Chapter 3 - THE GOLDEN CAGE SHATTERS
The Madison townhouse was cold.
It had been empty for six months.
Dust motes danced under the automated hallway lights as I walked inside.
Every room smelled of old polish and expensive leather.
I kicked off my heels.
My feet throbbed from standing in designer shoes that felt more like shackles.
I walked straight to the master study.
Dante’s private safe was hidden behind a mahogany bookshelf.
He thought I didn’t know the combination.
He thought my world began at the kitchen counter and ended at the charity gala circuit.
He was wrong.
I pressed the silver keypad.
10-14-18.
Our wedding anniversary.
The heavy steel door clicked and swung open.
Inside sat stacks of bearer bonds, passports under false names, and a black leather ledger.
I opened the ledger.
Pages of offshore accounts.
Numbered Swiss banks.
And tucked inside the back sleeve was a secondary smartphone.
Dante’s burner phone.
I pressed the power button.
The screen lit up instantly.
Notifications flooded the display.
Texts from numbers I didn’t recognize.
Messages from women using pet names.
And one chat thread at the very top.
Chloe: “Will Dante be free tonight?”
Dante: “Only after midnight. Halcyon Grand first.”
I stared at the screen.
Chloe.
A twenty-four-year-old PR executive who handled Caruso Holdings' public image.
I had met her twice at charity luncheons.
She had smiled in my face while sleeping with my husband in hotels paid for by our joint accounts.
My pulse didn’t race.
My hands didn’t shake.
A strange, icy calm settled over my bones.
I sat down in Dante’s leather executive chair.
I picked up his primary satellite phone.
I dialed our corporate legal counsel, Arthur Sterling.
It was 11:30 PM.
Arthur answered on the second ring, sounding groggy and terrified.
“Mr. Caruso?” Arthur stammered.
“It’s Elena, Arthur.”
Silence on the line.
“Mrs. Caruso? Is everything alright?”
“Not quite, Arthur.”
“I need you at the Madison townhouse in twenty minutes.”
“Bring the asset transfer documents for Caruso Atlantic Holdings.”
“Ma’am? At midnight?”
“If you aren’t here in twenty minutes, Arthur, I will call Nico Valenti and sell him my fifty-percent voting shares for one dollar.”
Arthur gasped.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Mrs. Caruso.”
The line went dead.
I closed Dante’s ledger.
I placed his burner phone beside it.
May you like
The golden cage was gone.
Now, I was going to burn down the ruins.
