Chapter 4 - THE HOUSEKEEPER'S LOCKED OFFICE
Z
Mrs. Gable had ruled the Moretti household for nearly a decade.
She controlled schedules.
Payroll.
Food deliveries.
Medical supplies.
And the flow of information between the staff and the family.
For years, nobody questioned her.
Then Lorenzo came home.
The first investigation uncovered missing payroll records.
Several employees had been paid less than their contracts required.
Others had deductions they couldn't explain.
Some had been threatened with eviction from staff housing if they complained.
Lorenzo hired an independent employment attorney to review the situation.
He also arranged confidential interviews with the household workers.
The stories were worse than he'd imagined.
A young maid named Sofia admitted Mrs. Gable had made her work unpaid overtime.
A gardener described being denied medical leave.
The cook said Giovanni's meals had repeatedly been reduced or replaced with leftovers despite a budget that allowed for fresh food.
Lorenzo listened.
Then asked:
“Where did the money go?”
His accountant couldn't answer immediately.
But several payments led to a small consulting company registered under the name Northbridge Household Solutions.
The company had received substantial payments for services nobody could identify.
Mrs. Gable denied everything.
She claimed the records were inaccurate.
She accused the staff of lying.
Then she accused me.
“Emma Bennett has manipulated your father,” she told Lorenzo. “She's trying to get money from this family.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
“She's twenty-three and pregnant.”
“That doesn't make her innocent.”
“No,” he said. “But it doesn't make her guilty either.”
Mrs. Gable leaned forward.
“She told your father she was having a baby. She's been filling his head with stories about how poor she is.”
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
“She's been talking to a man everyone else ignored.”
Mrs. Gable opened her mouth.
He continued.
“And he remembers every word.”
Her face changed.
For the first time, she looked genuinely afraid.
The following morning, investigators found a locked filing cabinet in Mrs. Gable's office.
The contents were reviewed through appropriate legal procedures.
Inside were duplicate payroll sheets.
Invoices.
Staff complaints that had never reached management.
And copies of documents concerning Giovanni's care.
One document caught Lorenzo's attention.
A proposed amendment to Giovanni's family trust.
It would have transferred significant administrative authority to an outside adviser.
The name at the bottom made Lorenzo's blood run cold.
Victor Hale.
His father's former business partner.
A man Lorenzo had banned from the estate three years earlier.
That evening, Lorenzo stood in his study staring at the document.
His security chief, Gabriel Russo, waited beside the desk.
“Sir?”
Lorenzo looked up.
“Find out why Hale's name is in my father's care records.”
Gabriel nodded.
“And Mrs. Gable?”
“She's suspended pending the investigation. Preserve everything and let the lawyers handle it.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“You think they're connected?”
Lorenzo looked toward the window.
“I think my father has been trapped in a room while somebody tried to take control of what belongs to him.”
At the hospital, I knew nothing about the documents.
I was sitting beside the window folding tiny pink baby clothes donated by a maternity support program.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A familiar voice spoke.
“Emma.”
My heart stopped.
“Brody?”
He laughed softly.
“Miss me?”
I gripped the phone.
“What do you want?”
May you like
His answer chilled me.
“I hear you're getting close to the Morettis.”
