Chapter 6 - A Traitor at Arthur’s Table
Emergency lights flickered red.
Norah backed toward the washing machines.
Michael cursed.
“Vincent!”
No answer.
A crash sounded outside.
Maria screamed.
Then the door opened.
Tommy stood there.
“Move!”
Norah ran.
Tommy led her through the service corridor.
“Arthur sent me.”
“Where is he?”
“Office.”
They reached the stairs.
Norah stopped.
“Maria.”
“We can’t—”
“Her son is being threatened.”
Tommy stared.
Norah turned back.
Michael was gone.
Maria remained beside the dryer, crying.
Norah grabbed her.
“Come on.”
They reached Arthur’s office minutes later.
Arthur locked the door.
His eyes found Norah.
For one second, relief overwhelmed everything.
Then anger.
“I told you not to go downstairs alone.”
“I work downstairs.”
“You’re done working.”
“You don’t get to fire me because someone tried to kidnap me.”
“I absolutely do.”
“Arthur.”
“Norah.”
Tommy muttered, “This feels private.”
Arthur pointed toward the door.
Tommy left.
Maria explained everything.
Vincent had taken her twenty-year-old son after discovering she had seen Michael enter the estate.
Arthur promised to get him back.
“How?” Norah asked.
Arthur looked at her.
“The new way.”
Police.
Lawyers.
Evidence.
Norah nodded.
That answer mattered.
Within hours, investigators located Maria’s son unharmed at a motel.
Vincent had already fled.
Michael disappeared.
The estate became a fortress.
But this time Arthur was not preparing a war.
He was preparing surrender.
Not personal surrender.
The surrender of the empire his father had built.
He spent forty-eight hours cataloging every legitimate and illegitimate holding.
Norah found him asleep at his desk Saturday morning.
She placed coffee beside him.
Arthur opened one eye.
“Poison?”
“If I wanted you dead, I’d let you keep drinking.”
He sat up.
“I haven’t had alcohol since that night.”
“I noticed.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You notice everything.”
“That’s why people hire maids.”
His expression softened.
“Why did you take this job?”
“Money.”
“No tragic fascination with dangerous men?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Disappointing.”
Norah almost smiled.
“My father’s debt.”
Arthur’s humor disappeared.
“How much?”
“That isn’t your problem.”
“How much?”
“Eighty-six thousand originally.”
Arthur reached for his checkbook.
Norah put her hand over it.
“No.”
“It’s nothing to me.”
“That’s exactly why you don’t understand.”
Arthur stopped.
“If you pay it, I become another person who owes Arthur Costello.”
“You wouldn’t owe me.”
“That’s what powerful people always say.”
He slowly closed the checkbook.
“All right.”
Norah removed her hand.
“Thank you.”
“For not giving you eighty-six thousand dollars?”
“For listening.”
Arthur looked strangely affected.
That evening, investigators arrived secretly.
Arthur signed an agreement to cooperate.
He would surrender financial records and testify regarding crimes he personally knew about.
His attorney warned him he could still face consequences.
Arthur answered simply:
“I know.”
Norah watched from the hallway.
For the first time, she believed he might actually mean it.
Then Arthur asked everyone to leave.
Everyone except Norah.
He opened a drawer.
Inside was her father’s ledger.
“There’s another entry.”
Norah approached.
Arthur showed her.
A monthly payment had been made for three years after Daniel Reed left the Costello operation.
Recipient:
Mercy General Hospital.
Norah stared.
“That’s where Dad was treated.”
Arthur nodded.
“Someone paid part of his medical bills anonymously.”
“Who?”
Arthur turned the page.
Initials.
A.C.
Norah looked at him.
“You?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My mother’s name was Amelia Costello.”
Norah frowned.
“She died long before my father got sick.”
Arthur nodded slowly.
“That’s why this doesn’t make sense.”
They searched old family records.
At midnight, they found a trust.
Amelia Costello had created it twenty-three years earlier.
The trustee was Daniel Reed.
Norah sat back.
“My father knew your mother?”
Arthur’s face had gone pale.
“Apparently.”
The trust contained one surviving document.
A handwritten letter.
Arthur opened it.
His mother’s words.
Daniel, if anything happens to me, protect Arthur. Salvatore’s world will destroy him if Vincent succeeds.
Arthur’s hand shook.
Norah read over his shoulder.
Then came the final line.
And never let Arthur discover what Vincent did the night Michael disappeared.
Arthur looked at Norah.
A knock sounded.
Three slow taps.
Arthur stood.
“Who is it?”
A woman answered from the other side.
“Someone who knew your mother.”
Arthur opened the door.
An elderly woman stood in the hallway holding a sealed envelope.
She looked directly at Norah.
May you like
Then she said:
“Daniel Reed didn’t die from the illness you were told he had.”
