Once changed into more practical jeans and t-shirt, Elena joined Jamie in clearing out the closets, dressers, and bureaus. They’d left behind a considerable amount, but little of it was worth anything. The jewelry was little better, most of the better pieces taken with them. A few remained, missed in their scramble to pack everything of value. If she found buyers, they could add a handful of days to her plight. She had to find the buyers first, though.
Custom tailored gowns were only worth it to collectors and those the dress was made for. Bespoke suits wouldn’t fit anyone but their intended owner.
“We’ll figure it out,” Jamie assured her. Something he was doing more and more often as the hours passed and their pile of possibilities dwindled.
“I’m sure we will,” Elena said as she opened another of the large, flat wood cases holding Linda’s jewelry. Trailing her fingertips over the lustrous pearls and diamond chips set in gold, Elena’s brows drifted down. Her gaze caught and held on a string of jade stones, their cool glow out of place in all the warmth Linda surrounded herself in.
Drawing the necklace out, Elena held it up to the light for a moment before looking back into the case. A matching set of earrings, and a gnarled mass of sapphires buried beneath thingold plates. Not cheap by any means, but they weren’t suited to the owner of the case who preferred ostentatious expense and made it obvious. Among the thick bangles and wide hoops were smaller, far more delicate pieces.
There, nestled among the gaudy rings with huge knots of gems sat a silver band set with tiny chips of diamonds.
Elena would know that ring anywhere. Her mother’s mating gift from Valente as a show of his wealth before he’d brought her into this house. Elena let the rest slip from her fingers, clattering across the well-polished wood as she tugged the tiny ring free of the velveteen pads. It was far too small to have ever fit Linda’s hand. It would have fit Corrina’s diminutive fingers perfectly.
Linda had stolen the ring, maybe these other little pieces, too.
Shoving the box away, Elena scrambled over the piles of clothing to fling open another case. Her searching unearthed a set of thin silver bracelets in another box, more rings in yet another, necklaces and earrings tucked away beneath pretentious displays.
Elena howled and threw the boxes across the room. Sobbed as they shattered against the wall. First Valente had stolen Corinna away, and then those evil bitches had taken everything that was hers.
Her father might be out of her reach, but she’d make the others pay. Some way, somehow, she would find a way to make them regret their brazen decisions.
FOUR
LEON
The smell of cigars wafting from the study threw him back in time, the all too fleeting years when it was all his father’s responsibility, and he was nothing more than the eldest born being readied to take the throne someday. A day so far off into the infinite Leon could barely grasp the concept. Not so far off after all in the end.
Shaking his head against memories of stalling before these very doors, Leon entered his father’s study, narrowed eyes taking in the room. Lounging in the oversized wingback by the fireplace, his brother Anthony puffed at the thick cigar and sent up a plume of fragrant smoke.
“He doesn’t allow smoking in here anymore,” Leon said, willing his fists to unclench as he ambled towards the desk. Noted the scattered papers, the pages of his calendar splayed over the leather blotter. There was nothing of importance in any of it. The general bills of the household, a few other properties, functions his mother wanted him to attend. Nothing pertaining to Leon’s business, of course. All of that was safeguarded against the prying eyes of his vicious family.
“You going to tattle, golden boy?”
“I won’t have to. He’ll smell it, you idiot.”
“Ghosts, then.” Anthony smiled, the gleam of white teeth eerie through a heavy cloud of tobacco.
“I thought we agreed you’d remain overseas until the end of the year.” Leon turned his back on the disarray of the desk, leaning a hip against the edge. Watching his younger brother’s lazy smirk for the razored edge that would forewarn him of the trouble to come.
“Things came up, I had to leave.”
“Gods damn it, Anthony, again? Father had to practically order them to let you in, and you just shit all over it.”
Shoulders jerking in an abbreviated shrug, Anthony puffed on the forbidden cigar. He didn’t care what their father had to do, or how the consequences of his actions would affect others. Why should this be different than any other time? Anthony did as he pleased, and their father cleaned up the mess. He’d been trouble since day one, and it wasn’t some petty sibling rivalry that made Leon growl low in his throat.
First it had been small things, the random crimes of a young boy. Shoplifting, stealing cars, once breaking into the high school and setting it on fire. All of it swept under the rug, Anthony given yet another chance. Realizing their father would never hold him more accountable than a sound beating, the real violence began. Women caught his attention. Betas, then lower Omegas. After Anthony had ruined a connected Omega in more ways than one, Oscar Marchetti had sent his second eldest son as far away as possible. No one would ever know their secret, and the Omega’s family was paid well for their silence.
“Don’t worry, golden boy. I didn’t do anything to sully the family name,” Anthony said on a dark chuckle as he picked up a glass and swirled the amber contents. “Not really, anyways. The fuckers were stealing from dear old Dad. I caught them at it and took what was owed us.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I have the books here with me.”
“Where?”
“In my room.” Anthony pointed with the hand holding the glass. “Go look if you want.”
“You can bring them down when Father returns.” Leon shoved away from the desk, heading for the door.
