Chapter 5 - The Red Ribbon in the Vault
Agatha’s hand froze in mid-air. The silver revolver shook in her fingers as tears welling in her dark eyes spilled down her fair, rosy cheeks.
"You found it..." Agatha whispered, her voice cracking with fifty years of buried pain. "Carmine promised me he had destroyed those files in Palermo..."
Vivienne let out a cold, bitter laugh from her armchair. "Carmine was a hypocrite, Agatha! He kept the registry in his safe as collateral in case I ever tried to claim my share of the shipping terminals!"
Dominic walked over to his mother, gently taking the silver revolver from her frail hands and setting it on the desk. He dropped to one knee beside her chair, looking into her eyes with deep, protective warmth.
"Why did Carmine do it, Mother?" Dominic asked gently. "Why hide my sister?"
Agatha reached out her trembling hand, touching Dominic’s rugged cheek. "Because in 1974, the Sicilian charter strictly forbade female heirs from holding voting shares in the syndicate. If the council knew I had delivered twins, Carmine’s enemies would have used Vivienne to challenge his succession. Carmine sent her to Chicago to keep her safe, but..."
"But she grew up in the dark," Vivienne interrupted, her voice rising with sudden, intense fury. "I grew up raised by a mid-level enforcer while you were brought up in this palace, Dominic! You were given tailored suits, private tutors, and an empire! I was given nothing!"
Dominic stood up slowly to his full height, his broad frame looming over his sister. "You were given a life away from the blood, Vivienne. Carmine thought he was protecting you."
"Protecting me?!" Vivienne sneered, standing up from her chair, her emerald gown rustling violently. "He condemned me! And now, under Section Eight of the international charter, if a male heir's title is based on a concealed twin birth, fifty percent of the empire’s voting stock transfers to the surviving female line at midnight!"
Dominic checked his luxury watch. It was 11:30 PM. He had thirty minutes before the international syndicate board validated the annual trust transfer.
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"Where is the secondary key, Vivienne?" Dominic asked quietly.
Vivienne pulled a small velvet ribbon from her dress pocket, dangling a small brass key before his eyes. "Right here, brother. And it opens the master vault at the Swiss consulate in Manhattan."
