Chapter 5 - What Was Buried
Back at the compound, the steel box sat open on Damian’s desk.
Inside were three items: a cassette tape from 2002, a certified birth certificate, and a thumb drive wrapped in oilcloth.
Damian picked up the birth certificate first. It belonged to a girl named Clara Bell, born twenty-one years ago. Father: Anthony Romano. Mother: Elena Bell.
Elena Bell had been Anthony’s personal secretary—a woman who had disappeared without a trace two days before Anthony’s supposed death.
Damian set the paper down and plugged the thumb drive into an air-gapped terminal. A single audio file loaded. He clicked play. His father’s rough, commanding voice filled the room, sounding as sharp and calculating as it had twenty years ago.
*"Damian. If you are hearing this, then Silvio has finally made his move, and Elena is dead. When you were young, I believed I could protect you by keeping you in the dark. I was wrong.*
*Silvio didn't just want my seat; he wanted our global laundering channels. In 2002, he poisoned me with thallium. I knew I wouldn't survive the year. I staged my cardiac arrest with the help of a few loyalists so I could spirit Elena and our unborn daughter away to safety. But Silvio’s hounds never stopped hunting.*
*Mia is Clara’s daughter. My granddaughter. If Mia has reached you, it means Clara is either captured or executed. The master codes to your estate were given to Clara years ago for the day she had no other choice. Protect that child, Damian. Because Silvio has owned half your board of directors for twenty years, and he knows what Mia is carrying."*
The recording clicked off.
Damian’s jaw hardened. He picked up his phone to summon Luca, but before he could press dial, the study door swung open slowly.
Little Mia was standing in the doorway in oversized silk pajamas provided by the staff. She rubbed her eyes with one tiny hand, dragging her stuffed rabbit by the other.
"Uncle Damian?" she whispered sleepily.
Damian’s heart clenched. She had called him *Uncle*.
"Mia," he said, keeping his voice gentle. "Why aren't you resting?"
May you like
"The rabbit has a secret," she murmured, walking toward him and lifting the toy up. "Mommy told me... if bad men came, I had to give the rabbit's heart to the boss."
***
