Chapter 10
Alessio waited until Ruby was asleep.
Then he watched the final card.
He expected evidence.
What he found was something else.
The first file was recorded inside the greenhouse.
Isabella had placed the wildlife camera on a planting table.
Her face appeared close to the lens.
She was thinner than Alessio remembered.
Tired.
But completely lucid.
She did not speak like someone making a final confession.
She spoke like a woman preparing insurance.
“If you’re watching this, Alessio, then Claudia found out I know.”
Alessio stopped breathing for a moment.
Teresa sat beside him.
Samuel stood behind them.
Isabella explained what she had discovered.
Claudia and Marco had been using the estate for unauthorized meetings.
They were selling access to people Alessio deliberately kept away.
She had confronted them.
Marco promised it would stop.
Claudia did not.
Then Isabella said something Alessio had not expected.
“I did not bury the evidence under the white irises.”
Alessio looked toward the window.
The entire mystery changed in one sentence.
Isabella continued.
She knew Claudia had seen her remove memory cards.
She knew Claudia would search the greenhouse.
So she created a lie.
During their argument she told Claudia that whatever frightened her would remain buried under the white flowers.
Then she planted the irises.
The strip was never hiding evidence.
It was bait.
Not for Alessio.
For Claudia.
“If she ever starts tearing apart this garden,” Isabella said, “you’ll know she never stopped.”
Alessio closed his eyes.
Claudia had spent years afraid of an empty patch of earth.
And by destroying Isabella’s garden, she had proven Isabella right.
But that was not the only twist.
Isabella picked up another photograph and held it near the lens.
Claudia was visible beside a car.
So was Marco.
And standing with them was a third person.
A man Alessio knew better than either of them.
Vincent Caruso.
One of Alessio’s oldest senior associates.
A man still sitting at Alessio’s table.
A man who had comforted him at Isabella’s funeral.
Isabella spoke quietly.
“Marco isn’t the reason this became dangerous.”
She tapped the photograph.
“Vincent is.”
Alessio stared at the image.
For nine days he had believed Claudia and Marco were building something small beneath him.
They had not been working alone.
Someone already inside Alessio’s inner circle had given their private operation reach.
The final file contained no explanation.
Only another nighttime clip.
Vincent entering the greenhouse.
Claudia embracing him.
Marco closing the door behind them.
The timestamp was six months before Isabella died.
Alessio looked at Teresa.
Teresa whispered:
“Does Vincent know you found this?”
“No.”
Alessio looked back at Isabella’s frozen image on the screen.
For the first time since her death, he heard her warning clearly.
May you like
And this time—
he listened.
