Merciless Contract: The Syndicate's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 27 of 32
Chapter 27: Dead Men Don't Testify
They reached the cemetery at first light, with three captains behind them.
Raffaele had wanted ten men.
Gemma had said three, and said why: she wanted witnesses, not an army.
Frost lay on the grass, and Bruno knelt in it.
He was in front of a small gray stone with a name cut into it, and the gun was under his chin.
He had been beaten, and one eye was swollen shut.
"Papa."
"Stay there," he said. "Don't come closer, Gemmina."
"Who let you out?"
"A guard. The young one. He cut the rope and said the table had turned." Bruno laughed, and it cracked. "I walked here. Twelve miles. I wanted to say it to her first."
"Say it to me."
"I'm trying."
His hand shook, and the muzzle knocked against his jaw.
Raffaele took a step, and Gemma held up her hand.
"Let him talk."
Bruno looked at the stone, then at the three captains standing in the frost with their hats off.
"I want you to hear this," he said to them. "You'll want to say you didn't."
"Say it, Albertini," said the scarred captain.
"Ten years ago Vittorio came to me and said my company would carry his money. I said no. He said think about my wife."
"So I said yes."
Gemma felt her stomach drop, though she had known.
"My wife found out. She went to him herself, with the books. And a week before the car, Vittorio sat in my kitchen and told me to keep my mouth shut."
"After the car, he told me he would do the same to Gemma."
Gemma's hands closed into fists at her sides.
"I kept my mouth shut for ten years," said Bruno. "I married a woman who hated my daughter and I let her. I took the money. I called my little girl a burden at a dinner."
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