Chapter 16: Unholy Alliances.

ISADORA’S POV

I threw my phone straight into the plastic bin by the hospital exit, pushed through the heavy glass doors, and walked out into the pouring rain. 

The cold water soaked through my dress in seconds, but I did not care as I stood on the wet curb, raised my hand, and flagged down a passing yellow cab.

"Where to?" the driver asked as I slide into the back seat of his cab, dripping water all over his floor mats.

"The Grandview Apartments on Fourth Street," I said, leaning my head back against the cold vinyl seat. "And drive please fast."

The cab ride took fifteen minutes through the quiet city streets. 

I paid the driver with a wet twenty-dollar bill from my purse, got out, and walked quickly through the warm lobby of my building. I took the elevator up to the fourth floor, unlocked my front door, and stepped into my quiet apartment.

I kicked off my soaked heels, turned on the kitchen light, and leaned against the counter, trying to catch my breath after everything that had happened at the hospital.

Before I could even walk to my bedroom to change into dry clothes, someone knocked three times on my front door.

At first I wasn't expecting anyone. At least not today of all days.

I reached into my purse, pulled out my heavy brass keys, and held them tight between my fingers before opening the door an inch. 

Then, I saw Marco standing in the hallway with his jacket soaked, holding a thick black folder against his chest.

"Let me in before someone sees me on your floor," Marco whispered, looking over his shoulder toward the elevator.

I kept the door half-closed as I stared at him. "You are Rafael's assistant. What are you doing at my apartment?"

"I know where your grandfather hides his extra set of books," Marco said, looking me straight in the eyes. "And I know you just walked out on Rafael at the hospital."

I stared at him for a second, weighing the risk in my head, then stepped back and let him inside. He shut the door behind him and walked straight over to my kitchen table, dropping the folder onto the wood.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked, locking the door behind us. "You have worked for Rafael for five years so…."

"Everett Ossorio ruined my father ten years ago," Marco said, his face turning hard as he pulled a small USB drive out of the folder. "He bought out my dad's shipping company, stole the assets, and left my family broke. I took this job with Rafael just to get close to your grandfather."

"So you sat in their office all these years waiting for a chance," I said, stepping closer to the table.

"I waited until someone finally stood up to them," Marco replied, sliding the drive across the table toward me. "This has every private email between your grandfather and his offshore bank."

I picked up the drive and looked at it as I looked up to him in curiosity. "I do not know how to read encrypted bank codes, Marco."

"I do," a voice said from the back room as Arthur Vance stepped out of my guest office holding a silver laptop. I had hired him two weeks ago to look into my father's business, and he had been working late in my spare room all evening.

"I heard you come in," Vance said, setting his laptop on the table next to Marco's drive. "Plug it in."

We sat around the table while Vance ran the files through his software. The only sound in the apartment was the clicking of his keys and the rain hitting the window glass. My stomach twisted as line after line of numbers filled up the screen.

"Here it is," Vance said, stopping his fingers and pointing at three rows of red numbers. "The bankruptcy your family declared three years ago was fake."

I leaned over his shoulder, with my heart beating fast. "What do you mean fake?"

"Your dad did not lose his money in bad investments," Vance explained, zooming in on a series of wire transfers dated three years back. "He moved forty million dollars out of his main accounts and dumped it directly into a secret trust fund set up under Rosalind's name."

"Rosalind?" I asked, with my voice dropping. "They used my sister's identity?"

"Her birth certificate was registered to an offshore account the week she was born," Vance said, looking up at me. "And your parents faked their financial ruin so they would not have to pay their debts. They were currently living off the interest from Rosalind's account the entire time."

I started at him with my mouth openrd and totally dumpfounded. Immediately he said that, the truth hit me hard in the chest. 

As I realised they had traded my sister away to criminals to cover a blood debt, and then used her stolen name to keep themselves rich while pretending to be broke.

"If we send this data to the state prosecutor, your father and grandfather are going to jail," Marco said.

"Send it," I said without a second of hesitation. "Send every single page."

Vance typed on three keys, closed his laptop, and picked up his bag. "It is done. The files are in the prosecutor's inbox."

Then he picked up his bag and walked out, leaving the front door slightly unlatched behind him. Marco packed up his folder, gave me a quick nod, and followed Vance down the hall.

Then, I sat alone in the quiet kitchen, my head resting in my hands, trying to make sense of the mess my life had become.

Then another soft knock sounded on the unlatched front door, as it slowly swung open.

I stood up quickly, grabbing a heavy glass bottle from the counter as a weapon, but I stopped when I saw who was stepping into my entryway.

It was Rafael.

He stood there in the doorway, his hair wet from the rain, holding a thick black leather folder under his arm.

"How did you find me?" I asked, keeping the bottle raised in my hand.

"Marco told me you came back here," Rafael said, shutting the door behind him and keeping his hands where I could see them. "I know you talked to Rosalind at the hospital and I heard what she told you about five years ago.”

"So why are you here since you heard it? Eh? Get out," I said, as my face turned into fury "You signed those papers and you helped hide her."

"I signed those papers to keep her alive, Isadora," Rafael said, taking one slow step toward me. "Your grandfather was going to sell her overseas and I used my own money to buy her contract and put her in a safe house."

He opened his black folder, pulled out an encrypted silver hard drive, and laid it gently on the edge of the kitchen table.

"This drive has every master password to my mother's private company servers," Rafael said, looking straight into my eyes. "Everything you need to prove she helped your grandfather set up the fake debt is on here."

I looked down at the silver drive, then back up at his face, with my mind racing. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"Because Rosalind lied to you," Rafael said, lowly. "I never loved her. I just kept her safe because she was your sister, but she wants to burn everything down, including you. Just take the drive and use it.”