Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      One

      Emily Barone stood in the small back office of Baronessa Gelati and watched the single white piece of paper slowly roll into the copy machine tray, then lie flatly on top of the three other copies she’d already made. Light flickered on the dimly lit walls; the machine shuddered, then clicked to a stop.

      It’s not true, she told herself for the hundredth time. It can’t be.

      But Emily knew in her heart that the evidence she’d found against Derrick was true. There was no other explanation, nothing that could absolve, or forgive, what her brother had already done.

      Or what he still planned to do.

      Her hand shook as she reached for the incriminating piece of paper that proved Derrick’s crime: he intended to sell secret recipes from the family gelato business to a rival company.

      He’d been careful not to raise suspicion, Emily knew. Even as Derrick’s secretary, Emily might not have ever noticed anything amiss if earlier today she hadn’t accidentally overheard a few whispered words of a phone call on his private line, words that had made her uneasy. When he’d left his office a few minutes later, she’d gone in and pushed redial, only to hear a receptionist for Snowcream, Inc., Baronessa Gelati’s biggest competitor, answer the phone.

      She’d had to wait until the plant had closed this evening and everyone left before she could search for evidence to confirm Derrick’s betrayal. It had taken her nearly an hour to jimmy the lock on his desk, another fifteen minutes to find the file containing detailed notes from his conversation with Grant Summers, CEO of Snowcream. The file also contained dates and times Derrick had met with Summers, listed the amount of money to be exchanged for the information and the Swiss bank account the money would be transferred into.

      Emily swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back her tears. She knew she was naive. At twenty-four, she still tried to see the good in people, still hoped that in the end a person would do the right thing. She’d prayed she’d been wrong about Derrick, hadn’t wanted to believe that her own brother would steal from anyone, let alone Baronessa Gelati.

      She was glad her father, Paul Barone, had chosen to become a lawyer rather than go into the business Grandfather Marco had started over a half century ago. Just the thought of taking this damning information to her parents made Emily sick to her stomach. It would kill her mother to learn that her son was capable of such a betrayal.

      But it was possible her parents might never have to know, Emily thought as she turned off the copy machine. Her father’s brother, Carlo, ran Baronessa. She knew she couldn’t look the other way, that she had to take this evidence to her uncle. She knew he would have a solution that would quietly remove Derrick from his position as VP of Quality Assurance Department and possibly even cover up any potential scandal to the company or the family.

      Uncle Carlo would know what to do; Emily was certain of it. With his booming, deep voice, he was a little intimidating at times, but he was a good man, a fair man who loved his wife and children