Chapter 5 - THE GOLD ROSARY
The silence in the medical suite was absolute.
Marcus slowly lowered his hand from his holster, completely stunned.
Vincent stared at his maid, his eyes locked on the gold rosary dangling from her fingers.
“You killed my brother?” Vincent asked, his voice dangerously soft.
Camille swallowed hard, clutching the red ledger to her chest.
“He was going to kill Addie,” she whispered. “He found out I was pregnant. He said a child was a liability. He cornered me on a balcony in Chicago.”
She looked down at her little girl.
Adeline had slipped off her chair and waddled over to her mother, wrapping her small arms around Camille’s bruised leg.
“Mama bleeding,” Adeline observed sadly.
“I’m okay, baby,” Camille soothed, stroking her daughter’s hair.
She looked back at Vincent.
“He had your mother’s rosary,” Camille explained. “He wore it like a trophy. We fought. He slipped. He fell three stories. I took the rosary, changed my name, and ran.”
Vincent processed this.
He had hated his brother. Dominic had been cruel, reckless, and treacherous.
But the revelation that this quiet woman scrubbing his floors had ended Dominic’s life was staggering.
“If Dominic is dead,” Marcus said slowly, “then who stabbed Vincent today? Who left the Moretti watch?”
“It’s a setup,” Camille said instantly. “Someone wants you to think the Morettis are back so you won’t look inside your own house.”
Marcus frowned. “What do you mean?”
Camille stepped forward and placed the red ledger on the metal tray next to Vincent.
“I didn’t steal this to sell it,” Camille said. “I took it because I walked into the office to clean, and I saw the attacker hovering over you. He was going for the book. I hit him with a heavy vase, grabbed the ledger, and ran.”
“You saved my life,” Vincent realized.
Camille didn’t smile. “I saved the ledger. Because I knew if I let him take it, you would hunt everyone down, including me.”
She opened the heavy red cover.
“I’ve been reading it for two hours while hiding in the east wing,” she said. “I’m an accountant by trade, Vincent. That’s how I met your brother. I handled his books before I realized what he was.”
She flipped to the back pages of the ledger.
“Look at the offshore transfers for the last six months.”
Vincent leaned forward, wincing as his ribs pulled.
He traced his finger down the columns of numbers. Millions of dollars had been quietly siphoned out of the Castellano accounts and routed to a shell company in the Cayman Islands.
“Someone is bleeding me dry,” Vincent muttered.
“Yes,” Camille agreed. “And the person authorizing the transfers used a digital signature.”
She pointed to the bottom of the page.
Marcus leaned in to look.
His own name was printed there.
Marcus stepped back, horrified. “Boss. I swear to God, I didn’t do that. I don’t even have access to those accounts.”
“I know you didn’t,” Vincent said calmly.
He looked at Camille. “Who has Marcus’s digital clearance?”
Before she could answer, a loud, concussive boom echoed through the estate.
The lights flickered, then died, plunging the medical suite into emergency red lighting.
An alarm began to blare.
Marcus grabbed his radio. “Gate one! Report!”
Static.
“Gate two! Talk to me!”
Static.
Someone began pounding violently on the heavy medical suite door.
“Let me in!” a voice yelled from the hallway.
It was Dr. Lena Morales.
Marcus unlocked the door and pulled her inside. Lena was covered in dust, coughing wildly.
“The front gate,” Lena gasped. “Someone just blew it open with C4. There are armed men swarming the driveway.”
Vincent pushed himself off the gurney, ignoring the agony in his side.
He looked at Camille.
“Who is it?” Vincent demanded.
Camille reached into her pocket again.
She pulled out a small, child-sized velvet coat. It was identical to the crimson one Marcus had found, but this one was black.
May you like
And pinned to the collar was a one-way train ticket to Chicago.
“It’s the Morettis,” Camille whispered, terrified. “They didn’t die five years ago. They just went into hiding. And they came back for your daughter.”
