Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the Orsini Family
Enzo Orsini had been declared dead by his own family.
That was the first problem.
The second was that he knew Raphael had the box.
The third was that somebody inside Revena House was feeding him information.
Raphael called Otis.
“Lock the property.”
“Already done.”
“No one leaves.”
Josie looked at him.
“Am I trapped?”
“No.”
“Then who is?”
Raphael didn't answer.
He had suspected for years that there was a leak in his organization.
He had never found it.
Men changed loyalties for money.
Others changed for fear.
A few changed because they believed they could build something better.
But this was different.
Someone knew about Josie.
Someone knew about the box.
Someone knew Enzo had returned.
That meant the conspiracy had started long before Josie arrived.
Raphael moved Josie into a secure study.
She sat beside a fireplace with the blue box in her lap.
“I don't understand.”
“You don't need to understand everything tonight.”
“I think I do.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because everyone keeps saying my grandmother knew something.”
“She did.”
“And now people are threatening me.”
“Yes.”
“Then I deserve to know why.”
Raphael was silent.
Finally he sat across from her.
“Your grandmother saved my life when I was seventeen.”
Josie listened.
“My father had brought me to the docks that night. He wanted to teach me something about business.”
Raphael almost smiled.
“He called it a lesson.”
“What happened?”
“The meeting was a trap.”
A gunshot had broken the night.
His father's driver pushed Raphael to the ground.
Salvatore was hit.
The driver died.
Raphael was wounded.
Someone dragged him into a vehicle.
He should have died.
Instead, Margaret Whitlock found him.
She treated his wound inside the clinic.
She kept him hidden for two days.
“She knew what my family was,” Raphael said.
“And she still helped you.”
“She told me something.”
“What?”
“She said being born into a violent family did not mean I had to die the same way.”
Josie lowered her eyes.
“That sounds like her.”
Raphael smiled faintly.
Then the smile disappeared.
“Someone has spent years trying to make sure I never remember those words.”
He opened another document.
The paper listed properties.
Assets.
Trusts.
And a family agreement signed before Raphael's birth.
The Orsini family had created a hidden trust.
Its purpose was to transfer legitimate holdings to the next generation without allowing criminal associates to seize them.
The beneficiary wasn't Enzo.
It wasn't Raphael's father.
It wasn't even Raphael.
It was a child named Isabella Orsini.
Raphael stared.
“Who is Isabella?”
Josie looked at the old photograph.
The infant.
“The child.”
Raphael went pale.
“Could she be alive?”
Josie pointed to a date.
The photograph had been taken six months after Enzo's supposed death.
The infant was likely Enzo's daughter.
That meant Raphael had a cousin no one had acknowledged.
More importantly, Isabella inherited something powerful.
The hidden trust controlled land around Providence, several hotels, and voting rights in legitimate companies.
If Enzo could locate her, he could regain legal control over assets Raphael currently managed.
But why would his uncle need the box?
Because the box contained proof of Isabella's identity.
Without the original records, the trust could not be activated.
Raphael's biggest enemy had spent years searching for a child he didn't know existed.
Josie suddenly understood.
“The box doesn't belong to my family.”
Raphael shook his head.
“It belonged to both families.”
Margaret had hidden it because it was evidence.
But there was more.
A second envelope carried Josie's name.
Josephine,
When you read this, you will finally know why I trusted you with the things I never told you.
Josie opened it.
Her hands shook.
Your father was not the man you were told he was.
Raphael watched her.
She read silently.
Then she whispered, “My father knew your father.”
Raphael looked at the page.
Margaret explained that Josie's biological father, Daniel Whitlock, had worked as Salvatore Orsini's accountant.
He discovered financial fraud.
He discovered that Enzo was stealing from the family.
He discovered that Silas Mercer was helping move the money.
Daniel planned to expose them.
Before he could, he disappeared.
Margaret spent years believing he was dead.
But she had never been able to prove it.
Josie's father was connected to the same conspiracy.
That meant Josie herself was not random.
Her family had been targeted.
The forged transfer of the Federal Hill clinic was not about property.
Garrett had been pressured to obtain the documents because the clinic's basement contained the original financial records.
Margaret had hidden them.
Garrett had found part of the trail.
Then he forced Josie out.
The clinic was about to become the center of a much larger battle.
Raphael stared at the evidence.
“Garrett didn't forge this alone.”
“No.”
“Someone coached him.”
“Who?”
Raphael knew.
“Silas Mercer.”
Before dawn, they went to Federal Hill.
The clinic had been locked since Margaret died.
Raphael's people opened the side entrance.
Josie walked inside.
She touched the counter.
Her grandmother's old clipboard still hung on the wall.
She nearly cried.
“This was home.”
Raphael looked around.
“Your grandmother hid something here.”
“I know.”
They went to the basement.
Behind a cabinet, they found a false wall.
Inside was a metal safe.
The key in the blue box opened it.
There was only one item.
An old VHS tape.
Raphael looked confused.
Josie found an adapter.
They connected it.
The screen flickered.
Margaret appeared.
She looked twenty years younger.
“If you're watching this, then I am gone.”
Josie's eyes filled.
Margaret continued.
“Raphael, I am sorry I could not tell you the truth sooner.”
Raphael sat forward.
“Your father did not die because Enzo wanted power.”
He stared.
“He died because he refused to surrender Isabella.”
Raphael's face tightened.
Margaret explained that Salvatore discovered Enzo had planned to use his daughter's identity to control the family trust.
Salvatore tried to protect the child.
Enzo retaliated.
He staged the harbor attack.
Then he vanished.
Margaret helped hide Isabella.
But there was one problem.
Nobody knew where the child went.
Except Margaret.
Josie looked at the screen.
Margaret's voice trembled.
“I sent Isabella away with someone I trusted.”
Raphael whispered, “Who?”
The video showed Margaret holding a photograph.
A woman.
And beside her stood a little girl.
Older now.
Approximately four years old.
Margaret spoke.
“Her name became Isabel Grant.”
Raphael stared.
The woman was Hannah Grant.
The former director of a children's shelter in Boston.
The child had grown up under another surname.
May you like
And the last line in the video was worse.
“She is alive.”
