Page 18 of Angelo

His eyes grew sharper. "Now you have my attention, wife."

Once they reached their bedroom, Alessandro watched her as she closed the door and locked it. He scoffed, "Is that necessary?"

"Very." Elyse went to the lockbox to retrieve the gold medallion necklace.

Alessandro frowned, eyeing the necklace with a disappointed expression. "Is that all? I was expecting something more…exciting."

"Just wait."

His gaze narrowed as she found a needle and fiddled with the crack. It split open.

"This," Elyse said as she removed the memory card from the medallion, "is what I wanted to show you."

Shock froze on her husband's face. "The fuck wasthatdoing in there?"

"I don't know." Elyse muttered, "I found it today on accident, and I was hoping you'd have some answers for me. Come take a look."

She plugged the card into her laptop. They settled onto the bed with the screen shared between them. For the next half hour, Alessandro started looking through the files in earnest while Elyse sat beside him. His posture grew tense and rigid. Disbelief clouded his features as he scanned the incriminating documents about his father's closest allies.

"I doubt your father knew about it," Elyse speculated, "when he gave the necklace to me."

"I think you may be right."

"To me, these files look like evidence against your father and his allies. What do you think?"

He agreed with her again.

"Any idea who might've hidden the memory card inside the medallion?"

"I have someone in mind, actually," Alessandro whispered in a solemn voice.

Elyse's nerves flipped inside her stomach. "Really?"

"That necklace," her husband explained, "used to belong to my mother. She was wearing it when they found her body."

She gasped, "Mierda."

"After my mother died, everyone told me that my grandfather killed her for running away. Death was punishment for abandoning her family," Alessandro mused quietly. "But, now, I suspect they were lying."

"About what?"

His brow furrowed deeply. Alessandro looked as though he was in pain. "I know my mother, I know my grandfather, and I know the ways ofCosa Nostra. Now, I think, it is more likely that they killed my mother to bury the fact that she had been preparing to go to the authorities. If the news got out, it would have destroyed my father's reputation with our allies."

Elyse was beginning to feel sick. "I think you may be on to something. Fuck."

He continued with a grim expression, "Mammahad been trying to escape for years. She was probably collecting this evidence to destroy the men who would not let her leave."

"Do you think your father knew about it?"

"Of course not," answered Alessandro. "If he had known, a man like my father would have put a bullet inMammalong before my grandfather."

She released a shaky sigh. "I'm so sorry, baby. I should've waited to share this with you. You're already going through so much."

Despair darkened his handsome face. Sorrow hung between them. Elyse's heart ached for Alessandro.Dios, if this was all true, there were so much fucked up tragedy hiding within these age-old secrets.

His brown and blue-gray gaze slowly rose to meet hers. "No, no, I am happy you did not hide this from me."

Elyse shuffled closer to him, placing her palm upon his hand. She promised softly, "I'll never leave you in the dark, Alessio."

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