Chapter 6 – The Emerald Necklace
“Lorenzo, open the door! Please! They’re going to kill me!”
Isabella’s voice was ragged, stripped of all its former elegance and dripping with raw terror. Lorenzo did not move. He stood in the center of the safe room, staring at the heavy steel wheel of the door. Beside him, Emily instinctively pulled Clara closer, shielding the child behind her skirt.
“Boss?” Marco’s voice crackled faintly through the secure intercom on the wall. “She came running back. Carlo and the extraction team abandoned her. They got what they came for in the East Wing and left her behind as a distraction. We have her secured, but she’s hysterical.”
Lorenzo pressed the intercom button. “Are the ledgers gone?”
“The basement wall is blown wide open, Boss. The hidden compartment is empty.”
Lorenzo swore under his breath. The Vescaris had their proof. They had the only documents that could send their entire syndicate to federal prison, and they had left Isabella to take the fall.
“Bring her in,” Lorenzo ordered.
He spun the wheel and pulled the heavy door open. Two guards shoved Isabella into the room. She stumbled and fell to her knees. Her red satin dress was torn, covered in white plaster dust, and her perfect hair was a tangled mess. She looked up at Lorenzo, mascara running down her face in dark streaks.
“They left me,” she sobbed, clutching at Lorenzo’s pant leg. “Carlo used me. He told me to distract you at dinner while they set the charges. He promised we would all leave together!”
Lorenzo kicked his leg free, stepping back in disgust. “You sold out a seven-year-old girl for a family that didn’t even want you.”
“I can help you!” Isabella pleaded, scrambling to her feet. She looked frantically around the room, her eyes darting to Emily and Clara before snapping back to Lorenzo. “I know where they’re taking the ledgers. I know where Carlo’s safehouse is. But you have to protect me. They’ll kill me for knowing too much!”
“Why should I believe a single word you say?” Lorenzo asked coldly.
Isabella reached toward her neck with trembling hands. She unclasped a heavy, breathtakingly beautiful emerald necklace and held it out to him. The gems caught the harsh light of the safe room.
“Because I stole this from Carlo’s private safe before I left,” Isabella confessed, her voice shaking. “It’s a master key. The pendant contains a micro-USB with all his offshore account passwords. He doesn’t know I have it. I took it as an insurance policy.”
Lorenzo took the necklace, examining the heavy emerald pendant. There was a tiny seam along the side. It was a digital vault.
“If he realizes it’s missing, he’ll drain the accounts,” Isabella said quickly. “But if you hit his safehouse tonight, you can take everything. The ledgers, his money, his power. Just promise me I can walk away.”
Lorenzo pocketed the necklace. He looked at Isabella, a woman who, just an hour ago, had tried to destroy his daughter’s spirit. “You get to live,” Lorenzo said flatly. “That’s my only promise. Lock her in the wine cellar.”
As the guards dragged a protesting Isabella away, Lorenzo turned to the desk, booting up the emergency laptop. He plugged the emerald pendant into the port. A string of encrypted files immediately populated the screen.
“Marco,” Lorenzo said over the intercom. “Rally every man we have left. We are hitting Carlo’s safehouse in twenty minutes.”
“Wait!” Emily stepped forward, leaving Clara safely on the cot. “Lorenzo, you can’t go. It’s a trap.”
Lorenzo paused, looking at the young maid. “I have his accounts, Emily. I have his location. This is my only chance to end this and avenge Elena.”
“Look at the files,” Emily insisted, pointing a shaking finger at the laptop screen. “I was a nurse, Lorenzo. I handled billing and patient data. Look at the date stamps on these account folders.”
Lorenzo leaned in. The files were all dated exactly two years ago. The exact week Elena died.
“These aren’t Carlo’s offshore accounts,” Emily said, her voice dropping to a horrified whisper. “These are Elena’s hospital records. The real ones. Isabella didn’t steal this from Carlo. Carlo gave it to her.”
Clara suddenly spoke up from the cot, her eyes fixed on the emerald necklace resting on the desk. “Daddy? Why does Isabella have the bad doctor’s necklace?”
Lorenzo froze. He turned slowly to his daughter. “What bad doctor, Clara?”
Clara pointed at the emerald. “The doctor who came to our house when Mommy was sick, before the car crash. He gave Mommy that necklace. He told her if she wore it, she would go to sleep and never wake up.”
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