Chapter 6 - The Black Ledger
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Inside the dark metal cavity of the safe sat stacks of banded hundred-dollar bills, velvet jewelry boxes, and strange, unmarked passports. But Sloan’s eyes bypassed the money entirely.
Sitting at the very bottom was a thick, black leather-bound ledger.
It looked old and worn, as if it had been handled daily for years. Without thinking, driven by a desperate, reckless curiosity, Sloan reached in and pulled the heavy book out.
She placed it on Fallon’s mahogany desk and flipped it open.
The pages were filled with neat, handwritten columns of numbers, dates, and initials. It was a shadow accounting book. Bribes. Payoffs. Extortion money. Millions of dollars moving through illegal channels, all meticulously documented.
But as she turned the pages faster, a specific date caught her eye.
October 14th, 2018.
Sloan froze. Everyone who worked in the mansion knew that date. It was the day Isabella Caruso, Fallon’s beautiful wife and Valentina’s mother, had died in a tragic, fiery car accident on the coastal highway. It was the tragedy that had turned Fallon into a cold, ruthless monster.
Sloan dragged her trembling finger across the page, reading the entry next to that terrible date.
It wasn't an expense for a funeral. It wasn't a payoff to a politician.
It read: Project I.C. — Clean Up & Disposal — $500,000. Authorized by: D.M.
Sloan felt all the blood drain from her face. I.C. Isabella Caruso.
This wasn't an accident. It was a hit. Someone had paid half a million dollars to have the boss's wife murdered, and the payment was logged right here in Fallon’s own private safe.
Suddenly, the heavy oak door of the study rattled. Someone was turning the brass handle.
May you like
Panic seized Sloan. She shoved the black ledger back into the safe, slammed the steel door shut, spun the dial, and frantically pushed the oil painting back into place just as the study door swung wide open.
Fallon Caruso walked in, his eyes locking instantly onto her pale, terrified face.
