Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN IN THE GRAVEVictor did not sleep.
Neither did Tessa.
At 5:00 a.m., he ordered the cemetery records pulled.
His mother's grave was opened.
Inside the coffin was a skeleton.
But the medical identification was wrong.
The dental records belonged to a woman thirteen years younger.
Victor stood beside the grave.
His face expressionless.
Tessa stood several feet behind him.
“She faked her death.”
Victor nodded.
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Maria stepped closer.
“Maybe to survive.”
Victor turned.
“Or to disappear.”
Maria looked away.
“Both can be true.”
Tessa stared at the coffin.
“So the woman I saw that night…”
“Was alive,” Victor said.
“And she has been alive all this time.”
“Yes.”
“Then who was she?”
Victor didn't answer.
A phone buzzed.
One of his men had discovered something.
A bank account.
Opened six years ago.
Under a false name.
The beneficiary was Tessa.
Victor stared.
“How much?”
“Forty-eight million.”
Silence.
Tessa looked at him.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
“Why would someone leave me that much money?”
Victor stared at her.
“Because they expected you to inherit it.”
Tessa's hands trembled.
“From whom?”
Victor's voice was quiet.
“My father.”
The money had been untouched.
Until yesterday.
Someone had attempted to transfer it.
The transfer came from inside the Romano estate.
Victor looked at Paulie's access records.
Then stopped.
A second name appeared.
His own mother.
Tessa stared at the screen.
“She was moving the money?”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“Someone is using her identity.”
Maria stepped closer.
“Massimo.”
Victor nodded.
“That means Massimo has access to the original Romano accounts.”
“Which means…”
“He controls the old empire.”
Tessa suddenly remembered something.
“The key.”
She pulled out the brass key.
Victor examined it.
He looked at Maria.
“Do you know what room that is?”
Maria nodded.
“Vault three.”
Victor froze.
“I thought that vault was sealed.”
“It was.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
Victor took the key.
“We're opening it.”
Inside the old vault were boxes of documents.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Birth certificates.
And a VHS tape.
Tessa stared at it.
“What is that?”
Victor found an old television.
He inserted the tape.
Static.
Then Vincent Romano appeared.
Older.
Exhausted.
Blood covered his shirt.
Tessa stepped closer.
Victor's father looked directly into the camera.
“If you're watching this, I'm dead.”
Victor stopped breathing.
Vincent continued.
“Victor, you will believe Massimo killed me.”
The tape flickered.
“He didn't.”
Victor's eyes widened.
“Massimo betrayed me.”
“But the person who pulled the trigger is someone you love.”
Tessa felt cold.
Vincent leaned toward the camera.
“Never trust the woman who tells you she is your mother.”
The tape stopped.
Silence.
Victor stared at the blank screen.
“My father knew.”
Maria whispered:
“He knew everything.”
Then the vault door slammed shut.
Someone had locked them inside.
Victor immediately pulled his gun.
“Who is outside?”
No answer.
A timer appeared on the wall.
Ten minutes.
Tessa looked at Victor.
“What does that mean?”
Victor walked toward the door.
The timer began counting down.
9:59.
9:58.
Then a speaker crackled.
Massimo's voice.
“Victor.”
A pause.
“Let's see whether you can save your sister this time.”
May you like
The timer reached 9:40.
Then the vault began filling with smoke.
