Chapter 7 - The Hidden Ledger
Isabella’s face turned the color of wet chalk. She looked like a cornered, feral animal.
"Shut up!" Isabella screamed, pointing a manicured finger at the bodyguards. "Shoot her! She is disrespecting the family! Shoot her right now!"
None of the guards moved. They only took orders from Salvatore, and Salvatore was completely paralyzed by the waitress.
Tessa reached deep into the pocket of her stained white apron. She didn't pull out a weapon. She pulled out a small, decaying, leather-bound notebook. It was stained with twenty-five-year-old dried blood.
She slammed it down onto the white tablecloth right next to the silver locket.
"That is my father's private accounting ledger," Tessa revealed, her voice dripping with absolute, unstoppable justice. "He didn't betray you. He was investigating the missing funds. He found out who was actually embezzling the millions from the syndicate vault."
Salvatore’s hands shook violently as he opened the fragile, blood-stained notebook.
His highly intelligent, tactical mind scanned the old ink. He saw the routing numbers. He saw the offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. And he saw the signature authorizing the illegal transfers.
It wasn't Antonio's signature.
It was Isabella’s.
"No..." Salvatore gasped, the cinematic realization hitting him with the force of a nuclear bomb.
Isabella hadn't just stolen the money. When Antonio discovered her treason twenty-five years ago, Isabella had framed him. She had paid a rival cartel to murder Salvatore’s firstborn son so that her own son, Gabriel, would be the only remaining heir to the billionaire empire.
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She had slaughtered his son to secure her throne.
👉 How will the wicked stepmother react when she realizes she is completely trapped?
