Chapter 6 - The Sister Who Betrayed Everyone
Gemma wasn't working willingly.
We found that out twelve hours later.
She had been kidnapped after her father's death.
Marco used her as leverage.
But the bigger betrayal came from inside the Leone family.
Salvatore had given Marco access to private estate records.
And someone else had provided my schedule.
Someone who knew me intimately.
I suspected everyone.
Except Mrs. Bellini.
Then she disappeared.
No warning.
No note.
Her apartment was empty.
A single wedding glove lay on the table.
Inside it was another message.
Nadia, ask why Victoria trusted your father more than her own husband.
My mother answered.
“Because your father saved her.”
She explained what happened forty years earlier.
Victoria's husband, Richard Leone, had built the family empire by making deals with Marco's father.
When Victoria discovered the violence behind those deals, she wanted to expose them.
Richard refused.
Antonio Rizzo helped her.
He became her secret ally.
Together, they planned to leave.
But Richard discovered them.
He had Antonio killed.
Victoria survived only because Lucia, my mother, hid her.
“Then why did Victoria stay?” I asked.
“She had Casius.”
My mother's voice broke.
“She believed she could protect him by staying near Richard.”
That decision cost her life.
She died when Casius was seventeen.
He had always believed it was a heart condition.
It wasn't.
It was poisoning.
Richard had killed his own wife.
Casius learned the truth that night.
He had spent twenty years trying to dismantle the empire from inside.
Every failed marriage proposal had been part of that strategy.
He never wanted a bride.
He wanted a woman who couldn't be bought by an enemy family.
And he had never found one.
Until me.
I confronted him.
“You knew my family.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“And you hired me because of all this.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
He stepped closer.
“Then I hired you because you were the only person in my office who didn't fear me.”
“I was terrified.”
“You hid it.”
“So that made me special?”
“No.”
He touched my face.
“You made me feel human.”
I stared at him.
“I don't know what to do with that.”
“Neither do I.”
Then he kissed me.
It was brief.
Careful.
Like he was asking rather than taking.
I closed my eyes.
When we pulled apart, his forehead rested against mine.
“I will not force you into anything,” he whispered.
“Good.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
For the first time in years, I believed someone.
Then gunfire erupted downstairs.
Casius pushed me behind him.
Dante stormed into the room.
“Salvatore's men are inside!”
The estate became chaos.
Security moved through corridors.
Glass shattered.
People shouted.
I ran toward my mother.
She grabbed my hand.
“Where's Nadia?”
“Safe room.”
We moved.
Then the lights went out.
A man grabbed me.
I screamed.
Casius fired.
The attacker released me and vanished.
When the emergency lights came on, my sister was missing.
Marco had taken her.
A phone was placed on the floor.
It rang.
Casius answered.
Marco's voice said:
“Bring me the ledger.”
“We don't have it.”
“You do.”
“Where?”
“Inside the person you love most.”
I looked at Casius.
He looked at me.
Neither of us understood.
Then my mother whispered:
“The dress.”
We searched the original gown.
The final seam had been reopened.
Inside was a small ledger wrapped in wax paper.
I stared.
“The evidence was in the dress the whole time.”
Casius took it.
He turned the pages.
Names.
Payments.
Bribes.
Murders.
And one final page.
A list of witnesses.
My father.
Victoria.
Lucia.
Casius.
Nadia.
And me.
Marco hadn't wanted the ledger.
May you like
He wanted everyone named in it.
Dead.
