All Chapters of THE DON'S DAUGHTER: Chapter 41 - Chapter 45

Elise's POVI gave the document to Nico on Tuesday morning.He read it standing at my desk. I watched his face move through the numbers, the dates, the account trail. He had the same quality Adrian's CFO probably had. The kind of mind that read financial documents the way other people read maps. He could see where things were going before he got there.He set it down."Two years," he said."Regular enough to be systematic," I said. "Irregular enough to avoid flags.""She was trained," he said."Her father trained her," I said. "This is what an Albero operation looks like at the micro level. Small, sustained, invisible until you're looking for it." I picked up the document. "This connects her to the Albero network through a paper trail that doesn't require anyone to testify. It's transactional. It's documented. It exists independent of anything I say about her."Nico understood immediately where I was going. "You're going to the financial authorities.""Not just them," I said. "The acc

Elise's POVMy father called me to his study on a Saturday morning. Not a summons. He knocked on my door first, which he never did, and said he wanted to talk when I had time. The knock alone told me something. My father did not knock. He either came in or he sent someone to find me. The knock meant he was uncertain about the conversation in a way he didn't want to show from a position of authority.I said I had time now.He was standing at the window when I came in. The estate grounds were frost-pale and still and he was looking at them with his hands clasped behind his back and he did not turn immediately when I sat down.Then he did.He sat. He looked at his desk for a moment. Then at me."Your mother didn't die of illness," he said.The room was very quiet.I looked at him."I have told you that story for twenty-three years," he said. "Heart failure. Sudden. Nothing anyone could have done." He pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. "That is not what happened."I waited.He

Elise's POVThe second allied family gathering was my father's idea and my execution.He had suggested it over dinner the week before, between bites of something he was eating slowly because the physician had told him slow was better for the medication. He said the first dinner had opened doors. A second one would tell us which ones had stayed open. I agreed and told him I would handle it and he said he knew and did not offer to help with the arrangements, which was his way of saying he trusted me to do it correctly.The invitation went out the same way as before. Hand-delivered. Cream envelope. Vitale crest. Except this time the wax seal was pressed with my ring. Not his. Mine.Small detail. It would land.I did not ask my father to attend. He was having a better week but better was relative and I did not need him there for this. That was part of the point. La Signora receiving the allied families without Don Victor at the table was a statement that did not need to be made verbally t