Chapter 3 - THE LOCKED STUDY
The hallway upstairs smelled of old paper and lavender.
My heels clicked against the vintage Persian rug.
Gabriel's heavy footsteps echoed behind us.
“Grandmother, stop this right now!” he shouted.
He rushed up the stairs two at a time.
His cousin Marco moved to block him.
“Back off, Gabriel,” Marco warned, his hand resting inside his jacket.
“You're making a catastrophic mistake,” Gabriel snarled.
Antonella didn't even look back.
She inserted an antique brass key into the heavy oak door of her private study.
The lock clicked with a satisfying sound.
She pushed the door open and gestured for me to enter.
I stepped inside.
The room was dark, lined with towering mahogany bookshelves.
A single desk sat in the center, illuminated by a green-shaded desk lamp.
Antonella closed the door behind us.
She turned the deadbolt.
The heavy thud of Gabriel slamming his fists against the wood echoed from the corridor.
“Grandmother! Open this door!”
“Let him bang,” Antonella said softly.
She walked steadily toward her desk.
She pulled a small leather-bound ledger from the bottom drawer.
“For forty years, my husband ran this family,” she began.
She opened the ledger.
Yellowed pages filled with neat cursive handwriting were revealed.
“He knew what kind of man Gabriel would become.”
I stood by the desk, my hands still shaking.
“What is this, Nonna?”
“An insurance policy,” she replied.
She looked up at me with tired, knowing eyes.
“Gabriel thinks he is untouchable because he runs the Chicago docks.”
“He is powerful,” I admitted quietly.
“Power without a conscience is just tyranny,” Antonella said sharply.
She slid the ledger across the blotter.
“Read page one hundred and twelve.”
I leaned down.
My eyes scanned the handwritten lines.
My breath caught in my throat.
It wasn't just a will.
It was a financial audit.
It detailed millions of dollars diverted from the family syndicate.
Diverted by Gabriel.
Into secret offshore accounts shared with Isabella.
“He's been stealing from his own uncles,” I whispered in horror.
“Worse than that,” Antonella said grimly.
“He used my signature on fraudulent land transfers.”
The banging at the door suddenly stopped.
Silence fell over the hallway.
Then came a cold, chilling voice from the other side.
“You think a piece of paper will save you, Grandmother?”
Gabriel's voice was devoid of all warmth.
It sounded entirely alien.
“Gabriel has crossed a line he can never return from,” Antonella whispered.
She reached into her cardigan pocket.
She pulled out a small USB drive and a heavy brass key.
She pressed them both into my palm.
“If anything happens to me tonight,” she said fiercely, “you take these to Federal Prosecutor Vance.”
My blood ran ice cold.
“Nonna... what are you saying?”
“I am saying my grandson is no longer just a businessman.”
She gripped my shoulders tightly.
“He is a criminal who disposed of his own business partners.”
The oak door creaked.
A metallic screech pierced the air.
Gabriel wasn't knocking anymore.
May you like
He was using a crowbar.
[CLIFFHANGER: The heavy oak door splinters open as Gabriel steps into the dark study holding a silenced pistol, staring directly at Claire and his grandmother.]
