Chapter 5 - The Waitress Discovered the Ledger Had Been Hidden in Plain SightThree days later, Molly returned to Crimson and Steel.
Every employee stared.
Maria cornered her near the kitchen.
“You disappeared with Gerardo Romani.”
“I noticed.”
“He was shot.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“You were there.”
“Apparently the restaurant has an excellent gossip network.”
Maria crossed herself.
“You’re going to die.”
“Eventually.”
“Molly.”
She softened.
“You don’t understand these men.”
Molly thought about Gerardo bleeding beneath her hands.
“I’m beginning to.”
At nine precisely, Gerardo entered.
His left arm remained in a sling.
He sat in his usual booth.
Molly approached.
“What can I get you?”
“Coffee.”
“No cognac?”
“I’m taking antibiotics.”
“Look at you making responsible choices.”
His mouth curved.
She brought coffee.
When she turned to leave, he spoke.
“My uncle disappeared.”
Molly stopped.
“Where?”
“If I knew, he wouldn’t be missing.”
“Fair.”
Gerardo lowered his voice.
“He has people searching your mother’s history.”
“So do we.”
“Yes.”
“Anything?”
“Nothing.”
Molly returned to work.
But something bothered her.
Her mother had spent nine years running.
Six schools.
Four cities.
Three last names.
Why?
Not randomly.
Evelyn had been hiding something.
Molly remembered the letter.
She left clues.
Vittorio had said it confidently.
After her shift, Molly returned home and emptied the blue box across the floor.
Gerardo arrived twenty minutes later.
“How did you know I wanted you here?”
“You sent a message saying, ‘Get here.’”
“Oh.”
They examined everything.
Photographs.
Receipts.
School records.
Old birthday cards.
Then Gerardo noticed the cities.
“Put them in order.”
Molly did.
New York.
Philadelphia.
Baltimore.
Richmond.
Then back to New York.
Gerardo frowned.
“She was moving south.”
“Until she wasn’t.”
“Why return?”
Molly found a photograph from Baltimore.
She was eleven.
Her mother stood beside her.
Behind them was a public library.
On the back:
Molly learned where stories live.
Another photograph.
Richmond.
A church.
Molly learned where forgiveness lives.
New York.
A bank.
Molly learned where the future lives.
Gerardo looked at her.
“These are clues.”
Molly’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Bank.”
The photograph showed an old Manhattan bank branch.
They drove there the next morning.
The branch had closed eight years earlier.
Records had been transferred.
After two hours of phone calls and one frightening conversation between Gerardo and a bank executive, they discovered Evelyn Warner had maintained a safe-deposit box.
It still existed.
Molly was the beneficiary.
The bank manager brought it into a private room.
Molly stared at the metal box.
Seventeen years.
Her father had died for whatever was inside.
Her mother had destroyed herself protecting it.
Molly inserted the key found taped behind the bank photograph.
The box opened.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a children’s book.
The Secret Garden.
Molly stared.
“You’re kidding.”
Gerardo picked it up.
“Was this yours?”
“My father read it to me.”
She opened the cover.
Inside was an inscription.
For Molly.
Some gardens survive winter because their roots remember spring.
Dad.
Her throat tightened.
Gerardo remained silent.
She turned pages.
Nothing.
Then she noticed numbers written beside certain chapter titles.
Page numbers.
Line numbers.
Words.
They copied them.
The message read:
WHERE STEEL MEETS WATER BENEATH THE FIRST BRIDGE.
Gerardo looked up.
“I know where that is.”
The East River.
An abandoned warehouse once owned by Romani Steel.
Beneath the Queensboro Bridge.
They went after midnight.
Gerardo brought six men.
Molly insisted on entering.
Under a rusted floor panel, they found a waterproof case.
Inside was the ledger.
Hundreds of pages.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Police officers.
Judges.
Union bosses.
Construction executives.
And Salvatore Romani.
Molly turned pages.
Then she found James Warner.
Not as a criminal.
As an informant.
Her father had marked illegal payments and copied transactions.
At the end was a handwritten note.
If I die, protect Evelyn and Molly.
Molly closed her eyes.
Gerardo stood beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head.
“Seventeen years.”
“I know.”
“He was trying to do the right thing.”
“Yes.”
“And I hated him.”
“You were a child.”
“My mother made me hate him.”
“She made you survive.”
Molly looked at him.
That was different.
Painful.
But different.
A sound came from above.
Footsteps.
Gerardo’s head snapped up.
“Lights out.”
Darkness swallowed them.
Then a voice echoed through the warehouse.
“Give me the ledger.”
Vittorio.
Gerardo pushed Molly behind a steel column.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“For once in your life, do what I tell you.”
“No.”
“Molly.”
She grabbed his jacket.
“We do this together.”
Something passed through his expression.
Then he nodded.
Vittorio descended the stairs with eight armed men.
“Such a touching partnership.”
Gerardo stepped into view.
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to correct a family mistake.”
“You’ve been making those for decades.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Give me the book.”
Molly emerged.
“I have a better idea.”
Gerardo looked at her.
Molly held up her phone.
“I photographed every page.”
Vittorio’s smile disappeared.
“And uploaded them.”
That part was a lie.
But he did not know.
“To where?”
“Several places.”
“You stupid girl.”
His calm finally cracked.
“Do you understand what’s in that book?”
“Yes.”
“Senators. Judges. Police.”
“And murderers.”
“You’ll destroy people.”
“Maybe they should have thought of that before destroying mine.”
Vittorio raised his gun.
Gerardo moved in front of Molly.
The gesture was immediate.
Instinctive.
Vittorio laughed.
“There it is.”
Gerardo’s voice was low.
“What?”
“Your weakness.”
Molly felt Gerardo’s body tense.
Vittorio pointed the weapon at her.
“She made you human.”
Gerardo stared at him.
“No.”
Vittorio frowned.
“She reminded me I still had the option.”
Then gunfire erupted.
Gerardo’s men had circled behind Vittorio.
Chaos filled the warehouse.
Molly dropped behind the column.
Gerardo fired.
Vittorio escaped through a side door.
Again.
When silence returned, Gerardo found Molly.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He checked anyway.
She stared at him.
“You stepped in front of a gun.”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“You could have died.”
“Yes.”
“Would you stop agreeing with me?”
Gerardo smiled.
Then Molly kissed him.
She did not plan it.
She grabbed his coat and kissed him because seventeen years of grief had exploded inside her and because he had stepped between her and death without hesitation.
For one second, Gerardo did not move.
Then his hand touched her cheek.
He kissed her back.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Nothing about Gerardo Romani was careful.
That frightened her most.
Molly broke away.
“This changes nothing.”
His forehead rested against hers.
“Of course not.”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“I know.”
“I still think you’re dangerous.”
“I am.”
“And your family destroyed mine.”
His eyes opened.
“Yes.”
Molly stepped away.
“Good.”
Gerardo looked confused.
“Good?”
“At least we understand each other.”
She picked up the ledger.
But neither of them mentioned the kiss.
May you like
They did not need to.
Something irreversible had already happened.
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