”
“How much?”
Margaret swallowed.
“Almost sixty million dollars.”
Rachel stared.
“And Harbor Point?”
Margaret nodded.
“The property's sale would finally release the money.”
Rachel's thoughts raced.
“Then why did Elena say not to sell it?”
“Because selling it through the wrong company would make the stolen money disappear forever.”
Margaret began trembling.
“Rachel, you must tell Alessandro something.”
“What?”
“His mother didn't go to Harbor Point that night just to protect Daniel.”
Rachel leaned closer.
Margaret whispered, “She went there to save me.”
Rachel froze.
Then Margaret pulled back her sleeve.
Around her wrist was an old silver bracelet, identical in design to Daniel's.
Except hers carried a tiny engraved letter.
E.
“Elena gave me this the night she died,” Margaret whispered.
“And she made me promise never to tell Alessandro what I saw.”
Rachel could barely breathe.
“What did you see?”
May you like
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
“I saw who locked the warehouse door.”
