Chapter 6 - The Last Secret
Dawn began breaking over Chicago.
Luca sat in the mansion kitchen while Emma replaced his dressing.
Police had taken Victor into custody based on the recording and the financial evidence Emma had collected. The investigation would continue for months.
The Marino organization was already fracturing.
Luca seemed strangely calm about it.
Emma finished the bandage.
“You need a hospital.”
“No.”
“Luca.”
“No hospitals.”
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
Emma sighed.
“You’re impossible.”
“You’ve known me three months.”
“Longest three months of my life.”
Luca looked at her.
“You’re leaving.”
It wasn’t a question.
“My job here is finished.”
“Which job?”
Emma paused.
“Both.”
“The maid?”
“Yes.”
“The investigator?”
“Yes.”
Luca leaned back.
“And what happens to me?”
“That depends on what you do next.”
“You have evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Against me?”
“Some.”
“Enough?”
Emma looked at him carefully.
“Enough to make your life uncomfortable.”
Luca almost smiled.
“Uncomfortable.”
“You’re very rich. Your definition is different.”
He became serious.
“Why didn’t you give Victor everything?”
“Because evidence should prove what happened. Not what somebody wants to believe happened.”
Luca studied her for a long moment.
Then he stood.
“Come with me.”
He led her upstairs.
Into his office.
The room was destroyed from Victor’s search.
Luca walked to his father’s old desk.
He removed the bottom drawer.
Then pressed two fingers against a hidden catch.
A compartment opened.
Emma stared.
Inside was a small red leather book.
She slowly looked at him.
“You said it didn’t exist.”
“I lied.”
“You used me.”
“You lied about being a maid.”
“That is completely different.”
“It really isn’t.”
Luca placed the ledger on the desk.
“My father gave this to me before he died. I never understood half the names.”
Emma opened it.
Her expression changed.
Victor Hale.
Payments.
Companies.
Dates going back more than twenty years.
Then she found another name.
Daniel Reed.
Her father.
Emma stopped breathing.
Beside his name was a handwritten note.
TRIED TO WARN ME. PROTECT HIS FAMILY.
Emma touched the words.
“Your father believed mine.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes lifted.
“You knew?”
“Not until tonight.”
Emma closed the book.
“This could destroy everything Victor built.”
“That’s the idea.”
“And parts of what your family built.”
“Yes.”
“You understand what handing this over means?”
Luca looked around the office.
His father’s desk.
The family portraits.
Twenty years of power.
Then he looked back at Emma.
“I nearly died protecting an empire built partly on lies.”
He pushed the ledger toward her.
“I’m not doing it twice.”
Emma didn’t take it immediately.
“What will you do?”
“Something I should have done years ago.”
“What?”
“Find out who Luca Marino is when nobody is afraid of him.”
Emma finally picked up the ledger.
“That could be disappointing.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You’ve become very disrespectful.”
“I quit.”
“When?”
“Thirty seconds ago.”
“That explains it.”
She smiled.
Then Luca surprised her.
May you like
He smiled too.
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