Chapter 2 - THE MAID WHO SAVED THE MAFIA BOSS RECEIVED A PHOTO OF HER DEAD MOTHER WITH HIS FAMILY’S ENEMY—AND DISCOVERED SHE HAD BEEN BROUGHT INTO THE MANSION LONG BEFORE SHE EVER APPLIED FOR THE JOB
Harper entered Gabriel’s hospital room without knocking.
He was standing.
Barely.
One hand gripped the bed rail.
Dr. Voss stood beside him.
“What are you doing?”
Harper demanded.
Gabriel looked irritated.
“Walking.”
“You were poisoned yesterday.”
“I noticed.”
“Sit down.”
Lena smiled.
“I like her.”
Gabriel sat.
Harper held up the phone.
“Who is Samuel Vescari?”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“Who is he?”
“I told you. He worked for my father.”
“That’s not enough.”
Gabriel looked at Lena.
The doctor understood.
“I’ll return later.”
When they were alone, Harper showed him the photograph.
Gabriel stared.
“Who is the woman?”
“My mother.”
His eyes lifted.
“Evelyn Hayes?”
Harper froze.
“I never told you her name.”
Silence.
Gabriel knew he had made a mistake.
Harper stepped backward.
“You know who I am.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Before you were hired.”
Her stomach dropped.
“My job wasn’t random.”
“No.”
“Did you hire me?”
“Indirectly.”
Harper laughed.
It contained no humor.
“Six months.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve known for six months.”
“Yes.”
“And you watched me scrub your floors.”
Gabriel stood.
“Harper—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Explain.”
So he did.
Evelyn Hayes had not always lived in Ohio.
Twenty-seven years earlier, she had been Evelyn Moretti, a forensic accountant in New York.
She worked for Gabriel’s father, Salvatore Falcone.
Not officially.
Secretly.
Salvatore suspected money was disappearing from his organization.
Evelyn traced it.
What she discovered was worse.
A group inside the Falcone organization had been using legitimate shipping routes for trafficking and narcotics without Salvatore’s authorization.
One of the men involved was Samuel Vescari.
Another was Gabriel’s uncle, Vittorio Falcone.
Evelyn collected evidence.
Then disappeared.
“Why?”
Harper whispered.
“Because someone tried to kill her.”
“Your father?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because my father helped her escape.”
Harper stared.
“To Ohio?”
“Yes.”
“My mother never told me.”
“She wasn’t supposed to.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
Gabriel looked uncomfortable.
“After your mother died, I received a package.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
“What was inside?”
“A letter.”
“From Mom?”
“Yes.”
Harper’s eyes burned.
“You have a letter from my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Give it to me.”
“Harper—”
“Now.”
Gabriel did.
The letter had been stored in the forbidden room.
It was addressed to Gabriel.
If you are reading this, I am probably gone.
My daughter Harper knows nothing.
Keep it that way unless Samuel returns.
She has spent enough of her life paying for other people’s sins.
There is a second ledger.
Samuel believes I destroyed it.
I did not.
Harper does not know where it is.
Do not let anyone convince you otherwise.
And Gabriel—
Your mother was not killed in the accident.
Ask Dominic what his father did.
Harper read it twice.
Then a third time.
“My mother knew your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Apparently.”
“Your mother died in an accident too?”
“Car explosion.”
Harper looked at the letter.
“Not an accident.”
“No.”
“Dominic’s father?”
“Was head of security.”
Harper sat.
The conspiracy was older than both of them.
Gabriel explained that he hired Harper because Samuel had resurfaced in Europe.
He feared Samuel might search for Evelyn’s daughter.
“I thought the estate was safer.”
Harper laughed.
“You brought me into a Mafia mansion for safety?”
“In retrospect, the flaw is obvious.”
Despite herself, she almost smiled.
Then remembered.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated my employment.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe I got this job because Mrs. Higgins liked my references.”
“She did.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I know.”
Harper looked at him.
“Do you?”
Gabriel remained silent.
She left.
For three days, Harper refused to speak to him except when necessary.
Gabriel returned to the estate under heavy security.
Dominic remained missing.
Samuel vanished.
The summit collapsed.
Chicago blamed the poisoning on Falcone infighting.
War threatened.
Harper planned to leave.
She packed.
Then Mrs. Higgins appeared.
“You’re resigning?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Falcone know?”
“He doesn’t own my employment decisions.”
Mrs. Higgins nodded.
“Good.”
Harper stopped.
“You agree?”
“I’ve worked for powerful men for thirty-four years.”
Mrs. Higgins smiled sadly.
“They confuse paying people with possessing them.”
Harper liked her more immediately.
Then Mrs. Higgins handed her a box.
“This came for you.”
Inside was one of Evelyn’s old recipe books.
Harper recognized it.
Her mother had used it constantly.
She thought it had been lost after the funeral.
A note:
SHE HID EVERYTHING IN PLAIN SIGHT.
Harper opened the book.
Recipes.
Measurements.
Annotations.
Then she noticed something.
Her mother never used metric measurements.
Yet several recipes contained grams.
Strange quantities.
