Chapter 6: Before He Came
The lawyer's name was Diane Marsh.
My father had used her for estate work in his final year, and she had sent me a handwritten note after the funeral that I had kept without fully understanding why.
I understood now.
Some people leave doors open in ways you don't recognize until you need them.
She answered on the second ring.
*Adriana Romano,* she said.
*I wondered if I'd hear from you.*
*You knew about the account?*
*Your father told me it existed.
He didn't tell me the amount or the bank.
He said you'd have what you needed when the time came.* A pause.
*Has the time come?*
*Ruggero Romano is coming to my location tonight with documents he intends to use to make a problem disappear.* I kept my voice level.
*I have evidence of fraud in the inducement of my marriage.
I have a copy of a communication between Ruggero Romano and a bank employee showing foreknowledge of a concealed asset before the marriage contract was signed.
And I have a witness.*
Lena looked up from the crate.
*I need to know if I can move fast enough,* I said.
*How fast?*
*Before tonight.*
Diane was quiet for three seconds.
*Where are the documents now?*
*In my hand.*
*Photograph everything.
Send it to the number I'm about to give you.
Do not use your registered phone — use the girl's if you have to.* She paused.
*Can you get to a federal building by two o'clock?*
*Yes.*
*Then do that.
I'll make a call first.
There are people who have been building a crjme case against Ruggero Romano for four years.
They've been waiting for a document trail with a civilian name on it — someone who isn't already inside the family and can't be discredited as a cooperating witness.* Another pause.
*Your father's account, opened nineteen years ago and never touched, is exactly the kind of clean paper trail they've needed.*
I thought about my father at his workbench.
His careful hands.
His careful handwriting.
*For Adriana, when she is ready to leave.*
He hadn't just been saving money.
He had been building a case.
*Diane,* I said.
*Did he know it would come to this?*
*He told me once that a man like Ruggero Romano doesn't stop wanting what he's decided is his,* she said.
*He said the only way to stop a man like that is to make the cost of taking it higher than the value of the thing itself.* A beat.
*He was a very precise man, your father.*
*He was,* I said.
We moved quickly after that.
Lena used her phone to photograph both documents.
She sent them to Diane's number while I packed the ring, my father's tools, and the two envelopes Maso had left into a canvas bag that had lived under the workbench for a decade.
The shop smelled the same as it had the night before — metal and lavender and old velvet — but it felt different now.
Smaller.
Like a room I was already leaving.
*Will they protect Marco?* Lena asked, pulling on a jacket I'd found in the back room.
*That's the first thing I'm asking for,* I said.
*Before anything else.*
She nodded.
Then, quietly: *Why are you helping me?
I was the one he used to hurt you.*
I looked at her.
The bruise at her wrist had gone purple at the edges.
*He used you,* I said.
*That's different from you hurting me.* I picked up the bag.
*And you came back.
You didn't have to come back this morning.*
*I didn't know what else to do.*
*You did the right thing,* I said.
*That's enough.*
We left through the alley.
The blue awning on Mott Street was two blocks east.
A cab was already waiting — Teresa had arranged it, through channels I didn't ask about, in a text that said only: *God keep you, child.*
I looked back once at the shop front.
Bellini Jewel Restoration, the sign read, in gold letters my father had painted himself the year I was born.
I had always assumed I would inherit the shop.
I had not understood until this moment that what I had actually inherited was everything he had built inside it.
The cab pulled away from the curb.
My phone rang.
Alessandro.
This time, I answered.
*Adriana.* His voice was careful.
Controlled.
*Where are you?*
*Safe,* I said.
*I need you to come home.
We need to talk before—*
*Before Ruggero arrives?* I said.
*Or before Diane Marsh files the fraud documentation with the federal prosecutor's office?*
Silence.
*Alessandro,* I said.
*Whatever you were going to say next — don't.
I know about the marriage contract.
I know about the bank clerk.
I know about Ruggero's arrangement with you.* I paused.
*I know what my father built and why he built it.*
More silence.
Then, very quietly: *How much do you know?*
*Enough,* I said.
*More than enough.*
The cab turned onto the bridge.
Lake Michigan spread out below us, grey and enormous and indifferent.
*He'll come for you,* Alessandro said.
*Ruggero doesn't stop.*
*I know,* I said.
*That's why I'm not stopping either.*
I ended the call.
Lena was watching me from the other side of the cab.
*Was that a warning?* she asked.
*From him?*
*Yes,* I said.
*Do you believe him?*
I looked at the water below the bridge.
*About Ruggero?
Yes.
May you like
About everything else—* I set the phone face-down on the seat between us.
*I'll decide later.*
