Eli’s face was white, his lips slightly blue from the chill.

“I heard something,” I said, keeping my voice down.

“Just us,” Luca said, but his eyes were scanning the dark behind me.

“We can’t stay here, boss.”

“Give me two minutes,” I said.

Luca nodded, pulling Eli behind a rusted iron pillar.

I turned back to Isabella.

Her hand was pressing against her collarbone, her fingers digging into her coat.

“How?” I asked her. “How did Kane use our money?”

“It started before you took over,” she said.

She took a slow, shivering breath.

“It started with Father.”

The words felt like a physical blow in the cold air.

“Father didn’t know Kane,” I said. “He wouldn’t have allowed this.”

“He didn’t know what Kane was,” Isabella said. “But he signed the papers.”

She reached into her deep pocket and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper.

It was yellowed at the edges, damp from the underground air.

She didn’t hand it to me; she just held it between us like a shield.

“He signed the commercial leases twenty years ago,” she said.