Chapter 17 - The Federal Deal|
Elena rushed back to her top-floor apartment, slamming the heavy wooden door shut behind her and locking all three deadbolts.
Her heart rattled against her ribs like a trapped bird. How had Matteo found her? How had he gotten inside her apartment?
She sprinted to the tiny kitchen, grabbing the brass handle of the third drawer beneath the counter. She pulled it open violently.
Inside lay her mother’s secondary notebook—a small, red leather-bound diary Elena thought she had lost years ago in Chicago.
She picked it up, flipping open the cover. On the first page, written in fresh, dark blue ink that matched the note from the café, was a message:
Your mother didn't just hide a ledger, Elena. She hid the private keys to the Vatican Bank reserves—a fortune worth over two billion dollars. Don Carmine never knew. Julian never knew. Only Isabella... and now, you.
Elena felt the room sway beneath her feet.
Two billion dollars.
She turned the page. Pasted inside was a high-resolution photograph taken just two days ago in Chicago.
It showed Matteo sitting in a dark sedan, handcuffing himself to a federal agent.
Below the photograph was a short paragraph written in her mother's handwriting:
If Matteo ever tries to take the empire, use the cipher on page 12 to release the files to the Department of Justice. It will lock him away forever. But if he chooses you... burn it.
Elena dropped the red notebook onto the counter, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
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Matteo hadn't burned the ledger. He had handed himself over to the federal authorities to tear down the syndicate from the inside—to ensure Don Carmine's remaining men could never come after her.
He had sacrificed his freedom to give her a chance to live.
