Chapter 4 - The Empire Behind His Wife
Nikolai raised his weapon.
“Identify yourself.”
The door opened.
An elderly woman stood outside.
Serafina's knees nearly failed.
“Rosa?”
Rosa Bellini had been Serafina's childhood nanny.
She had vanished two weeks after Salvatore Moretti's funeral.
Everyone believed she had returned to Sicily.
Rosa looked twenty years older.
But her eyes were unchanged.
“Little star.”
Only one person had ever called Serafina that.
Serafina crossed the room.
“Where have you been?”
“Hiding.”
“From whom?”
Rosa looked at Nikolai.
“From the person who killed your father.”
Silence.
Nikolai lowered his weapon.
“Salvatore died of a heart attack.”
“No.”
Rosa removed a small silver key from beneath her collar.
“He was poisoned.”
Serafina stared.
Rosa explained that Salvatore had discovered someone inside the organization was selling access to Moretti routes, bank accounts, and safe houses.
Before he could identify the traitor publicly, he died.
“Why disappear?” Serafina asked.
“Because your father made me promise to protect the last thing the traitor needed.”
“What?”
“You.”
Dorian watched Serafina absorb it.
Seven years ago, he would have put his arms around her.
Tonight he had no right.
Rosa looked at him.
“You are Dorian Vale.”
“Yes.”
“I hoped never to meet you.”
“That makes two of us.”
Serafina shot him a look.
Rosa almost smiled.
Then she handed Serafina the key.
“Your father left something beneath the old Moretti house.”
Nikolai frowned.
“The house burned.”
“The house did.”
Rosa's gaze sharpened.
“The cellar didn't.”
Dorian's phone rang.
Vivian.
Everyone froze.
He answered.
“Vivian?”
Breathing.
Then her voice.
“Dorian, don't hang up.”
“Where are you?”
“I made a mistake.”
“Where are you?”
“I didn't know what Voss wanted. He paid me to get close to you.”
Dorian closed his eyes.
Serafina watched him.
“How long?”
“Eleven months.”
Their affair had begun nine months earlier.
Dorian understood.
“You targeted me before we were together.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find out what you knew about Serafina.”
He looked at his wife.
“I knew nothing.”
“I realized that.”
“Then why continue?”
Vivian cried softly.
“Because I fell in love with you.”
Dorian's face hardened.
“Where are you?”
A man's voice sounded behind Vivian.
She gasped.
“Dorian—”
The line disconnected.
Nikolai traced the call.
“Brooklyn waterfront.”
Serafina picked up her coat.
“No.”
Dorian blocked her.
“She is my problem.”
“She is connected to my father's death.”
“You're not going.”
Serafina stared at him.
“You don't give me orders anymore.”
The words landed harder than he expected.
Nikolai selected four men.
They drove toward Brooklyn.
The warehouse was empty when they arrived.
One chair stood beneath a light.
Vivian's burgundy shawl lay across it.
Dorian picked it up.
Blood marked one corner.
Serafina saw a laptop on the table.
Its screen lit automatically.
Adrian Voss appeared.
“Good evening, Serafina.”
She stepped forward.
“Where is Vivian?”
“Alive.”
“What do you want?”
Voss smiled.
“The inheritance.”
“I renounced it.”
“No. You delayed accepting it.”
Nikolai cursed quietly.
Serafina turned.
“What does he mean?”
Voss answered.
“Your father didn't leave you money, Serafina. He left you control.”
A document appeared onscreen.
The Moretti Trust.
Its assets included ports, real estate, shipping companies, investment funds.
And one company Serafina recognized.
Vale Strategic Holdings.
Dorian stared.
His company had not merely borrowed Moretti money.
The Moretti Trust owned forty-one percent of it.
Voss continued.
“At midnight tomorrow, the dormant trust transfers automatically to its named beneficiary.”
“Me,” Serafina said.
“Yes.”
“And you want me to sign it over.”
“No.”
Voss smiled.
“I want you dead before midnight.”
The screen went black.
Then the warehouse doors slammed shut behind them.
A timer appeared above the exit.
00:59.
00:58.
May you like
Nikolai smelled the air.
“Gas.”
