Chapter 6
Claire kept a wooden sewing case in the staff quarters.
It belonged to her father.
Inside were needles, thread, cheap buttons, and a black metal thimble.
Rafe turned it over.
The base unscrewed.
Inside rested the second half of the seal.
Claire stared.
“My father gave me that when I was thirteen.”
“Did he tell you what it was?”
“No.”
She laughed nervously.
“He said never let rich people throw away practical things for me.”
Daniel Hudson had known exactly who he was protecting the seal from.
We fitted both halves together.
The black crest locked with a small click.
A compartment opened inside.
Not paper.
A miniature key.
Samuel recognized it.
“The old wine chapel.”
Of course.
My family loved hiding truth near alcohol and religion.
The wine chapel sat beneath the west wing, unused since my father died.
Helena tried to follow.
I stopped her.
“No.”
She stared.
“You don’t know what Antonio kept there.”
“That is precisely why you’re staying here.”
Her face hardened.
Samuel came with me.
Claire too.
Not because she wanted to.
Because her father had died protecting whatever waited there.
She had earned the right to see it.
The key opened a narrow cabinet behind the old bottle racks.
Inside sat three objects.
My father’s ring.
Daniel Hudson’s wristwatch.
And one recording device.
Claire covered her mouth.
She recognized the watch.
I picked up the recorder.
My father’s voice filled the chapel.
“If Alessandro hears this, then Isabella was right about one thing.”
I almost laughed despite everything.
Even dead, my father needed to win arguments.
“Helena has been building a second family inside mine.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“She tells men they are protecting Alessandro from his own temper. In reality, she is teaching them to act before he decides.”
I felt sick.
Because that was exactly what my first years as boss looked like.
Problems arrived already solved.
Men already punished.
Territories already shifted.
Helena called it efficiency.
My father continued.
“Daniel Hudson discovered forged instructions carrying my old marks.”
Claire started crying silently.
I looked at her.
Her father had not died randomly.
He had found the machinery.
Antonio’s voice lowered.
“If Daniel dies, Helena will call it bad luck.”
Claire whispered:
“She did.”
The recording continued.
“If Isabella disappears, Helena will call it grief.”
My hands tightened.
“And if Alessandro becomes powerful enough that no one questions how decisions reach him…”
A pause.
“Helena will have built a boss who does not know which choices were ever truly his.”
The recorder stopped.
Samuel looked at me.
May you like
I did not speak.
Because I suddenly could not tell where my leadership ended and Helena’s editing of my world began.
