Chapter 5 – THE HIDDEN LEDGER

The bloody watch sat on the table like a curse.

I stared at the shattered glass, the dark crimson staining the gold. Silvio had been with the Morettis since Gabriel was a teenager. He was family.

And Elias Romano had killed him just to send a message.

“Gabriel,” I whispered, looking at my husband’s battered knuckles. “What did you do tonight?”

He wiped a smear of blood from his jaw. “I went to your uncle’s church. I tried to force Marcus to tell me which wing of the orphanage he’s holding Leo in. The building is a fortress, Claire. St. Jude’s has underground catacombs from the Prohibition era. If we go in blind, Elias’s men will kill Leo before we even clear the first floor.”

Answer One: The boy was hidden deep beneath the orphanage.

Open Two: How do we get inside without triggering Elias’s guards? And why was my uncle so desperate that he would aid in a child’s murder?

Gabriel turned away, pacing the rug. “I failed. Marcus wouldn’t break. He said Elias promised him ownership of the South Side parishes once the Morettis are wiped out. I have no choice. I have to sign the estate over.”

“No,” Antonella said.

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it stopped Gabriel in his tracks.

“Nonna, we don’t have a choice—”

“I said no!” Antonella stood up, her small frame radiating absolute authority. She walked past the table, ignoring the bloody watch, and moved toward the grand fireplace.

She reached her hand into the mouth of a sculpted stone lion supporting the mantelpiece. There was a sharp click. A hidden panel in the oak wall beside the fireplace popped open.

Gabriel stared. “What is that?”

“You think because you are the Don, you run this family?” Antonella scoffed, pulling a heavy, dust-covered leather ledger from the dark cavity. “Your grandfather built the army. But I kept the secrets.”

She slammed the ledger onto the table, right over the demolition permits.

“Thirty years ago,” Antonella said, opening the yellowed pages, “Elias Romano’s father went bankrupt. He begged my husband for a loan. A massive one. My husband agreed, but he took collateral.”

Gabriel frowned. “Elias owns half the city. He doesn’t owe us anything.”

“He doesn’t owe you money,” Antonella corrected. She tapped a heavily inked page. “He owes us a confession. Thirty years ago, Elias’s father ordered the hit on the old mayor. The murder that almost brought down the entire Chicago syndicate.”

My eyes widened. The unsolved assassination of Mayor Higgins was the biggest scandal in the city’s history.

“Elias’s father wrote a confession to secure the loan,” Antonella continued grimly. “He signed it, and Elias signed it as a witness. If this ledger goes to the FBI, Elias Romano loses everything. His legitimate businesses, his casinos, his freedom. He will die in a federal supermax.”

Gabriel looked at the page, awe and horror warring on his face. “You’ve had a loaded gun pointed at the Romanos for thirty years, and you never told me?”

“Because a secret is only powerful when no one knows it exists,” Antonella said. She looked at me. “But now, they have touched our blood.”

Answer One: Antonella held the ultimate leverage to destroy Elias.

Open Two: How do we trade a 30-year-old ledger for a captive child without Elias killing the boy in retaliation?

“We use it to make a trade,” Gabriel said, his mind already working. “I call Elias. I tell him I have the ledger. We swap the book for the boy.”

“He won’t trust you,” I said suddenly.

Gabriel looked at me. “What?”

“Elias knows you’re desperate. If you call him, he’ll think it’s a bluff. He knows you’ve been lying to me, pushing me away. He thinks you’re a broken man.”

I looked down at my mother’s rosary. My uncle had desecrated her grave to please a monster. My husband had broken my heart to save my life.

I was done being the victim.

“I have to be the one to deliver it,” I said.

“Absolutely not,” Gabriel snapped, stepping toward me. “I am not sending my wife into Elias Romano’s hands.”

“I’m not going to Elias,” I said, looking up at him. “I’m going to Isabella.”

Gabriel froze.

“Isabella is terrified of her father,” I explained. “She hates him. If I take the ledger to her, she can walk it directly into Elias’s inner circle. She’s his daughter. They don’t check her at the door.”

“It’s too dangerous, Claire. If Isabella betrays us—”

“She won’t,” I said firmly. “Because she knows if Elias wins, he’ll never let her go either.”

Before Gabriel could argue, his phone vibrated loudly in his pocket.

The sound made all of us jump.

He pulled it out. The caller ID was a blocked number.

He answered it on speaker.

“Moretti.”

A wheezing, wet cough echoed through the speaker. Then, a voice I hadn’t heard in five years spoke.

“Claire… Claire, are you there?”

My blood turned to ice. “Uncle Marcus?”

“I’m sorry, Claire,” my uncle sobbed, his breath rattling. “Elias… he figured out I talked to Gabriel. He shot me.”

“Marcus, where are you?” Gabriel demanded.

“The courtyard… outside the orphanage.” A wet gasp. “He moved the boy. Ten minutes ago.”

Gabriel swore violently. “Where? Where did he take him?”

“To the docks. Pier 44. He’s putting him on a freighter… taking him out of the country.” Marcus coughed, the sound wet and sickening. “Claire… I’m sorry about your mother’s rosary—”

The line went dead.

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