Chapter 5 – THE RED BOOK BEHIND THE WALL

The search began in the old study.

Damon’s father had died eight years earlier.

Since then, the room had remained mostly untouched.

Dark wood shelves.

Leather chairs.

A massive desk.

And a fireplace beneath a portrait of the former Bianchi patriarch.

Frank examined the room with Damon’s permission.

A small compartment was found behind a loose panel near the fireplace.

Inside was a red leather notebook.

Damon opened it.

Pages of names.

Dates.

Numbers.

Financial entries.

Some legitimate.

Others troubling.

He recognized several companies.

One belonged to Adrian.

Another had received payments from accounts connected to the family’s charitable foundation.

Damon stared.

“Why would Dad keep this?”

Frank shook his head.

“Maybe he was documenting something.”

The notebook was given to legal and financial professionals for review.

Damon wanted the truth established before confronting anyone.

Meanwhile, Delaney continued visiting Isabella.

She had begun to understand the older woman’s routines.

The songs that calmed her.

The photographs that helped her remember.

The way she preferred tea in a blue cup.

One afternoon, Isabella looked at Delaney.

“You remind me of someone.”

Delaney smiled.

“Who?”

Isabella studied her.

“Me.”

Delaney laughed.

“You?”

The older woman nodded.

“When I was young, I had nothing.”

She looked toward the window.

“Then I married a man who had everything.”

Delaney smiled.

“Were you happy?”

Isabella considered.

“Sometimes.”

Then she took Delaney’s hand.

“Money makes life easier. It doesn’t make people good.”

Delaney nodded.

“My mother used to say something similar.”

Isabella smiled.

“Smart woman.”

Damon stood outside the room.

He heard the conversation.

And for the first time, he wondered whether the most important thing his mother had found in the snow wasn’t safety.

It was friendship.

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