417 grams flour.
219 grams sugar.
603 milliliters milk.
Numbers.
Harper wrote them down.
Coordinates?
Account numbers?
Dates?
She spent hours working.
Then understood.
Book cipher.
Page.
Line.
Word.
Her mother had taught Harper word puzzles as a child.
Harper decoded the first sentence.
THIRD FLOOR.
She froze.
Second.
BEHIND HER PORTRAIT.
Third.
TRUST THE WOMAN EVERYONE THINKS IS DEAD.
Harper went to Gabriel.
He was in the forbidden study.
“You’re leaving?”
he asked.
“Probably.”
His face gave nothing away.
But Harper had become good at him.
The small tightening around his mouth meant disappointment.
She placed the recipe book down.
“First we have another problem.”
She showed him.
Gabriel read.
Then looked toward the photograph Harper had noticed the night she saved him.
His mother.
Young Gabriel.
Gabriel removed the frame.
Behind it was a safe.
He stared.
“I didn’t install that.”
Harper’s pulse accelerated.
The safe opened using a number hidden in Evelyn’s recipe cipher.
Inside:
A ledger.
A flash drive.
And a photograph.
Gabriel’s mother.
Alive.
Taken two years after her supposed death.
Beside her stood Evelyn Hayes.
Harper whispered:
“Trust the woman everyone thinks is dead.”
Gabriel stopped breathing.
“My mother.”
Another item sat beneath the photograph.
A cassette tape.
Old.
Labeled:
FOR GABRIEL.
They found a player.
Gabriel pressed play.
Static.
Then a woman’s voice.
“If you’re hearing this, my son, then Samuel has returned.”
Gabriel’s face went white.
His mother.
Her voice.
“I need you to understand something. I did not die in the explosion.”
Gabriel gripped the desk.
Harper moved closer but did not touch him.
“I survived. Evelyn helped me disappear because the people who attacked us controlled your father’s security. I wanted to return for you. Salvatore begged me not to. He believed you would be killed if they knew I lived.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
The tape continued.
“Dominic’s father, Carlo Rinaldi, helped Samuel arrange the bombing.”
Gabriel whispered:
“No.”
“But Dominic is not his father.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Years later, Dominic discovered part of the truth. He began sending me money through the private account because I was still alive.”
Harper understood.
The withdrawals.
Dominic was not stealing.
He was supporting Gabriel’s mother.
The recording continued.
“If Dominic is still beside you, trust him carefully. He knows more than he has told you because I made him promise silence.”
Then:
“Samuel wants the second ledger because it identifies everyone who built the trafficking network.”
Harper looked at the safe.
The ledger.
“They’ll kill for it,” Gabriel’s mother said.
“And if Evelyn’s daughter is anywhere near you, protect her.”
Harper exhaled.
Then the final sentence:
“But do not turn protection into another prison. Her mother spent her whole life trying to escape men who believed fear gave them the right to choose for women.”
The tape ended.
Harper looked at Gabriel.
He looked almost offended by the accuracy.
“Your mother sounds smart.”
“Yes.”
“Smarter than you.”
“Apparently.”
The door opened.
Gabriel reached for his weapon.
Dominic stood there.
Unarmed.
Exhausted.
Blood on his shirt.
Gabriel pointed the gun.
Dominic raised both hands.
“Your mother is alive.”
Gabriel’s face broke.
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Samuel found her.”
Gabriel lowered the gun slightly.
Dominic continued.
“He poisoned you to force me to give him the location of the second ledger.”
“Why did he think you knew?”
“My father.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Before he died, he confessed everything.”
Gabriel stared.
“You knew for how long?”
“Seven years.”
Rage filled Gabriel.
“Seven years?”
“Your mother made me swear.”
“She is my mother!”
“And Samuel would have killed her!”
Gabriel stepped forward.
Harper moved between them.
Both men stared.
She looked at Gabriel.
“Don’t become stupid because you’re angry.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Gabriel did not.
Harper turned to Dominic.
“Where is she?”
“Safe for now.”
“For now?”
Dominic looked toward the windows.
“Samuel knows Harper has the ledger.”
Harper froze.
“How?”
“Because there is still a traitor inside this house.”
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Then another.
Security alarms screamed.
The lights died.
Emergency red lights illuminated the study.
Dominic drew a weapon.
Gabriel reached for Harper.
She stepped away before he could.
“I can move myself.”
“Then move.”
They ran.
At the end of the corridor, smoke rose from the stairwell.
Men shouted.
Harper heard Mrs. Higgins scream downstairs.
She stopped.
Gabriel grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“She’s downstairs.”
“We have to get you out.”
Harper ripped free.
“She has seventy employees in this house who spent years cleaning up after you people while you played empire.”
“Harper—”
“I’m not leaving them.”
She ran toward the service stairs.
Gabriel swore.
Then followed.
That decision would change all of them.
Because the traitor had assumed Gabriel Falcone would protect his secrets before his servants.
May you like
He had not accounted for Harper Hayes.
And he had never understood the power of a woman who knew every hidden corridor in the mansion because she had spent six months cleaning them.
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