Chapter 3 - The Basement Beneath the Funeral Home
The Serrano Funeral Group on Atlantic Avenue looked exactly like what Dominic wanted New York to believe it was.
Respectable.
Quiet.
Expensive.
The brass doors were polished.
The lobby smelled of lilies and lemon disinfectant.
A framed photograph of Dominic’s grandfather hung above the reception desk.
He looked stern enough to frighten death itself.
The receptionist recognized me.
Her smile vanished.
“Mrs. Serrano?”
“I’m not Mrs. Serrano.”
She swallowed.
“Miss Drummond.”
“Is Dominic here?”
“No.”
“His uncle?”
“No.”
“Who is in charge?”
She hesitated.
“Mr. Serrano’s cousin.”
“Which one?”
“Mateo.”
I knew that name.
Mateo Serrano had appeared at Dominic’s birthday dinner once and barely spoken to anyone.
He spent most of the night watching exits.
I walked past the receptionist.
“Miss Drummond, you can’t—”
I held up my phone.
“Would you like me to explain why my attorneys are already reviewing this property’s records?”
She stepped aside.
The basement entrance was behind a wooden door marked STAFF ONLY.
There was a keypad.
I tried the code I had seen Dominic enter at his apartment once.
His mother’s birthday.
It opened.
Harriet had warned me not to go alone.
I had ignored her.
I had my mother waiting in a car across the street, a private security team three blocks away, and enough evidence to make Dominic nervous.
That was enough.
For the moment.
The basement was colder than the rest of the building.
Rows of sealed boxes lined the walls.
Old records.
Inventory.
Funeral supplies.
Nothing illegal.
Nothing suspicious.
Until I saw the floor.
One section of polished concrete was slightly newer than the rest.
I crouched.
No hinges.
No seams.
But there was a tiny metal plate near the wall.
Three scratches.
A hawk.
My pulse jumped.
I pressed it.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the brass key.
I inserted it into a slot hidden beneath the plate.
The floor shifted.
A narrow section lifted.
Stairs descended into darkness.
I turned on my phone flashlight.
At the bottom was a metal door.
No handle.
Just a fingerprint scanner.
I used my thumb.
The light turned green.
The door opened.
Inside was a private archive.
Not paper.
Servers.
Encrypted drives.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
Passports.
A dozen fake identities.
And one massive black ledger on a steel table.
I approached it slowly.
Every page contained names, dates, companies, payments, favors, debts.
Not just money.
People.
Judges.
Police officials.
Lawyers.
Accountants.
Executives.
Politicians.
Some names were crossed out.
Some were circled.
Some had codes beside them.
I turned pages until I found a familiar name.
Dominic Serrano.
Next to his name was another.
Cecily Drummond.
I stopped.
My own name appeared in the ledger before I had ever met him.
The entry was dated twenty-six months earlier.
Under “Acquisition Targets.”
Cecily Drummond.
Age twenty-four.
Founder.
High-value intellectual property.
Strong independent network.
Suggested approach: personal.
My fingers trembled.
I kept turning.
There was a timeline.
First contact.
Six weeks: establish trust.
Three months: secure exclusive relationship.
Nine months: encourage operational dependency.
Twelve months: propose.
Fourteen months: transfer.
At the bottom:
Estimated acquisition probability: 87%.
I stared at the page.
I had thought Dominic loved me.
He had studied me.
There was a difference.
A painful, enormous difference.
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
I froze.
Then another sound.
A door closing.
I grabbed the ledger.
The room lights suddenly switched off.
Someone had cut the power.
I heard a voice over the intercom.
“Cecily.”
Dominic.
I backed toward the server rack.
“Put the ledger down.”
“No.”
“You were never supposed to find this.”
“At least you finally admitted it.”
His voice came through the speaker.
“You don’t understand what you’re holding.”
“I understand enough.”
“Do you?”
I looked at the names again.
“You’ve blackmailed half the city.”
“No.”
“Then why are these names here?”
“Insurance.”
I almost laughed.
“People are not insurance.”
“In my world, they are.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
He was silent.
