Chapter 3 - The True Value
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Adelaide stared at him, completely disarmed. She had braced herself for cruelty, for a bullet, or for the kind of mocking laughter she endured at home. She had not braced herself for validation.
“You... you aren't angry?” Adelaide stammered, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Mateo stepped back, giving her space to breathe, though his intense gaze never left her face.
“I am very angry,” Mateo said smoothly, walking over to a crystal decanter and pouring two glasses of amber liquid. “Your father stole fifteen million dollars from my syndicate. He thought he could hide it in tech trades, and when he lost it, he thought he could buy his life by tossing me his cast-off daughter.”
He handed her a glass. She took it with trembling fingers.
“Then why am I still breathing?” she asked.
Mateo took a slow sip of his bourbon. “Because I don't believe Rockford lost that money in the market. I had my accountants review the public filings. The math doesn't add up. The trades were a smokescreen.”
Adelaide’s eyes widened. She took a sip of the burning liquid, coughing slightly as it hit her throat.
“I know,” she whispered.
Mateo froze. The glass stopped halfway to his mouth. “Excuse me?”
“I know the math doesn't add up,” Adelaide said, her voice growing stronger as she stepped into the one arena where she held absolute power: numbers. “I stayed up for four weeks trying to reconcile my father's ledgers. He didn't lose fifteen million in the tech sector. He routed it through three offshore shell companies before reporting the loss.”
Mateo stared at her, the dangerous mafia boss suddenly looking at her as if she were the most fascinating creature he had ever encountered.
“You rebuilt the ledgers?” he asked. “By yourself?”
“My family thinks I’m just a shapeless librarian,” Adelaide said, a bitter edge creeping into her voice. “But I passed the CPA exam three years ago under a pseudonym. I know every dirty secret in Jones Financial.”
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Mateo set his glass down. A slow, predatory smile spread across his handsome face. It wasn't a smile of cruelty; it was a smile of absolute victory.
“Evelyn and Chloe thought they were sending me a punishment,” Mateo murmured, stepping close to her again. “They didn't realize they just handed me the key to their entire kingdom.”
