Chapter 7 - THE BURNING EDGE
The flame bit into the corner of the photograph, curling the old paper into black ash.
"No!" Mary screamed, lunging from her chair.
But I was faster.
I threw myself across the room, tackling Celeste through the open doorway and onto the wet wooden planks of the porch. We hit the ground hard. Celeste shrieked, dropping the lighter, but her manicured hand clamped down tight on the burning photo.
I grabbed her wrist, twisting it until she cried out and let go.
I snatched the photograph from the muddy boards and desperately patted out the embers against my wet coat. I fell back, gasping for air, clutching the picture to my chest.
Celeste scrambled to her feet, her red dress torn and smeared with mud. She raised her hand to strike me, but Dante was suddenly there, blocking her path.
"Touch her," Dante said, his voice deadly quiet, "and I won't wait for the police."
Celeste looked at Dante's towering frame, then at Julian, who was groaning on the floor inside the cabin. The calculation in her eyes shifted from rage to sheer self-preservation. She turned and sprinted toward her car, slipping in the mud, abandoning Julian completely.
Dante didn't chase her. He knelt beside me on the porch.
"Nora. Are you okay?"
I sat up, my shoulder aching from the fall. I uncurled my hand and looked at the photograph. The bottom corner was scorched, but the image was intact.
It showed a young, terrified-looking seventeen-year-old girl holding a swaddled infant. Around the baby's neck, much too large for her tiny body, was the emerald teardrop necklace.
I handed it to Dante.
He stared at it for a long time, the rain matting his dark hair. Then he stood up and walked back inside, helping Mary to her feet. He handed her the photograph.
Mary pressed it to her lips, sobbing quietly.
"Let's go home, Mary," Dante said gently.
"What about him?" I asked, pointing to Julian, who was nursing a bruised jaw by the fireplace.
"Julian stays," Dante said coldly. "He has twenty-four hours to pack his things from the estate. If he tries to contact the company board, or if he ever sets foot near you again, Mary, I will have him arrested for kidnapping and embezzlement."
We drove back down the mountain in silence, the heater blasting. Mary sat in the passenger seat, exhausted but clutching the photograph and the brass key. I sat in the back, watching the trees pass, my heart finally slowing down.
When we reached the Caruso estate, the sun was just beginning to rise, casting a pale golden light over the massive stone facade.
Dante opened the front door and led us inside. The house felt different now. It didn't feel like a museum of wealth; it felt like a battlefield where we had just won a war.
"Nora," Dante said, stopping in the foyer. "Thank you. For everything you did tonight. You risked your life for my family."
"Mary is family," I said simply.
Mary turned to me, her eyes bright with tears. "You're a brave girl, Nora."
"Go get some sleep, both of you," Dante said. "I'll call the lawyers at nine. We're going to the bank."
I went to my small room in the staff quarters, stripped off my muddy clothes, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I woke up hours later to a sharp, urgent knocking at my door.
I threw on a robe and opened it.
Dante stood there, fully dressed in a sharp black suit. But his face was completely drained of blood.
"Mr. Caruso? What's wrong? Did the lawyers say no?"
"We went to the bank," Dante said, his voice hollow. "Mary signed the authorization. We opened the vault."
"And the birth certificate was there?"
May you like
"Yes," Dante said, handing me a heavy, yellowed envelope. "But that's not all that was in there. Nora... my mother didn't just leave Mary the company."
I opened the envelope. Inside was a second document, stamped with a federal seal. I read the first line and my stomach dropped out entirely.