Then he said, “There is still a way to fix this.”
I tightened my grip.
“By signing?”
“By accepting the merger.”
“By becoming your wife?”
“That would still be possible.”
“After tonight?”
“I made a mistake.”
I almost choked.
“You gave my ring to another woman.”
“Vera was never supposed to wear it.”
“That is somehow worse.”
He sounded frustrated.
“You were supposed to sign the agreement, and the rest would have ended quietly.”
“Quietly for whom?”
“For everyone.”
I looked at the ledger.
“For the twelve people who lost their companies?”
Silence.
“For the three founders who died?”
Silence again.
“You killed them?”
“No.”
I believed him.
And somehow that was more frightening.
“You didn’t need to,” I said.
He didn’t answer.
A metal door slammed somewhere behind me.
I turned.
A man stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Mateo.
He pointed a gun at me.
“Give him the ledger.”
My heart pounded.
I looked at the weapon.
Then at Mateo.
“Does Dominic know you’re here?”
Mateo’s expression changed.
That was answer enough.
I slipped the ledger behind my coat.
Mateo moved closer.
“Don’t make this difficult.”
I smiled.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“I think everyone in your family assumes fear is the same thing as respect.”
Mateo raised the gun.
The lights came back on.
Harriet’s security team stormed the staircase.
Mateo turned.
A crash.
A shout.
The gun hit the floor.
Within seconds, he was restrained.
I stepped back.
My heart was hammering.
Harriet appeared behind him.
“I told you not to go alone.”
“I brought backup.”
“You brought three men who were two blocks away.”
“I knew I’d need them.”
She stared at the ledger.
“What is that?”
I held it out.
“This is the reason Dominic was so confident.”
Harriet opened it.
Her face changed page by page.
“Cecily…”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
She turned a page.
“There are names here that could trigger federal investigations.”
“I know.”
“There are judges.”
“Yes.”
“Police officials.”
“Yes.”
“Financial regulators.”
“Yes.”
She slowly closed the book.
“Who else knows this exists?”
“Dominic.”
“His uncle?”
“I think so.”
“Vera?”
“I don’t know.”
We took photographs of every page before leaving.
The physical ledger went into a secure evidence bag.
By noon, federal agents had been quietly notified.
But the moment the file transfers began, my phone rang.
A blocked number.
I answered.
“Cecily.”
Vera.
Her voice was soft.
“I need to speak to you.”
“Why?”
“I’m not on Dominic’s side.”
“You wore my ring.”
“I know.”
“You smiled.”
“I know.”
“You stood there while he humiliated me.”
“I had no choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
She inhaled sharply.
“Not when someone has your brother.”
I froze.
“What?”
“My younger brother, Adrian.”
I said nothing.
“He owes Dominic a debt.”
“What kind of debt?”
“He tried to escape.”
“Escape from what?”
“From the family.”
Vera’s voice cracked.
“He was caught.”
I looked at Harriet.
“This is why you became his partner.”
“Yes.”
“And why Meridian exists.”
“Yes.”
“And why you agreed to wear my ring.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic told you I would sign if you replaced me.”
“He told me you would break.”
I closed my eyes.
Vera whispered, “He didn’t know you’d walk away.”
“No.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get Adrian out.”
She was silent.
“Then I’m going to bring down every person connected to that ledger.”
“You can’t.”
“I can try.”
“No,” she said. “Cecily, you don’t understand Dominic.”
“I thought I understood him.”
“That was exactly what he wanted.”
She gave me an address.
“Come alone.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You’ve met me.”
“I know.”
“Then you know I’m not coming alone.”
A pause.
“Fair enough.”
Before she hung up, she said one more thing.
“Your mother knows more than she told you.”
My entire body went still.
“What does that mean?”
But Vera had already ended the call.
I looked at Mom when we got home.
She had been waiting with two cups of tea.
She saw my face.
“What happened?”
“Who is Adrian?”
The cup slipped from her hand.
It hit the floor.
Tea spread across the tile.
Mom stared at me.
May you like
Then she whispered the words that shattered everything I thought I knew about my own family.
“Your father.”
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