Chapter 24 - THE PERSON MARA DIDN'T TELL THEM ABOUT
Mara confessed first.
Not to leaking the proposal.
To something else.
“A woman came to see me.”
Gabriel stared.
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Who?”
“Her name was Celeste Renwick.”
Jonathan's younger sister.
Chief legal officer of Renwick Maritime.
Mara had not told anyone.
Gabriel stood.
“Why?”
“She asked questions about your trust.”
“You answered?”
“No.”
“Then why hide it?”
Mara hesitated.
Because Celeste knew things she should not know.
Where Gabriel attended school.
The boat-repair internship he wanted.
His history with Paolo.
Rosa.
Even the lullaby.
Alina went cold.
“How?”
Celeste claimed her father—the late attorney for Dante’s father—had maintained duplicate files on Rosselli protected families.
If true, the reforms had not uncovered every archive.
Dante said:
“Where are they?”
“She wouldn't say.”
“What did she want?”
Mara looked at Gabriel.
“For him to abandon the boatyard.”
“Why?”
“She said Pier 14 is contaminated.”
Environmental contamination?
Yes.
But not simply chemicals.
Bodies.
The room went silent.
Mara continued.
Celeste claimed her father helped cover three deaths at Pier 14 thirty years earlier.
Dock workers who discovered illegal transfers.
Official records listed them as missing.
Their bodies might still be beneath the property.
Gabriel went pale.
“My training center would be built over graves?”
“Maybe.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Mara’s eyes filled.
“I wanted proof first.”
Gabriel laughed.
A painful sound.
“Of course.”
Mara reached for him.
He stepped back.
That hurt her.
Good intentions did not remove consequences.
Alina asked:
“Did Celeste give you anything?”
“A map.”
The excavation map showed three probable burial sites.
One was directly beneath the burned warehouse.
They notified law enforcement.
No family excavation.
No private Rosselli cleanup.
Dante insisted.
Within two days, forensic teams found remains.
Three people.
Exactly as Celeste claimed.
Then something else.
A metal case beneath the third burial.
Inside were documents.
Protected by oilcloth.
One file identified the men.
The second listed who ordered their deaths.
Dante's father.
And another man:
ADRIAN RENWICK.
Jonathan and Celeste’s father.
Jonathan read the document in silence.
Then shook his head.
“My father was an attorney.”
Paolo answered:
“So?”
Jonathan’s jaw tightened.
“He did not kill people.”
“No,” Dante said.
“According to this, he arranged the cover-up.”
Jonathan looked at him.
“And yours ordered it.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
That disarmed him.
Then police found a fourth object inside the case.
A recent photograph.
Printed less than six months earlier.
Gabriel leaving school.
On the back:
THE LAST BOY WHO CAN OPEN THE ACCOUNT.
Gabriel whispered:
“What account?”
Dante knew from the code printed beneath the photograph.
A dormant Rosselli reserve.
One even Elias had never found.
And according to the old ledger system, opening it required biometric confirmation from Paolo’s direct descendant.
May you like
Gabriel.
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