Chapter 9 - The Ledger's Secret
While Elara slept in the master bedroom, Clara sat across from Damiano at the glass dining table. She pulled a folded, waterproof pouch from inside her dress.
"When I left ten years ago, I didn't just run," Clara said. "I took this from your father’s study."
Damiano opened the pouch. Inside were five yellowed ledger pages, covered in his father’s meticulous handwriting. He scanned the numbers. It was a money trail. Renato’s father had been skimming millions from the syndicate and funneling it to a rival cartel. The last entry was dated the day his father died.
"My father found out," Damiano realized, his voice trembling with delayed grief. "He was going to execute Renato's father. So they poisoned him first."
"And Renato inherited the stolen fortune," Clara finished. "He used it to buy the loyalty of your men over the last decade. He’s been planning this coup since he was a teenager."
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Damiano carefully folded the pages. This was the key. In the mafia, murder was business, but stealing from the collective pot was an unforgivable sin.
"I need to make a phone call," Damiano said.
