Chapter 3 - The Midnight Visitor and the Hidden Ledger
The grandfather clock in the downstairs hallway chimed two in the morning when a soft knock rattled the heavy oak door of the master suite.
I sat in the armchair beside Dominic’s bed, a cold cup of coffee growing stagnant on the side table, my eyes heavy with fatigue. Dominic was still burning up, his breath coming in ragged, uneven gasps, but the infection had stopped spreading for the moment.
The knock came again. Insistent. Quiet.
I stood up silently, slipping my soft-soled shoes onto the hardwood floor, and crept toward the double doors. I turned the brass handle with agonizing slowness, pulling the door open just a few inches.
A young woman stood in the dim corridor. She wore a simple dark dress, her blonde hair pulled back in a severe bun, but her eyes were wide with panic. In her hands, she clutched a heavy, leather-bound book with brass corners.
"Are you the new nurse?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
"Yes. Who are you?"
"I'm Clara. I'm Mr. Rossi's personal secretary." She glanced frantically down the empty hallway, as if a ghost were hunting her. "I need to see him. It's urgent."
"He's sleeping, Miss Clara. He had surgery on his shoulder and a severe infection. He can't be disturbed."
"He has to be," she insisted, stepping closer, trying to push past me into the dark room. "If I don't give him this ledger tonight, the council will vote him out by sunrise. Someone in the inner circle leaked our shipping routes to the rival Marcone family. This book proves who did it."
My hand gripped the edge of the door, blocking her path. "Mr. Rossi is in no condition to look at financial ledgers or deal with council politics. Leave the book with me. I'll give it to him when he wakes up."
Clara shook her head violently, tears pooling in her eyes. "You don't understand! The traitor is still in this house. If I leave this ledger anywhere outside of Dominic's hands, I'll end up at the bottom of the river by morning."
Before I could answer, a gravelly voice cut through the darkness behind me.
"Let her in, Nora."
I turned. Dominic was propped up on one elbow, his dark eyes wide open, glittering with feverish clarity. He looked terrible, but the sheer force of his will had dragged him back from the edge of sleep.
I stepped aside, and Clara rushed into the room, falling to her knees beside the bed and thrusting the heavy leather book onto the mattress.
"Dominic, thank God you're awake," Clara sobbed, her fingers digging into the quilt. "Marcus has been moving funds behind your back for three months. That's why you were ambushed on Dock 4. Marcus gave the Marcones your exact coordinates."
Dominic’s jaw tightened so hard I thought his teeth might crack. He reached out with his uninjured left hand, flipping open the heavy leather cover. The pages were filled with meticulous columns of numbers, offshore routing codes, and signatures.
One signature at the bottom of the latest page stood out.
Marcus Vance.
"My second-in-command," Dominic murmured, his voice cold enough to freeze the air in the room. "The man who stood beside my father for twenty years."
"He's calling an emergency council meeting for tomorrow afternoon," Clara whispered, wiping her eyes. "He told the capos you were dying, and that it's time for a new regime."
Dominic closed the ledger with a heavy thud. He looked up at Clara, then shifted his dark gaze slowly toward me. There was no pain in his eyes now—only a terrifying, calculating focus.
"Nora," he said softly.
"Yes, Mr. Rossi?"
"Can I walk?"
"Technically, yes. Practically, you'll pass out from blood loss within fifty yards."
"Then I'll just have to walk forty-nine," he muttered, throwing his legs over the side of the bed.
"Are you insane?!" Clara gasped, standing up. "You're bleeding through your bandages right now!"
"Clara," Dominic commanded, his voice carrying the absolute weight of a king issuing a decree. "Go to the east wing. Tell Leo to bring my Browning Hi-Power to the library. And tell him to lock every exit in this fortress."
Clara swallowed hard, grabbed her coat, and bolted out the door.
I stood by the bed, crossing my arms over my chest, glaring down at him. "You're going to tear the stitches out, reopen the wound, and probably die on the library floor. And as I mentioned, my rent is due Monday, which means I don't have time to attend your funeral."
Dominic stood up slowly, swaying slightly before catching his balance against the mahogany bedpost. He looked down at me, a strange, dark amusement touching the corners of his mouth.
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"You really don't know when to shut up, do you, Nurse Nora?"
"It's in the job description," I said, stepping forward and sliding my shoulder underneath his uninjured arm to bear some of his dead weight. "Lean on me, you stubborn idiot. Let's go ruin Marcus's day."
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