Chapter 253: Take It Slow
(SASHA)
There are so many possibilities in the contents of Father’s secret safe that I’m starting to think the note from Angelo might not even be the most important find. Tyler and I spread everything across the bed once we return home, puzzling over all of them.
Most of the photographs are self-explanatory: blackmail material.
Not all of the people are immediately known to me, but I can ask for help to identify some of them.
And one person in particular could be very useful. The photographs show a man known to me, high-ranked in the Italian branch of the Clemenza Family, but it’s the woman with him in whom I’m interested. Known only as "La Contessa," she is an enigmatic figure in Italy who has a lot of influence in many areas: political, social, and business.
And she happens to be the Italian stakeholder who objected to my buying up controlling stock of a particular company several months back. These photographs give me leverage.
I put the pictures aside for now. Other documents in the stash included letters of correspondence—Father’s equivalent of memorandums of understanding, agreements, and contracts that would never be upheld in a court of law. Looking through them, I can see there must have been many people relieved to hear of Father’s death.
I don’t like the kind of business some of these documents suggest. I’ve been at pains to move the family into more legitimate streams of moneymaking. But they are, undeniably, useful. I won’t destroy them—not right away.
But Tyler is impatient to get back to the main event. "I don’t understand what it means," he says, shoving his Angelo’s note at my face again.