Chapter 3: What Ruby Left Behind
Domenico did not open the envelope in the hallway.
He carried it downstairs past the guests who had not left — twenty, maybe thirty people still standing in clusters near the banquet tables, glasses in hand, speaking in low voices.
Some looked at him.
Most looked away.
He walked through them without a word and closed the study door behind him.
The envelope was light.
He set it on the desk under the lamp and looked at it for a moment.
His name in Ruby's handwriting.
The flap torn open carelessly, the way someone opens mail that does not belong to them and does not care if you know it.
He pulled out a single folded page.
The handwriting was Ruby's — careful, slightly slanted, the way she had always written since she was a child learning letters at this same desk while he worked beside her.
*Domenico,*
*By the time you read this, I will already be gone.
I did not leave because I wanted to.
I left because staying would have cost you more than losing me ever could.*
*There are things happening in this house that you do not know about.
I tried to tell you twice.
Both times, I was told you already knew.
I believed that for a long time.
I do not believe it anymore.*
*The Caretti account.
Ask about the Caretti account.*
*I love you.
That has never changed.
But someone in this house has been working very hard to make sure you never trusted me again.
I think you are starting to understand why.*
*Please be careful.*
*— Ruby*
Domenico read it twice.
Then he set it flat on the desk and pressed both palms against the surface.
The Caretti account.
He had not heard that name in four years.
It was a private holding account, one of six he maintained through the family trust.
It had been dormant since the restructuring.
His financial director had confirmed it personally.
His financial director was Marcus.
He stood up and opened the study door.
Marcus was in the hallway, jacket straightened, one hand in his pocket, speaking quietly into his phone.
He saw Domenico and lowered the phone immediately.
"Who were you calling?" Domenico said.
"My driver."
"At this hour."
"I was going to leave." Marcus slipped the phone into his pocket.
"Given the circumstances."
"Come inside."
Marcus looked at the study door.
Something moved behind his eyes — not fear exactly, but the calculation that precedes it.
"It's late, Domenico.
We can talk in the morning."
"We can talk now."
A beat.
Then Marcus walked in.
Domenico closed the door and did not offer him a seat.
"The Caretti account," Domenico said.
Marcus did not blink.
"What about it?"
"When did you last access it?"
"That account has been dormant for years.
You know that."
"I'm asking when you last accessed it."
Marcus spread his hands.
"I'd have to check the records.
Why are you asking about a dormant account at midnight, Domenico?
Ruby has clearly upset you with whatever she wrote in that letter —"
"How do you know she wrote a letter?"
The room went quiet.
Marcus's hands came down slowly.
"Valentina mentioned she'd left a note," he said.
"Before you came downstairs."
"Valentina was with me on the stairs.
She didn't go near that room."
Another silence.
Longer this time.
"I want the Caretti account records on my desk by nine tomorrow morning," Domenico said.
"Full transaction history.
Every access point.
Every transfer."
Marcus looked at him steadily.
"And if I tell you there's nothing to find?"
"Then you have nothing to worry about."
Marcus nodded once, slowly, and walked to the door.
He paused with his hand on the frame.
"Ruby was always good at making people feel like they'd missed something," he said.
"It was her best quality.
And her worst."
He left without waiting for a response.
Domenico stood alone in the study and looked down at the letter on his desk.
*Please be careful.*
He picked up his own phone and dialed a number he had not used in two years.
It rang four times before a tired voice answered.
"It's Domenico Ferrante," he said.
"I need a forensic audit.
Tonight if possible.
Tomorrow morning at the latest."
A pause on the other end.
"How deep?" the voice asked.
May you like
Domenico looked at Ruby's letter.
"All the way."
