Chapter 6 - Clara Is Alive
The revelation changed the investigation completely.
Damian no longer asked how Beatrice had stumbled into the conspiracy.
He asked who had brought her to the Costello estate.
The answer was hidden in a personnel file.
Beatrice had applied through an agency.
Her résumé had been rejected.
Then, three days later, someone had overridden the rejection.
The authorization code belonged to Clara Costello.
Five years after her supposed death.
Beatrice stared at the computer.
“She hired me?”
Damian nodded.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“She wanted me here.”
“Yes.”
“Near you.”
“Yes.”
Bea stood.
“Then maybe she wanted me to find the evidence.”
“Or protect you.”
“From Richard?”
“From everyone.”
Including me remained unspoken.
Damian spent the next two days tracing Clara's call.
Finally they found a location.
An abandoned hotel outside Milwaukee.
Damian wanted Bea left behind.
Bea refused.
This time he didn't argue for long.
When they reached the hotel, there were no guards.
No Richard.
Only Clara.
She stood at the end of a dark hallway.
Damian stopped.
Five years disappeared from his face.
“Clara.”
She began crying.
Damian crossed the distance between them.
For one moment, Beatrice saw no mafia boss.
No feared Costello heir.
Only a brother holding his little sister after believing she was dead for five years.
Clara buried her face against his chest.
“I'm sorry.”
Damian held her tighter.
“You're alive.”
“I'm sorry.”
“That's all that matters.”
“No.”
Clara pulled away.
“You don't understand.”
Her eyes moved toward Beatrice.
“Margaret's daughter.”
Bea stepped forward.
“You knew my mother?”
Clara smiled sadly.
“She saved my life.”
Then she told them everything.
Five years earlier, Clara discovered Richard laundering Costello money into a private network designed to overthrow both the Costellos and their rivals.
She went to Vittorio.
But Vittorio had already suspected Richard before his death.
Margaret Hayes, then an accountant working indirectly for the Costello organization, had helped him preserve the financial evidence.
After Vittorio died, Richard accelerated his plan.
Clara discovered it.
Richard captured her.
He staged her death.
Then blamed the Pendletons.
The resulting war eliminated Richard's enemies on both sides.
“Why didn't you escape?” Damian asked.
“I did.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Damian stared.
“You were free?”
Clara nodded.
“Then why didn't you come home?”
“Because Richard showed me what would happen.”
“What?”
“Every time I contacted you, someone innocent died.”
Damian's face hardened.
“He conditioned you.”
“He controlled everyone around me.”
Clara looked at Bea.
“Margaret found me.”
Beatrice stopped breathing.
“My mother?”
“She hid me for six months.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Bea remembered.
Her mother had frequently disappeared during that period, claiming medical appointments.
Clara continued.
“When Margaret became sick, she knew she couldn't protect me anymore. So we created another plan.”
“You hired me,” Bea whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard watched me. He watched Damian. But he didn't watch you.”
Beatrice almost laughed at the cruelty of it.
“I was invisible.”
Clara nodded.
“Exactly.”
A maid.
Someone people ignored.
Someone who could move through the Costello estate without attracting attention.
“You planted the folder?”
Clara shook her head.
“Richard did.”
Damian frowned.
“Why?”
“He had started preparing your assassination.”
“Then how did you know Bea would find it?”
“I didn't.”
Clara looked at Beatrice.
“I only arranged for you to be near Damian because your mother believed that if everything failed, you were the one person who could bring the evidence to him.”
Bea's eyes filled.
“My mother never told me.”
“She wanted you to have a normal life.”
Damian looked at Clara.
“Where is Richard?”
“I don't know.”
“You called his phone.”
“He forces me to check in.”
“Forces you how?”
Clara's expression changed.
“There is someone else.”
Damian waited.
“A boy.”
Beatrice felt the room become still.
Clara looked at her brother.
“My son.”
Damian stared.
“You have a child?”
“He's four.”
“Where is he?”
Clara began crying.
“Richard has him.”
That was the leverage.
The reason Clara had remained silent.
The reason she had warned Damian away.
Richard wasn't controlling Clara anymore.
He was controlling her through her child.
Damian's expression became terrifyingly calm.
“What is his name?”
“Leo.”
“Where is Leo?”
“I don't know.”
Damian took his sister's hands.
“I'll find him.”
“You don't understand Richard.”
“No.”
Damian looked toward Beatrice.
“But Richard doesn't understand something either.”
“What?”
“He had fifteen years to kill me.”
Damian's voice dropped.
“He failed.”
That night, Clara returned to the Costello estate.
For the first time in five years, she walked past her own portrait.
The household staff stared.
Some cried.
Others crossed themselves.
Damian stood beside his sister.
Beatrice watched from the staircase.
Then Clara looked up at her.
And smiled.
For one brief moment, Bea believed the worst might be over.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
The security system died.
The gates opened automatically.
And from somewhere upstairs came the sound of a child crying.
Clara screamed one word.
“Leo!”
She ran.
Damian followed.
Beatrice was only seconds behind them.
They reached Damian's bedroom.
The door stood open.
On the bed—the same bed where Bea had hidden two nights earlier—sat a frightened four-year-old boy.
Clara rushed toward him.
“Leo!”
“Mommy!”
She grabbed him.
Damian stopped.
Something was wrong.
Too easy.
Beatrice saw it next.
A device beneath the pillow.
Red numbers counting down.
00:19.
00:18.
00:17.
“EVERYBODY OUT!” Damian shouted.
He grabbed Clara and Leo.
Beatrice ran.
They reached the hallway.
00:08.
Damian pushed them toward the stairs.
00:05.
A security guard appeared below.
“MOVE!”
00:02.
Damian threw himself over Beatrice as an explosion ripped through his private suite.
Glass shattered.
Fire erupted.
The force threw them across the marble floor.
For several seconds, Bea heard nothing.
Then Damian moved above her.
“Beatrice?”
She opened her eyes.
“I'm okay.”
Clara screamed for Leo.
The boy cried.
Alive.
All alive.
Damian looked back at the burning bedroom.
Richard had returned Clara's son.
Not as mercy.
As a message.
He could enter the Costello estate whenever he wanted.
He could reach Damian's bedroom.
He could reach Clara.
May you like
He could reach Beatrice.
And next time, there might not be a countdown.
