Chapter 12 - The Woman Nobody Saw ComingClara Takes The KnifeThey returned to the Valente estate before sunrise.

The mansion looked abandoned.

Snow covered the driveway.

Christmas lights still glowed across the windows.

But inside, everything felt wrong.

Adrien walked directly to his father's old office.

Clara followed.

"Where would someone hide a second copy?"

Adrien searched the desk.

Nothing.

Shelves.

Nothing.

Marco checked the drawers.

Nothing.

Clara looked around.

Then she noticed the portrait of Elena.

She remembered the hidden compartment.

"Move the painting."

Adrien did.

A second compartment appeared.

Inside was a black ledger.

Not paper.

A hardbound book covered in leather.

Clara touched it.

"This is it."

Adrien opened the first page.

Names.

Dates.

Payments.

Politicians.

Judges.

Police officers.

Businessmen.

Everything.

Clara turned the page.

Then stopped.

Her father's name was there.

Thomas Whitmore.

Under it:

PROTECT CLARA AT ALL COSTS.

She looked at Adrien.

"And yours."

Adrien looked down.

Under his name:

SUCCESSOR.

Under that was another name.

MATTEO RINALDI.

TRUSTED GUARDIAN.

Then red ink appeared across the page.

BETRAYER.

Adrien slowly closed the book.

"Get everyone in the ballroom."

Marco stared.

"Everyone?"

"Everyone."

Within twenty minutes, senior members of the Valente organization stood beneath the Christmas tree.

Adrien entered holding the ledger.

The room went silent.

He placed it on the table.

"Somebody in this family has been stealing from me for years."

Nobody moved.

"Someone ordered the attack tonight."

Still silence.

"Someone framed Clara."

Marco looked toward the gathered men.

Adrien continued.

"And someone intends to sign away my empire by morning."

A man near the fireplace spoke.

"You have no proof."

Clara stepped forward.

"I do."

Everyone looked at her.

She held up the camera footage.

Matteo planting the silver angel.

Then another clip.

Matteo entering the security room.

Then another.

Matteo speaking to Luca.

The room erupted.

Luca froze.

Adrien turned.

"You."

Luca looked horrified.

"I was forced."

"By whom?"

"My daughter."

Clara stared.

"What?"

"She's alive."

Luca's voice broke.

"Matteo kidnapped her six months ago."

Adrien lowered his gun.

"Where?"

"Under the old hotel."

Adrien looked at Clara.

She understood.

"This isn't about the ledger."

"What?"

"He wants something else."

Clara opened the ledger.

She flipped through the pages.

Then she found it.

A line hidden between transactions.

ELENA'S FINAL TRUST.

She read the note aloud.

"The empire is not to belong to Adrien if he becomes what his father became."

Adrien looked at her.

There was another sentence.

"Only a person without Valente blood may decide his successor."

Silence.

Clara looked around the room.

Everybody was staring at her.

Adrien's voice was barely audible.

"My mother left you the power to decide whether I inherit."

Clara swallowed.

Then the ballroom doors opened.

Matteo walked in.

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Holding a gun to Gabriel's head.

"Then let's see what she decides."