Chapter 5
Marco asked to speak with Alessio privately.
Alessio agreed.
Not because he trusted him.
Because frightened people often chose the wrong moment to become useful.
They entered the library.
A bodyguard remained outside.
Marco poured himself water with an unsteady hand.
“Claudia thinks Isabella buried something in the garden.”
“What?”
“She never told me.”
“That’s a lie.”
Marco’s mouth tightened.
“You think I enjoy any of this?”
“I think you shoved me when I approached that land.”
Marco looked away.
Alessio waited.
Finally Marco said:
“Isabella confronted Claudia before she died.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Marco had been at the estate one evening approximately ten months before Isabella died.
He heard them arguing inside the greenhouse.
Isabella accused Claudia of using the Ventresca name for private business.
Claudia accused Isabella of poisoning Alessio against her.
Then Isabella said something Marco had never forgotten.
“If you ever come after my family, what you’re afraid of will still be here after I’m gone.”
Alessio said nothing.
Marco continued.
“Claudia became convinced Isabella had evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
Marco stared at his glass.
“That’s the part you won’t believe.”
“Try me.”
Marco still refused.
Instead he said Isabella had later planted the white irises.
Claudia connected the two events.
After the funeral, she began searching.
Quietly at first.
Drawers.
Greenhouse cabinets.
Storage areas.
Nothing.
Eventually she decided Isabella must have buried whatever she had beneath the irises.
“So why destroy every other bed today?”
“Because Claudia stopped being sure.”
Alessio’s expression hardened.
Marco explained that Claudia had recently learned Isabella sometimes moved plants between sections while experimenting with soil.
If the hidden object had been buried before the white irises were planted, Claudia could no longer know which bed covered it.
So she used the luncheon preparations as an excuse to remove nearly everything.
Everything except the section she still feared most.
Alessio leaned back.
“You helped her.”
Marco did not answer.
“You brought temporary workers.”
Silence.
“You kept Samuel away.”
Silence.
“You shoved me because you didn’t want me near the one place she refused to touch.”
Marco finally looked up.
“I was trying to stop this from becoming worse.”
Alessio almost laughed.
“My daughter’s face was underwater.”
Marco flinched.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Then what was?”
Marco’s silence answered enough.
Alessio walked toward the door.
Behind him Marco said:
“If you dig there, you might destroy whatever Isabella wanted you to find.”
Alessio stopped.
That was the first intelligent thing Marco had said.
He turned.
“I’m not digging.”
Marco looked relieved.
May you like
Too relieved.
Alessio noticed.
