Chapter 4: What Isabelle Left Behind
I locked the library door after Vincent left, but not before he looked at me over his shoulder.
“You are making a mistake, Dominic.”
“Then you have nothing to fear.”
“You have more to fear than I do.”
His footsteps faded down the hall.
Mrs.
Donnelly gripped the back of a chair with both hands.
“Is he gone?”
“Start talking.”
“Not in front of the girls.”
Olivia lifted her chin.
“It happened in front of us.”
Mrs.
Donnelly closed her eyes.
Grace sat beside Sophie and Nora while I placed the scratched photograph on the table.
“Why did Isabelle give this to you?”
“She said someone was moving money through the construction companies.
Pension money, insurance money, money meant for families.”
“And she believed Vincent was involved?”
“She knew he was.”
My palm came down on the table.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried.”
“No, she didn’t.”
Mrs.
Donnelly reached into her apron and placed a brass key beside the photograph.
“She said you stopped listening whenever his name came up.”
“That is a lie.”
Olivia spoke before Mrs.
Donnelly could answer.
“Mommy cried after you shouted at her.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What did I shout?”
“You said Uncle Vincent was your brother.”
Sophie tightened her arms around Grace.
“Mommy said family shouldn’t make you blind.”
I sat down because my knees would not hold me.
Olivia watched me with Isabelle’s steady brown eyes.
“Were you scared of me too?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Sometimes.”
The single word opened something in my chest that no enemy had ever reached.
“I thought being feared kept you safe.”
“It made Mommy feel alone.”
I lowered my head.
A small hand touched my knuckles, and when I looked up, Nora was standing beside me.
“Don’t shout now, Daddy.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Grace slid a glass of water toward me.
“You can fall apart later.
Right now, they need you standing.”
I looked at her.
“You speak to your employer that way?”
“I speak to fathers that way when their children are watching.”
Mrs.
Donnelly pushed the brass key closer.
“Isabelle left this three days before she was kjlled.”
“What does it open?”
“A locker at Penn Station.
She told me to give it to you if anything happened.”
“Fourteen months,” I said.
“You waited fourteen months.”
“Vincent told me he had copies of my grandson’s immigration papers.
He said one telephone call would send the boy away.”
“You should have come to me.”
“And said what?
That the man sitting at your table every Sunday threatened my family?”
Mrs.
Donnelly’s voice cracked.
“You defended him against your wife.
Why would you defend me?”
I had no answer.
Grace covered Mrs.
Donnelly’s trembling hand with her own.
“Your grandson is safe now.”
Mrs.
Donnelly stared at her.
“How would you know?”
“Because I moved him and his wife to my sister’s apartment yesterday.”
I rose slowly.
“You knew about this?”
“I knew Mrs.
Donnelly was frightened.
I didn’t know why until this morning.”
“Why are you really here, Grace?”
She reached beneath her collar and pulled out a chain.
A small silver locket hung from it, bearing Isabelle’s initials.
“Your wife gave me this six weeks before she was kjlled.”
“You told me you never knew her.”
“You never asked.”
“Do not play games with me.”
“I met Isabelle at a community legal clinic.
I helped families trace missing pension payments.
She found my name on a case report.”
Grace opened the locket.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
“She said if she failed to call me on Friday, I should come to this house and protect her daughters.”
I reached for it, but Grace closed her fist.
“Not yet.”
“That belongs to my wife.”
“She said it belonged to the person she could trust.”
“And that wasn’t me?”
Grace’s eyes did not move from mine.
“Isabelle said she loved you.
She also said your loyalty to Vincent might get her kjlled.”
A heavy impact struck the library door.
Then Vincent’s voice came through the wood.
May you like
“Dominic, open this door.
The police are here for Grace.”
