Chapter 4 - The Archive Beneath the House
I drew the pistol from beneath my jacket before the lock turned.
Elena grabbed Mia's grandmother's heavy silver candlestick from the table.
My mother gave her an approving look.
The door opened.
Mrs. Russo, our sixty-four-year-old housekeeper, stood outside holding a tray.
She nearly dropped it when she saw my weapon.
"Good Lord, Lorenzo."
I lowered the gun.
"Why are you unlocking Mother's door?"
"Because she asked for tea."
Isabella blinked.
"I did?"
"Twenty minutes ago."
My mother hadn't.
Someone wanted that door opened.
"Mrs. Russo, take the night off."
"But—"
"Now."
She obeyed.
I called Rocco.
No answer.
That was worse than an answer.
We moved immediately.
The mansion had tunnels left from Prohibition, built by my grandfather when respectable businessmen publicly condemned alcohol and privately made fortunes from it.
One passage connected Isabella's suite to the old wine cellar.
I pushed Mother's wheelchair.
Elena carried sleeping Mia.
The little girl woke halfway down.
"Where we going?"
"Adventure," I whispered.
She smiled sleepily.
"Secret one?"
"The secret kind."
At the cellar, Isabella directed me toward a stone wall.
Elena's brass key fit into a nearly invisible lock.
A section of shelving released.
Behind it was a steel door.
The key opened that too.
Inside sat my father's archive.
Files.
Photographs.
Ledgers.
Recordings.
Thirty years of Duca history.
Elena stood frozen.
"Daniel found this?"
"Part of it," Isabella said.
We searched.
Eventually Elena found a box marked HAWTHORNE.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel stood beside my father.
The date was fourteen years earlier.
"You said Daniel worked there seven years," I told Elena.
"He did."
The photograph proved otherwise.
Isabella closed her eyes.
"I hired him before Hawthorne officially existed."
Elena stared at her.
"You knew my husband for fourteen years?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you let me believe he was just another accountant?"
"Because Daniel asked me to."
Elena's face crumpled with anger.
"He's dead!"
Mia flinched.
Elena immediately softened and kissed her daughter's hair.
Isabella spoke quietly.
"Daniel discovered someone had been draining money from Duca companies for years. Not enough at once to attract attention. But together, nearly forty million dollars."
I opened another file.
"Who?"
"We didn't know."
"Rocco?"
"I suspected him after Daniel died."
"Why?"
"Because Daniel's last message said, 'The man beside Lorenzo is not loyal to Lorenzo.'"
That could mean Rocco.
Or dozens of others.
I found a USB drive taped inside the folder.
Before I could examine it, the lights went out.
Mia whimpered.
I reached for her.
Then footsteps echoed beyond the steel door.
Someone knew we were here.
I put my mother and Elena behind the filing cabinets.
The door opened.
A flashlight swept through darkness.
I raised my gun.
"Don't."
Rocco's voice.
I nearly fired anyway.
"Put the light down."
He did.
"Your mother thinks I'm the traitor."
"Are you?"
"No."
"Convince me."
Rocco slowly raised his hands.
"Caleb Mercer entered the estate twenty minutes ago."
"Vivien's man?"
"Yes."
"How did he get in?"
"Someone disabled the east cameras."
"You told me to stay in bed."
"Because I knew Mercer was inside and didn't know where you were."
Isabella stared at him.
"Daniel's message."
"I know," Rocco said.
Her eyes widened.
"You knew?"
"He sent me one too."
Rocco reached inside his coat.
I aimed at him.
"Slow."
He withdrew an old phone.
On it was a saved message.
Daniel's voice filled the archive.
"If anything happens to me, don't trust the man beside Lorenzo. He's been there since Lorenzo was a boy."
The recording ended.
Rocco looked at me.
"I thought he meant me too."
"Who else has been beside me since childhood?"
Nobody spoke.
Then Isabella whispered:
"Father Gabriel."
I stared at her.
Gabriel Santoro.
My father's closest friend.
My godfather.
The man who'd blessed my father's coffin.
The man scheduled to marry Vivien and me.
Rocco nodded.
"Gabriel created Hawthorne's first overseas accounts."
Elena sank into a chair.
"Daniel trusted a priest."
"So did we all," Isabella said.
We examined the USB.
It contained scanned transfers linking Gabriel to dozens of shell corporations.
But one file mattered more.
A photograph.
Gabriel stood beside Vivien.
It had been taken six years ago.
Long before Vivien claimed she'd first met me.
On the back, Daniel had written:
V.S. IS HIS ACCESS POINT.
Vivien hadn't fallen in love with me.
She had been sent to me.
Mia tugged my sleeve.
"Uncle Lorenzo?"
I crouched.
"What?"
"Green lady."
Vivien's pale green dress.
"What about her?"
"She goes downstairs at night."
"Where?"
Mia pointed toward the deeper cellar.
"Secret door."
Elena stared.
"Mia, when?"
The child held up fingers.
Many.
Vivien had been using another passage.
Rocco found it behind a wine rack.
We followed.
It ended beneath the chapel.
Through a narrow grate, voices drifted down.
Vivien.
And Gabriel.
"The wedding is in twelve days," Gabriel said.
"Not anymore," Vivien answered. "He postponed it."
"Then make him change his mind."
"I can't control Lorenzo."
Gabriel laughed softly.
"You've controlled him for two years."
I felt something inside me die.
Then Vivien said:
"What about the child?"
My hand tightened around the pistol.
Gabriel answered without hesitation.
"If Elena won't cooperate, remove them both."
Beside me, Elena covered her mouth.
I looked at Rocco.
He looked back.
Now we knew.
May you like
But then Gabriel spoke again.
"And after the wedding, Lorenzo has to die."
