THE SCISSORS IN THE STUDY

The old Chicago Fidelity Bank building was a towering monolith of gray stone, slated for demolition at the end of the month. Plywood covered the massive glass windows, and the street was entirely deserted.

Dominic and Claire slipped through a rusted side door, their flashlights cutting through the thick, dusty darkness.

“The power has been cut for a decade,” Dominic said, guiding her down a grand marble staircase toward the subterranean levels. “The main vault is mechanically locked. The watch is the only way in.”

They reached the basement. The vault door was massive, a circular fortress of steel and brass. In the center of the wheel was a strange, gear-shaped indentation.

Dominic pulled the silver pocket watch from his coat. He pressed a tiny hidden button on the stem. The watch face popped off, revealing a complex set of protruding gears.

He slotted the watch into the center of the vault door and turned it.

A heavy, echoing CLACK resounded through the basement. The massive steel locking bolts retracted.

Dominic pulled the heavy door open.

They stepped inside the dust-filled vault. Wall-to-wall safety deposit boxes lined the room.

“Box 402,” Claire read from the back of the watch.

They found it in the corner. Dominic used his pocket knife to pry the ancient lock box open.

He pulled the metal tray out and set it on a dusty table in the center of the vault.

Inside the box rested a stunning family heirloom—a heavy, diamond-encrusted Bellini crest necklace. But underneath it was a thick, leather-bound diary.

Claire picked up the diary. She opened it to the first page. It was written in her father’s elegant handwriting.

If you are reading this, I am dead. My name is Joseph Bellini. The illegitimate brother of the current Don.

Claire gasped. She looked at Dominic, her eyes wide with shock. “Joseph... he was your father’s brother?”

Dominic stared at the page, his mind reeling. “That means... you and I are cousins.”

Claire turned the page, reading the hurried script.

Victor Hale did not act alone in the murder of Dominic’s mother. Victor was taking orders. The hit wasn't meant to destabilize the family for the Morettis. It was meant to clear the way for the true mastermind to take control of the Bellini empire. Dominic’s uncle. Silvano Bellini.

Dominic stumbled backward, hitting the steel wall of the vault.

“Silvano,” Dominic breathed. “My uncle Silvano died in a boating accident twenty years ago.”

Claire read the next line aloud.

Silvano faked his death to operate from the shadows. He is funding Victor. He is waiting for Dominic to fail. Silvano wants the throne.

The silence in the vault was shattered by the slow, echoing sound of clapping hands.

Dominic and Claire spun around.

Standing in the doorway of the vault, illuminated by a high-powered tactical flashlight, was an older man in a sharp black suit. He looked exactly like Dominic’s father, only older, with cold, dead eyes.

“I was wondering when someone would finally find my brother’s little diary,” Silvano Bellini smiled, stepping into the vault.

Behind him stood three heavily armed mercenaries.