The storm had settled, but the Moretti mansion remained wrapped in a tense, breathless silence, the kind that came after a wound but before the bleeding stopped.
Damian was still missing.
And Isabella had stepped into his throne.
Tonight, she stood alone in his office.
The room smelled like cedar, smoke, steel and the familiarity steadied her trembling hands as she unlocked the final drawer of Damian's private safe.
Inside lay a single leather-bound ledger.
The Crimson Ledger.
Her pulse hammered. Damian had always avoided speaking of it… always shut it quickly when she entered the room, always changed the subject when it came to his father's past.
Now she understood why.
She opened the book.
Pages upon pages of coded transfers, offshore accounts, silent payments… all signed with the same initials:
A.M. —Alessandro Moretti.
And A.R. —Antonio Romano.
Her breath caught.
Her father.
Damian's father.
Linked… financially. Secretly. For years.
An old partnership?
