Chapter 9 – THE MICRO-PAPER AND THE LIBRARY DESK
I stopped breathing.
The small piece of paper fluttered in my trembling hands.
My father. The man who taught me to ride a bike. The man who worked double shifts to buy my prom dress. The man who had fought off a cartel soldier in our living room just last night.
He was a hitman for the Rossi syndicate? He had murdered Adrian’s father?
“No,” I whispered to the empty room. “No, it’s a forgery. It has to be.”
But the watch belonged to him. I remembered playing with it when I was a little girl, before he claimed he lost it at a job site. He hadn’t lost it. He had hidden it.
If Adrian saw this paper, he wouldn’t just fire me. He would kill my father. The mafia code demanded blood for blood.
I shoved the paper back into the watch, snapped it shut, and shoved it deep into my pocket. My new role as Estate Manager suddenly felt like a hangman’s noose.
I had to confront my father. I had to know the truth before I destroyed the only good thing that had ever happened to us.
I walked out of my room, trying to keep my face neutral.
“Grace.”
I jumped.
Standing in the hallway was Julian, Adrian’s cousin and the family’s underboss. He had arrived early that morning to help clean up the mess at the docks. Julian was sharp, charming, but had a reputation for absolute ruthlessness.
“Julian,” I managed a tight smile. “Can I help you?”
“Adrian is looking for you,” Julian said, leaning against the wall, watching me a little too closely. “He wants you to audit the library safe. Dominic tossed the room before he died. We need to make sure nothing is missing.”
“Of course,” I said.
I hurried to the library. The massive oak room was a disaster. Books were ripped from the shelves. The painting that hid the wall safe was torn down, and the heavy steel door was hanging wide open.
Adrian was standing by the desk, looking through a stack of documents.
“Everything seems to be here,” Adrian said without looking up. “Cash, offshore accounts, the deeds. Dominic was so focused on killing me he didn’t have time to raid it.”
I walked over to the safe, performing my first duty as manager.
I checked the inventory manifest on the clipboard.
“Wait,” I said, frowning. “Mr. Bellucci, there’s an item listed here. Box 4.”
Adrian looked up. “The black velvet box. Yes. It holds my father’s signet ring.”
I looked at the empty shelf inside the safe.
“The box isn’t here, sir.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed. He walked over and inspected the safe himself. The velvet box was indeed missing.
“Dominic must have pocketed it,” Adrian muttered, a flash of anger crossing his face.
But as I looked down at the floor near the safe, I saw something that made my stomach drop for the second time that hour.
Lying in the dust, half hidden by a fallen encyclopedia, was a small, plastic medical cap. The cap to a syringe of painkillers.
The exact brand of painkillers my father took for his back surgery.
Dominic hadn’t stolen the signet ring.
My father had been in this library.
And as I stared at the plastic cap, Julian walked into the library, shutting the heavy double doors behind him.
“Adrian,” Julian said smoothly. “I just got off the phone with the police captain holding Carlo.”
“And?” Adrian asked.
“Carlo confessed something interesting before they processed him,” Julian smiled, his eyes flicking toward me. “He said Dominic didn’t send him to the Miller house to hold the old man hostage.”
Adrian frowned. “Then why was he there?”
“He was there to pick up a delivery,” Julian said, pulling a gun from his jacket. “From the man who has been selling our security codes to the Rossi family for the last six months.”
Julian pointed the gun directly at my chest.
“Your father, Grace.”
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