Chapter 1
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Broken ceramic pots covered the terrace.
Soil had spilled across the stone.
Ruby was pressed against Alessio’s chest beneath his suit jacket, coughing softly while water dripped from her hair and gardening gloves.
Claudia sat among the fallen planters holding one hand against her cheek.
Marco struggled beneath the collapsed flower rack.
But Alessio was no longer looking at either of them.
He was looking at the narrow strip beside the greenhouse wall.
White flowers stood untouched there.
Everything surrounding them had been destroyed.
Evelyn’s finger remained pointed toward the strip.
Alessio looked at her.
“Why that section?”
The twelve-year-old immediately lowered her hand.
Claudia found her voice.
“She doesn’t know anything.”
Evelyn flinched.
Alessio noticed.
“Evelyn.”
Claudia pushed herself upright.
“Alessio, this has gone far enough.”
He turned toward her.
“You held my daughter’s face underwater.”
“She reached for the plant. I was trying to stop her from falling.”
Ruby tightened both arms around her father.
Alessio looked down.
“Is that what happened?”
Ruby shook her head.
“No.”
One word.
That was enough.
Marco climbed to his feet.
“You’re turning a child’s misunderstanding into something it isn’t.”
Alessio looked back toward the destroyed flower beds.
His late wife had designed this garden six years earlier.
Every stone border.
Every planting table.
Every bed of irises, peonies, roses, and lavender.
After Isabella died, Alessio had ordered the garden left exactly as she had planned it.
Claudia knew that.
So did Marco.
Yet someone had uprooted almost every bed.
Not randomly.
Systematically.
Alessio looked at one of his bodyguards.
“Close the estate gates.”
Claudia stared at him.
“You can’t hold guests here.”
“I’m not.”
He nodded toward the luncheon tables.
“They can leave.”
Then his eyes returned to Claudia and Marco.
“You two stay.”
Marco laughed once.
“For what?”
Alessio pointed toward the untouched strip.
“For the answer.”
Evelyn suddenly whispered:
“Mom told them not to dig there.”
Claudia froze.
Alessio turned.
“Told who?”
Evelyn looked terrified now.
“The gardeners.”
Claudia stepped toward her daughter.
“Enough.”
Evelyn immediately backed away.
Alessio saw it.
So did Ruby.
The four-year-old lifted her wet face from his chest and stared at Claudia.
Alessio handed Ruby carefully to a bodyguard he trusted.
“Take her inside. Find dry clothes. Stay with her.”
Ruby grabbed his lapel.
“Daddy.”
“I’m coming.”
She looked toward the ruined garden.
“Don’t let them throw Mom’s flowers away.”
Alessio’s expression changed.
“I won’t.”
When Ruby was safely inside, Alessio turned toward Evelyn.
“What exactly did your mother tell the gardeners?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“That they could pull up everything.”
May you like
She pointed again.
“Except that.”
