Chapter 10 - THE FATHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Penelope’s father denied knowing Carlo.
He denied knowing North Meridian.
He denied ever visiting the Duca cemetery.
Then Matteo placed the photograph on the kitchen table.
Robert Hayes sat down.
Penelope’s parents had been moved to Matteo’s penthouse after the hospital attack. Linda stood near the sink, looking at her husband with growing fear.
“Tell her,” she said.
Robert rubbed both hands over his face.
“I was an accountant.”
Penelope frowned. “You taught high-school mathematics.”
“Before that.”
“For whom?”
Robert looked at Matteo.
“Duca Freight.”
The room became silent.
“I worked for your father,” Robert said. “Not Carlo.”
Matteo sat across from him.
“What did my father ask you to do?”
“Separate legitimate revenue from criminal money. He wanted to sell the freight companies and create a trust for Adrian and Matteo.”
“Carlo opposed him.”
“Yes.”
Robert glanced at Penelope.
“I discovered payments for explosives three days before the car bombing. I called your mother.”
“You knew her?” Matteo asked.
“Only professionally. I warned her someone was planning an attack.”
“But she already knew,” Penelope said.
Robert nodded sadly.
“She told me it was meant to frighten her husband. I begged her to cancel it. She said Carlo had everything controlled.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I was afraid.”
Penelope felt anger rise.
“You knew people might die.”
“I thought the car would be empty.”
“You trusted criminals with a bomb?”
“No. I trusted a frightened woman who sounded desperate.”
“That answer does not make it better.”
“I know.”
Robert explained that after the explosion, he copied the final ledger and buried it beneath a church renovation site. Carlo later found him and demanded the location.
The photograph documented their meeting.
“I gave him false coordinates,” Robert said.
“Why did he let you live?” Matteo asked.
“Because Linda was pregnant with Penelope. I promised the ledger would automatically reach federal investigators if anything happened to my family.”
Penelope stared.
“My entire life was your protection?”
“No.”
“Carlo watched us?”
“For years.”
“Did Mom know?”
Linda shook her head, devastated.
Robert reached for her hand.
She moved away.
“Where is the ledger?” Matteo asked.
Robert looked at Penelope.
“Inside St. Catherine’s Church.”
Penelope knew the building.
Her parents had married there.
She and Madison had been baptized there.
Madison’s wedding was scheduled there in less than six hours.
“You buried criminal evidence beneath the church where your daughter is getting married?”
“The renovation occurred thirty years ago. I never imagined—”
“You never imagined either of your daughters might use the family church?”
“I intended to move it.”
“For thirty years?”
Robert had no answer.
The ledger was concealed beneath the old baptismal font.
Matteo contacted Ward.
She planned a discreet recovery before the ceremony.
Then Madison arrived wearing curlers beneath a silk scarf.
She took one look at the room.
“What happened now?”
Penelope told her.
Madison sat beside their mother.
“So our father worked for organized crime, my future father-in-law laundered money for organized crime, my future brother-in-law tried to frame Penny, and the evidence that can send everyone to prison is under the place where I’m getting married.”
Robert lowered his head.
Madison looked at Penelope.
“Your fake husband’s family is somehow not the most exhausting part of this wedding.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Nathan entered behind her.
His father had survived surgery and confessed to federal investigators. Nathan looked as though he had not slept.
“Do you still want to do this?” he asked Madison.
She stared at him.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Even after learning our families have apparently spent decades auditioning for a crime documentary?”
“Yes.”
“Then we get married.”
Madison turned to Penelope.
“And you are bringing Matteo.”
“He was already invited.”
“As your husband?”
Penelope hesitated.
Matteo watched her.
“As my date.”
Madison nodded. “Good. One fake marriage per day is enough.”
The church appeared peaceful when they arrived.
Ward’s team entered through the rectory.
The baptismal font had not been disturbed.
A maintenance worker removed its stone base.
Beneath it was a waterproof box.
Empty.
Robert stared.
“That’s impossible.”
A cell phone inside the box began ringing.
Ward answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“The ledger has been moved.”
“By whom?” she asked.
“The bride.”
Everyone turned toward Madison.
She went pale.
“I didn’t move anything.”
The caller continued.
“Ask what she received in the mail three weeks ago.”
Madison looked at Nathan.
“A wedding gift. No return address.”
“What was it?” Penelope asked.
“A family Bible.”
“Where is it?”
“In the bridal room.”
They opened the Bible.
Its pages had been hollowed out.
Inside was a memory card and a note.
ONE DAUGHTER WILL FINISH WHAT THE OTHER BEGAN.
Penelope frowned.
“What other daughter?”
Robert’s face lost all color.
Linda stared at him.
“No.”
Penelope looked between her parents.
“What?”
Linda began to cry.
“Before your father and I met, he was married.”
Robert closed his eyes.
Penelope felt the room tilt.
“You have another daughter?”
“Yes.”
“What is her name?”
“Catherine.”
“How old?”
“Forty-one.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Linda struck him.
The sound cracked through the bridal room.
“You told me they died.”
Robert’s first wife and child had supposedly been killed in a house fire connected to Carlo’s retaliation.
Apparently, Catherine survived.
“Why would she target Madison’s wedding?” Penelope asked.
Robert looked at the memory card.
“Because Carlo raised her.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
Catherine Hayes had grown up believing her father abandoned her.
She had likely inherited North Meridian’s remaining network after Carlo’s death.
The church bells began ringing.
Not for the wedding.
An alarm flashed in the security vestibule.
Someone had locked every exterior door.
Gas hissed from the heating vents.
Matteo smelled the air.
“Everyone out.”
“The doors are locked,” Ward said.
Luca drew his weapon and fired through a side window.
The glass shattered.
Guests began climbing outside.
Penelope ran toward the bridal suite.
Madison had gone back for their mother.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Matteo followed.
They found Linda unconscious near the altar.
Madison tried to lift her.
Together they carried Linda toward the broken window.
A woman stood outside.
She wore a black dress and held a remote detonator.
She looked like Penelope.
Older.
Sharper.
But unmistakably related.
Catherine.
May you like
“Hello, little sister,” she said.
Then she pressed the button.
