Chapter 5 - I RESIGNED AT BREAKFAST
I resigned the next morning.
Raphael tore the letter in half.
“No.”
“That isn’t how resignation works.”
“It is today.”
“My brother was threatened.”
“Which is why you stay where I can protect you.”
“That logic is exactly why I have to leave.”
He stood behind his desk.
“Elena.”
“No.”
His expression changed.
Maybe nobody had interrupted him this often in his entire life.
I continued.
“Conrad targeted Micah because I matter to you.”
Silence.
That was the first time either of us acknowledged it.
Raphael looked away.
I swallowed.
“If I leave—”
“He still knows you matter.”
“Then I disappear.”
“You have school.”
“I can transfer.”
“Micah has treatment.”
“We can relocate.”
“You shouldn’t have to destroy your life because of me.”
“And Micah shouldn’t die because I like working in a mansion.”
His face tightened.
“Is that all this is?”
I regretted it immediately.
But fear makes cruel language efficient.
“My brother comes first.”
“He should.”
No argument.
That hurt worse.
Raphael accepted my resignation.
But not my disappearance.
He arranged security without controlling where we moved.
I chose a temporary apartment near Micah’s hospital.
Raphael paid nothing.
My new insurance through nursing school covered enough.
I found part-time work.
For nine days, I did not see him.
On day ten, Sabine arrived.
No guards.
No expensive coat.
She carried Micah’s favorite lemon cookies.
“You’re here because Raphael sent you.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“My brother hasn’t slept since you left.”
I stared.
“That is emotional blackmail.”
“Yes.”
Sabine ate a cookie.
“I’m not good at subtlety.”
I laughed despite myself.
Then she became serious.
“He isn’t asking you back.”
“Good.”
“He found something.”
Julian’s financial records.
The Mercy Fund payments did not lead only to Conrad.
They led to someone still inside Raphael’s house.
Freddy Kovac.
The head cook.
I refused to believe it.
Freddy had worked there thirty-eight years.
She had raised Raphael after his mother died.
She sent soup when Micah was hospitalized.
“Why?”
Sabine answered:
“We don’t know.”
I returned to the mansion voluntarily.
Freddy sat in the secondary kitchen.
Same table where Raphael confessed.
She looked older.
Raphael stood against the wall.
I sat across from her.
“Did you help Conrad?”
Freddy said:
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Because I killed Julian.”
Raphael went completely still.
Freddy continued before anyone could move.
“I did not intend to.”
Fourteen years earlier, Julian discovered the money laundering.
He confronted Matteo.
Conrad arrived.
Argument.
Julian threatened to go to federal authorities.
Conrad struck him.
Julian fell.
Hit his head.
Alive but disoriented.
Freddy found him.
Conrad told her Julian had attacked Matteo.
Said Raphael would be killed next if scandal erupted.
Freddy panicked.
She helped stage the room.
Placed the gun.
Wrote nothing—but watched Conrad place the note.
Julian died from the head injury before they finished.
“You let everyone believe suicide,” Raphael whispered.
Freddy cried.
“Yes.”
“Why the surveillance now?”
“Conrad contacted me 107 days ago.”
There it was.
“He said he had the original evidence. He threatened to expose me.”
“So you entered my bedroom?”
“No.”
Freddy looked confused.
“I gave him the old passage plans. That’s all.”
Raphael leaned forward.
“Who enters the room?”
“I don’t know.”
Freddy had supplied architecture.
Someone else handled surveillance.
Then she said something worse.
“Conrad isn’t trying to become boss.”
Raphael stared.
“Then what does he want?”
“He wants the vote to fail.”
“Why?”
“Because if no Orsini is ratified, the holding companies dissolve into their underlying trusts.”
Sabine understood first.
“Beneficiaries.”
Raphael turned.
“Who?”
Freddy whispered:
“The children.”
Raphael had none.
Sabine had none.
Conrad had—
A daughter.
Secret.
Born thirty-two years earlier.
Nobody knew her identity.
Except Freddy.
Raphael demanded the name.
Freddy looked at me.
Then began crying.
I felt cold before she spoke.
May you like
“Her name is Catherine Carter.”
My mother.
