Hidden Financial Records

Adrian's call hung in the air like a death sentence.

Cassandra couldn't sleep. She paced the safe house, her bare feet silent against the cold floor, her mind racing. Another traitor. Someone closer than she thought. Someone who knew about the locket, the ring, the evidence.

Dante sat at the small table, his laptop open, his jaw tight. He'd been working for hours—pulling up old financial records, cross-referencing accounts, following trails that led nowhere and everywhere at once.

"You need to rest," he said without looking up.

"I can't." She stopped pacing, her arms wrapped around herself. "Someone in our circle is working with Marcus Kane. Someone who knows everything. How am I supposed to sleep knowing that?"

Dante didn't answer. He just kept typing.

---

Hours passed.

Cassandra dozed off on the sofa, her body finally giving in to exhaustion. When she woke, the sun was rising, and Dante was still at the table. But his expression had changed. His face was pale, his hands trembling slightly.

"Dante?"

He didn't respond. He just stared at the screen.

She crossed the room, her heart pounding. "What is it? What did you find?"

He turned the laptop toward her.

Financial records. Pages of them. Transactions from Moretti-controlled accounts. Payments made to an offshore account over a period of years.

Cassandra scanned the numbers, not understanding. "What am I looking at?"

"The traitor." Dante's voice was hollow. "The second one."

He pointed to a name on the screen.

Elena Moretti.

---

Cassandra's blood ran cold. "Your mother?"

"I traced the payments. They lead to an offshore account in her name. She's been receiving money from Marcus Kane for years." Dante's voice cracked. "She's been working with him. The whole time."

Cassandra sank into the chair beside him. "Why? Why would she—"

"I don't know." Dante stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor. "But I'm going to find out."

---

The mansion was quiet when Dante arrived.

He found Elena in the garden, tending to her roses. She was dressed simply, her hair pulled back, her hands steady as she snipped at dead blooms. She looked peaceful. Innocent.

Dante knew better now.

"I know," he said quietly.

Elena's hands stilled. She didn't turn around.

"Know what?"

"About the payments. The offshore account. The deal you made with Marcus Kane."

Elena was silent for a long moment. Then she set down her shears and turned to face him.

Her eyes were red. Her face was pale. But there was no surprise in her expression. She'd been waiting for this.

"I did what I had to do," she whispered. "To protect you."

"By working with the man who killed my father?" Dante's voice rose. "By helping him cover up his crimes? By letting Grace Hayes die?"

"I didn't know what he was going to do." Elena's voice cracked. "I thought I was protecting you. Marcus told me he would kill you if I didn't cooperate. He said he would destroy everything we'd built. I was terrified."

"You were a coward."

"Yes." Elena's shoulders sagged. "I was. I've always been a coward."

---

Dante stared at her. His mother. The woman who'd raised him. The woman who'd held him when he cried, who'd kissed his scraped knees, who'd told him he could be anything he wanted to be.

She was a stranger.

"You let Grace Hayes die," he said quietly. "You let Cassandra grow up without a mother. You let me believe you were innocent."

"I didn't know Vincent was going to kill her." Tears streamed down Elena's face. "I thought he was just going to scare her. I thought—"

"You thought wrong."

Elena broke down. She sank onto the garden bench, her body shaking with sobs. "I've been living with this guilt for twenty years. Every day. Every night. I see her face. I hear her voice. I know what I did."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was ashamed. Because I was terrified you'd hate me." She looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen. "And I was right. You do hate me."

Dante didn't answer. He couldn't. The anger was too raw, the betrayal too deep.

---

He returned to the safe house hours later.

Cassandra was waiting, her face pale, her eyes searching his.

"What happened?"

He told her. About his mother. About the payments. About the deal. About everything.

Cassandra listened, her heart aching. When he finished, she crossed the room and pulled him into her arms.

"She betrayed you too," she whispered.

"She betrayed everyone."

They held each other for a long time. The weight of the truth pressed down on them, heavy and suffocating. But they bore it together.

---

That night, they made a decision.

They would use Elena's testimony—and the financial records—to build a case against Marcus Kane. They would expose him. Once and for all.

But first, they needed to find the second traitor. The one Adrian had warned her about. The one who was closer than she thought.

"We'll find them," Dante said. "We'll root them out."

"How?"

He looked at her. "We'll set a trap. We'll use the locket as bait. Whoever comes for it is the traitor."

Cassandra nodded slowly. It was dangerous. It was risky. But it was the only way.

"Okay," she said. "We do it."

---

That night, Cassandra received another text from Marcus Kane.

You think you've found the truth. But you've only scratched the surface. The real traitor is closer than you think. They're sleeping in your bed.

Cassandra stared at the screen, her blood running cold.

She looked at Dante, sleeping beside her. His face was peaceful, relaxed.

She didn't want to believe it. She couldn't.

But the seed of doubt had been planted.