Chapter 4 - THE INHERITANCE
By sunrise, nobody had slept.
Paul was locked in the basement under guard.
Half my staff had been disarmed.
Every camera system was being replaced.
Grace sat at the kitchen table eating cereal as if the house had not been attacked six hours earlier.
I stood across from her.
“You need to leave Chicago.”
She put down her spoon.
“No.”
“This isn’t a discussion.”
“Then stop pretending you’re talking to me.”
“Grace.”
“You just found out somebody inside the family might want me dead, and your first idea is to send me somewhere I know nobody.”
“It’s called keeping you alive.”
“It’s called doing the same thing again.”
Evelyn entered carrying coffee.
“She has a point.”
I stared at her.
“Please stop helping.”
“No.”
Grace smiled.
I hated that they had become a team.
I also needed it.
My attorney, Richard Hale, arrived at eight.
He had worked for my father before he worked for me.
Seventy-two years old.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
Never raised his voice.
I placed Antonio’s old estate documents in front of him.
“Tell me what I don’t know.”
Richard adjusted his glasses.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“My daughter is apparently the beneficiary of something my father hid.”
His face changed.
Barely.
But Grace heard his breath catch.
“You know.”
Richard looked at her.
“I know Antonio created a trust.”
“For Grace?”
“For his first grandchild.”
“She wasn’t born when he wrote it.”
“He believed you would have children.”
“What’s in the trust?”
Richard hesitated.
“Property.”
“How much?”
“A great deal.”
“Numbers.”
He looked at me.
“Control.”
That word bothered me.
“Control over what?”
“Your father separated his legal businesses from certain private holdings.”
I understood immediately.
“Voting rights.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Fifty-one percent.”
My blood ran cold.
Every legitimate company controlled by my family.
Shipping.
Real estate.
Construction.
Warehouses.
More than two billion dollars in assets.
Grace owned the controlling interest?
“When?”
“Her twelfth birthday.”
Five weeks earlier.
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Who becomes trustee?”
Richard swallowed.
“Grace.”
“She’s twelve,” I said.
“She cannot exercise authority alone. There is a designated protector until she turns eighteen.”
“Who?”
Richard looked at me.
“Sofia.”
The room went still.
“My wife is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then who replaces her?”
Richard didn’t answer.
I understood.
“Vittorio.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Grace whispered, “So Uncle Vittorio controls everything until I’m eighteen?”
“If the trust is activated.”
“Is it?”
Richard looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re my lawyer.”
“I was excluded from the final amendment.”
“By who?”
“Antonio.”
Evelyn spoke.
“What triggers activation?”
Richard’s eyes moved toward Grace.
“A biometric confirmation.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know.”
Grace touched the pendant Sofia had given her as a baby.
It was the only piece of jewelry she wore.
Evelyn saw the movement.
“Grace.”
“What?”
“Your necklace.”
I looked closer.
A small silver circle hung from it.
Sofia had called it a baptism medal.
Evelyn reached toward it.
“May I?”
Grace nodded.
Evelyn examined the edge.
“There’s a seam.”
I took a pocketknife and pressed gently.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a tiny black data chip.
Richard stood so quickly his chair fell backward.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You know what this is.”
His face had gone pale.
“Dominic, destroy it.”
“Why?”
“Because if Vittorio knows you found that—”
The kitchen window shattered.
Richard jerked backward.
A red stain spread across his shirt.
Grace screamed.
I dropped behind the island and pulled her down.
Evelyn dragged Richard into cover.
His eyes found mine.
May you like
“Don’t let Vittorio take her.”
Then he died.
