Chapter 10 - The Heir Marked for DeathThe name on the paper seemed to pulse beneath Nadia's fingers.
CASIUS LEONE.
The ink was faded, but the writing was unmistakably Victoria's. Nadia had seen her handwriting on the back of the photograph and the embroidered strip hidden inside the gown.
Beneath the name, the warning appeared in smaller letters.
The heir who opens the vault must die before sunrise.
Casius read it without speaking.
Then he took the paper from her.
“It's a threat,” he said.
“From your grandmother?”
“From whoever wanted this message found.”
“Mrs. Bellini said Victoria put the seal there.”
“She also spent forty years hiding the truth. We have no idea what she knew or why she kept it secret.”
Nadia stared at him.
“You're trying to convince yourself this isn't real.”
“I'm trying to keep you alive.”
“And if the warning is real?”
“Then we'll deal with it.”
He folded the paper and slipped it into his pocket.
Nadia caught his wrist.
“No more secrets.”
He looked down at her hand.
For a moment, she thought he would pull away.
Instead, he turned his palm upward and held hers.
“No more secrets,” he repeated.
It was the first promise he had made that night that sounded as though he intended to keep it.
The guards carried Mrs. Bellini toward the emergency exit. One of them assured Nadia that the private doctor was already on his way, but she barely heard him. Her attention remained fixed on Casius.
Someone had written his name into a forty-year-old warning.
Someone had known that he would one day encounter Nadia.
Someone had expected him to open the vault.
And someone had decided he must die before sunrise.
“Why would Victoria want you dead?” Nadia asked.
“I don't know.”
“Could the agreement name you because you're the current head of the family?”
“Possibly.”
“Or because your father signed it?”
“Also possible.”
“Or because your grandmother knew you would inherit the crime organization and wanted to stop you?”
Casius's expression darkened.
“My grandmother loved me.”
“Then perhaps she knew something about you that you don't.”
He looked away.
The sentence had reached a place she had not intended to touch.
Before Nadia could ask another question, the guard returned.
“Boss, the ambulance is blocked at the gate.”
“By whom?”
“Police.”
Casius swore under his breath.
“Which department?”
“They say they're investigating the shooting. They have an order to secure the estate and detain everyone inside.”
“Who signed it?”
The guard hesitated.
“A special prosecutor. Adrian Voss.”
Nadia looked at Casius.
“Daniel's brother?”
“Daniel told us Adrian was his brother?”
“No. He didn't.”
Another piece slipped into place.
Daniel had given them a photograph of a man named Adrian Leone, then told them that the man was the brother they were looking for. Yet the new order carried the name Adrian Voss.
Perhaps the name was a coincidence.
In the Leone family, Nadia had begun to understand, coincidences rarely remained harmless for long.
Casius took the guard's tablet and examined the order.
The prosecutor's photograph showed a middle-aged man with dark eyes and a narrow scar beneath his chin.
The same scar Casius had acquired in childhood.
The same eyes as the boy in the photograph.
Casius's hand tightened around the tablet.
“No.”
Nadia looked at the screen.
“That's Adrian.”
“But he isn't a prosecutor.”
“He is now.”
“How?”
The guard shook his head.
“The order is genuine. The federal investigation has been active for several months. The prosecutor's office has been investigating both families, and Adrian Voss is the lead official.”
Nadia felt her pulse quicken.
The name wasn't merely another alias.
It was a position of power.
Her missing brother had spent his life hidden beneath the criminal world, then emerged as a man with the authority to dismantle it.
And he had chosen tonight to come for them.
Casius handed back the tablet.
“Tell the guards to cooperate with the police. Nobody draws a weapon unless they have no other option.”
“Sir, the prosecutor has requested you specifically.”
“Of course he has.”
Casius looked at Nadia.
“We're going to St. Bartholomew's.”
“What about the police?”
“We'll meet them there.”
“You think Adrian will be waiting?”
“I think he wants us to believe he is.”
Casius retrieved the car keys.
Before they could leave, Salvatore appeared in the hallway, leaning heavily on the wall.
He had heard the conversation.
“The vault is already open,” he said.
Casius turned.
“How do you know?”
“Because the bell rang.”
Nadia glanced toward the window.
The church bells had sounded in the distance, but she had assumed they marked the hour.
Salvatore shook his head.
“St. Bartholomew's has a single bell connected to the original vault mechanism. It hasn't rung in forty years. When the seal is broken, the bell sounds once.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because the vault wasn't supposed to be opened.”
Casius moved toward him.
“What is inside it?”
Salvatore hesitated.
“Not just documents. A recording.”
“Of what?”
“The meeting where the murders were ordered.”
“By my uncle?”
“No.”
Salvatore's voice dropped.
“By Victoria.”
The words seemed to empty the corridor of air.
Nadia stared at him.
“You said she was trying to protect her daughters.”
“She was. But she was also trying to protect the organization.”
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
“Victoria arranged the agreement with Matteo. She knew the families were going to war, and she believed sacrificing the truth about her children would prevent a massacre. But when she discovered that her husband had ordered the killings anyway, she recorded their conversation and hid the evidence.”
“Why would she sign an agreement that erased her own daughters?”
“Because she was promised their lives would be spared.”
“And she believed him?”
Salvatore opened his eyes.
“She wanted to.”
Nadia looked at the paper in Casius's hand.
“Then the warning about Casius might be from Victoria herself.”
Salvatore nodded.
“She knew that one day the families would have to choose between preserving their power and telling the truth. She believed the head of the Leone family would have to sacrifice everything.”
Casius's expression hardened.
“Everything includes me?”
“Possibly.”
“Then why name me as the heir who must die?”
Salvatore looked at his son for a long time.
“Because your grandmother believed the organization could not survive while the Leone bloodline remained in control.”
Casius laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful. My grandmother spent her life building an empire and left me a death sentence.”
“Not necessarily,” Salvatore said. “There is another part of the recording. Victoria said that if the rightful heir returned, the organization could be dismantled without another war.”
Nadia looked at him.
“Who is the rightful heir?”
Salvatore's gaze shifted toward the hidden gown.
“The person who was erased from the records.”
A siren sounded outside.
Then another.
Police vehicles were gathering near the gate.
Casius reached for Nadia's hand.
“Come with me.”
They slipped through the servants' entrance and crossed the grounds toward a waiting car.
As the vehicle pulled away, Nadia glanced at the folded paper in Casius's hand.
The warning was still there.
The heir who opens the vault must die before sunrise.
She looked at the clock on the dashboard.
12:18 a.m.
May you like
Less than six hours remained.
And somewhere beneath the city, a recording waited to reveal why Victoria Leone had been willing to sacrifice her own family.
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