Chapter 12 - THE DEBT THAT NEVER EXISTED
Liam survived surgery.
Barely.
The bullet missed his heart by less than an inch.
Tessa sat outside intensive care with dried blood on her hands.
Victor approached carrying two coffees.
She didn’t take one.
“You cleared the debt?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The morning after you fell asleep on me.”
Tessa stared.
“Why?”
Victor sat beside her.
“I reviewed Liam’s accounts.”
“And?”
“Russo had inflated the balance. Most of what your brother supposedly owed had already been paid.”
“Then why did I keep working?”
Victor looked ahead.
“Because I didn’t tell you.”
“That part I understand.”
“I didn’t know what to do.”
Tessa laughed bitterly.
“You run a criminal empire and telling a housekeeper she can quit confused you?”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
He wasn’t joking.
Victor continued.
“You would have left.”
Tessa’s anger changed.
“That’s why?”
“I told myself you were safer at the estate.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
The honesty landed hard.
Victor rubbed his hands together.
“I wanted you there.”
Tessa stared at him.
“And that scared me more than any gun ever has.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Tessa slapped him.
Not hard.
But not gently.
Victor accepted it.
“That was for not telling me.”
“Fair.”
Then she kissed him.
It lasted only a second.
Maybe two.
She pulled away immediately.
Victor looked genuinely stunned.
“That,” Tessa whispered, “was for coming to the pier.”
Victor stared at her.
“I preferred the second one.”
“Don’t push it.”
His phone rang.
Paulie.
Victor answered.
“What?”
Paulie’s voice was tight.
“Carlo’s men hit the estate.”
Victor stood.
“Tessa’s room?”
“Destroyed.”
Her heart dropped.
“The box?”
“Gone.”
Carlo had the ceramic sun.
But an hour later, Paulie found a broken fragment beneath Tessa’s bed.
Inside it was no ledger.
Only a folded note.
Tessa unfolded the yellowed paper.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Tess, if you ever read this, I failed to keep you far enough away from these men.
Tessa swallowed.
The book isn’t hidden in our home. It’s hidden where the man who created it would never think to search.
Victor read over her shoulder.
Inside his own house.
They looked at each other.
The ledger had been inside the Romano estate for more than a decade.
Tessa continued reading.
Find the room where nobody is allowed to pray.
Victor went still.
Tessa noticed.
“What?”
“There’s a chapel in the east wing.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“It was sealed when I was a child.”
“Why?”
Victor’s face darkened.
“My father hated it.”
Paulie looked at him.
“You think—”
Victor was already moving.
They crossed the estate to a locked oak door hidden behind storage cabinets.
Victor kicked it open.
Dust filled the air.
Old pews.
A cracked altar.
A wooden cross.
Tessa stepped inside.
“Where nobody is allowed to pray.”
Behind the altar they found a loose stone.
Victor pulled it free.
A black leather ledger sat inside the wall.
Tessa stared.
“We found it.”
Victor opened the cover.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Murders.
Police officers.
Judges.
Businessmen.
Then Victor turned one more page.
His face changed.
“What?”
He handed the book to Tessa.
At the top was a name.
VICTOR ROMANO — SUCCESSOR CONTINGENCY.
Underneath were instructions.
If Victor ever attempted to dismantle his father’s organization, six men had been ordered to kill him.
Five names were crossed out.
May you like
One remained.
Paulie Marchetti.
