Chapter 8 - The Fire in the Archive)
The fire was small.
Too small.
That was what made it suspicious.
A curtain inside the west archive had burned.
Two wooden shelves were scorched.
The sprinkler system activated before the flames spread farther.
Most of the records survived.
But one locked cabinet had been opened.
Its contents were gone.
Marco stood in the wet room while security photographed everything.
"This wasn't meant to burn the house."
Damiano looked at the damaged curtain.
"Then why set a fire?"
"Distraction."
Marina stood near the doorway wrapped in one of Damiano's coats.
He had insisted.
Her exhaustion was catching up with her, but she refused to leave.
Helena sat under guard in the hall.
She looked more frightened than angry now.
Damiano faced her.
"What originals?"
Helena said nothing.
He crouched in front of her.
"Mother, tonight ends one of two ways. You tell me everything, or I find out without you and you spend the rest of your life wondering which lie destroys you first."
Helena looked at him.
"I kept a copy."
"Of the amended will?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"In the cabinet."
"Anything else?"
"Letters."
"From Father?"
"Yes."
"To Gabriel?"
"Some."
"Why keep evidence that proves your own fraud?"
Helena laughed weakly.
"Because I couldn't destroy his handwriting."
The answer surprised everyone.
For the first time, Marina saw something human beneath Helena's cruelty.
Not enough to excuse it.
Not remotely.
But enough to understand that Helena's hatred had grown from an old wound she had refused to heal until it became poison.
Damiano did not soften.
"Who knew the documents were here?"
"No one."
"Simon?"
"He suspected."
"Gabriel?"
"I don't know."
"James Colton?"
"Possibly."
Marina looked at Marco.
"Could Simon have taken them?"
"Yes."
"Then why start the fire after the suitcase exposed Helena?"
Damiano looked at her.
She continued.
"If Simon wanted us to find evidence, why steal the strongest evidence?"
Marco nodded.
"Good question."
Helena whispered, "Because Simon isn't the one you should fear."
Everyone looked at her.
Damiano's patience vanished.
"Who?"
Helena closed her eyes.
"Gabriel."
Marina felt a chill.
"You said he didn't matter."
"I lied."
"What does he want?"
"Everything."
Damiano stood.
"You've never spoken to him?"
Helena's silence answered.
"How many times?"
"Several."
"When?"
"Over the years."
"Did you pay him too?"
"No."
"What did he say?"
"He wanted recognition."
"That sounds reasonable."
"Then he wanted shares."
"Which Father intended to give him."
"Then he wanted the Ricci name."
Damiano stared.
"Which he was entitled to if Father was his biological parent."
Helena slammed her hand against the chair.
"You do not understand what that name cost me."
Damiano's face became cold.
"And you don't understand it was never yours to gatekeep."
Helena looked away.
Marco's radio sounded.
A guard had found an unlocked service door near the archive.
Someone had left through it.
Footprints crossed the damp lawn toward the trees.
They followed.
At the edge of the property, the tracks reached a small service road.
Tire marks.
Someone had been waiting.
Marco's team recovered one item from the grass.
A brass key.
Old.
Stamped with the initials J.C.
James Colton.
Damiano looked at Marina.
"Tomorrow, we go to Connecticut."
Helena stood.
"No."
Damiano turned.
"You are not taking her."
Marina frowned.
"Taking me where?"
"To Colton."
Helena's fear was immediate.
Damiano noticed.
"Why?"
"Because that's what they want."
"Who?"
"Gabriel. Simon. Colton. All of them."
"You said Colton held Father's copies."
"He did."
"Then why are you afraid of him?"
Helena stared at Marina.
"Because James Colton knows what Elena left you."
Marina's heartbeat accelerated.
"Which is?"
"I don't know exactly."
"Then stop pretending you do."
Helena's face twisted.
"I know enough."
"What?"
"Elena didn't leave you papers."
Marina stared.
Helena looked toward Damiano.
"She left Marina ownership."
Silence.
Damiano frowned.
"Ownership of what?"
Helena answered.
"Twenty-five percent of Ricci Family Holdings."
Marina almost laughed because the statement was so impossible.
"I don't own any part of your company."
"Not yet."
Damiano stared at his mother.
"If Father left shares to Gabriel, how would Marina inherit them?"
Helena looked at her.
"Because Gabriel signed them away."
"When?"
"Seventeen years ago."
"To Marina?"
"Into a trust in Marina's name."
Marina's voice dropped.
"I was fourteen."
"Exactly."
"Why would Gabriel do that?"
Helena's answer came slowly.
"Because he thought he was going to die."
Damiano's expression changed.
"What happened seventeen years ago?"
Helena looked at the burned archive.
May you like
Then at the brass key.
"The same week Elena died."
