All Chapters of DON'T MESS WITH THE HEIRESS : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

I was feeling really good when I was working in the vineyard. The world outside was not ready to let me move on. When I got back to the villa that evening my legs were shaking with tiredness. I found an envelope in the mailbox at the end of the driveway.It was not a letter from a lawyer. The paper was nice and thick. It smelled a bit like sandalwood, the kind. I liked the smell of the paper from the Ghost in the Mailbox.I opened the envelope in the kitchen while Stephen was outside checking the water pump. The note said Hannah. The handwriting was nice and fancy. Giving the land back was the start. It is a thing to give back the land but do not forget that the Vane name is more than land. There is a debt in Nairobi that cannot be paid with dirt. They are looking for the Phoenix. Be careful where you put down your roots.The note from the Ghost in the Mailbox did not have a name at the end. I knew who wrote it. Julian wrote the note from the Ghost in the Mailbox. Even when he was try

News about the Rossi Trust spread like a signal. People started coming back to the valley. They had given up on the place. Moved to small apartments in Florence or to the industrial areas of Milan.. By the third day of the harvest the road to the villa was not empty anymore.I stood on the terrace with binoculars watching a blue van and two vintage Vespas make their way up the winding road. These were the Rossi cousins, nieces and grandchildren who had heard stories about a place when they were kids."They are coming " I said to Stephen, who was sharpening some pruning tools on a stone. The sound of the metal was nice to hear in the morning."Are you ready for all the questions Hannah?" he asked, not looking up at me. "Having the deed to the property is one thing. Living and working with the people your father hurt is a different story.""I have to be ready " I said.We walked down to the entrance to meet them. The blue van stopped with a noise and a man in his twenties got out. He lo

The night was not about having fun. It was late. The Rossi family had gone to their rooms and the small houses on the property. I was alone in the library. The ash from the note that Julian had burned was still in the sink. It reminded me of the Phoenix that wouldn't go away.I sat down at the desk. Opened my fathers secret safe. I had found the code a while back. It was the date he finished the Glass Tower in London. Inside the safe I found more than papers about who owns what. I found folders with information about people.I pulled out a folder that said Nairobi: The Phoenix Doctrine. Phase III. As I flipped through the pages I saw how bad my fathers plan really was. It wasn't about helping people. It was a way to get people to owe him money. He wasn't helping those women. He was using them to get what he wanted.I knew then that giving back the vineyard was the start. The Vane Heiress had a lot to make up for.The door creaked open. Stephen was standing there his shadow on the floo

By the middle of the afternoon the sun was shining down on us. I walked out of the shade of the press house to take a jug of water to the people working on the slope. That was when I saw it. A silver car was parked at the edge of the villas driveway outside the archway. It was not car. This car was new and fancy with windows that were really dark like ice.My heart started to feel weird. I did not run. I just walked, keeping my pace steady with the water jug in my hand. Stephen came out of the rows of olive trees like he knew something was wrong. He did not have his cutting tools anymore his hands were empty. He looked really tense.A woman got out of the car. She was wearing a suit. It was a grey color that did not look right in our valley."Hannah Vane" she said. Her voice was really high."Just Hannah" I said. "You are on Rossi land."She smiled,. It did not look real. "I am Claire Sterling. I work for the people who loaned money to the Vane Estate. We got your papers about the Ro

The satellite phone felt heavy in my hand a piece of plastic that connected this valley to the cold and harsh world of money. I sat in the study the moonlight coming through the shutters.Stephen stood by the door he did not like this one bit. To him this satellite phone was like a rope, a way for my past to pull me in."If you turn that on they will see the signal " he warned me. "Claire Sterling and her people are probably waiting for something to happen on the network.""Let them see it " I said, my thumb hovering over the power button. "They think they are chasing someone smart. They have forgotten that I know how to play this game."The screen came to life casting a glow over the Rossi family maps on the desk. I did not call the people I owed money to. I did not call Julian. I dialed a number that I had memorized a time ago when I was twenty years old and still thought my father was a good man.The line clicked then there was silence. Then a voice spoke it sounded like rocks movi