Chapter 5 - The Ring at the Family Dinner and the Woman Who Knew My Mother
Dante stared at the recording transcript.
His father had died eight years earlier.
The fire happened twelve years ago.
Many men had worn his family ring.
That was the first thing Mara pointed out.
We could not accuse anyone from a description.
Dante invited the family trustees to dinner.
I came as a witness.
Not as his guest.
I wore my own black dress.
I kept my phone in my pocket.
At the table sat Victor Sloane.
Beside him was Dante's cousin Bianca.
On Bianca's finger sat a heavy gold ring.
A hawk engraved across the face.
My pulse raced.
Bianca noticed me looking.
“My father gave me this,” she said.
“Before he died.”
“Your father was Dante's uncle?”
She nodded.
Dante watched us both.
During dessert, Bianca asked to speak privately.
I refused the private room.
We spoke in the garden, within sight of Mara.
Bianca knew my mother.
She had helped her hide records.
“She trusted the wrong accountant,” Bianca said.
“Victor?”
Bianca nodded.
“Why didn't you tell the police?”
“I did.”
She gave me a case number.
“The report vanished.”
Before she could explain more, a window shattered upstairs.
Everyone turned.
Smoke poured from the library.
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Then a guard shouted from the balcony.
“Someone locked Bianca's son inside!”
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