Chapter 2 - Angelo's Last Warning
Margaret had not opened the hidden compartment in the handbag for fourteen months.
She had almost forgotten it existed.
Almost.
That afternoon she returned to her modest townhouse and placed the handbag on the kitchen table.
The house was small compared with the Romano estate, but Margaret preferred it.
Nothing here whispered about Angelo.
Nothing here waited for him to walk through a doorway.
She made tea.
Then she sat in silence.
Lucian's words repeated in her head.
You should sign them soon.
For everyone's protection.
She reached for the bag.
Twenty-nine years earlier, Angelo had bought it for her in Florence.
They had been young enough to believe money could never become dangerous.
Margaret had laughed when he presented it.
"It's too expensive."
Angelo had kissed her forehead.
"Then use it until we're old enough to forget what it cost."
She had done exactly that.
Years later, after Dominic was born, Angelo secretly had a second layer stitched into the lining.
Margaret had discovered it accidentally.
When she asked him why, he had smiled.
"Every family needs one place nobody thinks to search."
At the time, she thought he was joking.
Three weeks before his death, she learned otherwise.
Angelo had been standing in this same kitchen.
He looked exhausted.
His heart disease was worsening, although he refused to admit it.
He placed a narrow blue ledger on the table.
Margaret remembered the conversation perfectly.
"If anything happens to me, keep this."
"What is it?"
"Insurance."
"Against what?"
"People who think Dominic is too distracted to notice what they're doing."
She had stared at him.
"Who?"
Angelo had hesitated.
That hesitation frightened her more than the answer.
"Lucian?"
Angelo did not say yes.
He did not say no.
Instead he opened Margaret's handbag and slid the ledger beneath the inner lining.
"Do not give this to Dominic unless you are certain."
"Certain of what?"
"That someone is willing to hurt this family to get it."
Margaret had become angry.
"Angelo, you're frightening me."
He reached into his pocket and produced a brass key.
He placed it inside the hidden compartment.
"If they come for the ledger, give Dominic both."
"What does the key open?"
Angelo looked toward the window.
"Something I should have told him about years ago."
Eleven days later, Angelo died.
A heart attack, the doctors said.
Natural causes.
Margaret had believed them.
She still wanted to.
Now, sitting at her kitchen table, she opened the inner seam.
The blue ledger remained exactly where she had left it.
The brass key rested beneath it.
Margaret touched Angelo's handwriting on the cover.
A knock came at the front door.
She closed the compartment immediately.
Another knock.
"Margaret?"
Valeria.
Margaret's stomach tightened.
She carried the handbag with her to the door but did not open it.
"What do you want?"
Valeria's voice sounded cheerful.
"I brought the papers Lucian mentioned."
"Leave them."
"I thought we could have tea."
"No."
Silence.
Then Valeria said, "Dominic wouldn't want you becoming isolated."
Margaret almost laughed.
Valeria and Lucian had spent months isolating her.
Dinner invitations stopped reaching her.
Drivers were suddenly unavailable.
Household staff were told she preferred not to be disturbed.
Messages to Dominic sometimes went unanswered because Lucian's assistant managed his schedule.
One small obstruction at a time.
Enough to make Margaret wonder whether she was imagining it.
Not enough to make Dominic notice.
Until now.
"Leave the papers," Margaret repeated.
She heard Valeria breathe out slowly.
Then something slid beneath the door.
Margaret waited.
Footsteps retreated.
She looked through the window.
Valeria entered a black car parked across the street.
Margaret waited until it drove away.
Then she picked up the envelope.
The paperwork inside was twenty-three pages long.
Most of it was ordinary legal language.
But on page seventeen Margaret found the sentence that changed everything.
By signing, she would authorize Lucian Hale to act as temporary representative over her voting interest in the Romano Family Trust.
Her shares represented twelve percent of Romano Holdings.
Combined with proxy rights already held by Lucian, they could shift control of the board.
Margaret sat down.
Now she understood why they needed her signature.
But she did not yet understand why they feared the handbag.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Margaret answered cautiously.
"Hello?"
A man's voice whispered.
"Mrs. Romano?"
"Who is this?"
"You don't know me."
"Then why are you calling?"
"Because your husband tried to protect me."
Margaret's fingers tightened around the phone.
The man continued.
"Do you still have the blue ledger?"
Her blood turned cold.
"Who are you?"
"If Lucian Hale knows you have it, don't go back to the mansion."
Margaret stood.
"Tell me your name."
The caller hesitated.
"Peter Voss."
Margaret knew the name.
Former senior accountant for Romano Holdings.
A man who had disappeared from the company two weeks before Angelo died.
Everyone had been told he resigned.
Peter's next words came quickly.
"Your husband discovered accounts that shouldn't exist. I helped him trace them."
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because somebody followed me three times after Angelo died."
Margaret stopped breathing.
Peter whispered, "Mrs. Romano, Lucian isn't trying to take twelve percent."
"What is he trying to take?"
May you like
"Everything."
The call ended.
