Chapter 2
Ava did not sleep well.
Dante knew because he did not either.
At two in the morning, Mrs. Bennett called him upstairs.
Ava was sitting in bed holding her stuffed rabbit.
“Daddy.”
He sat beside her.
“What happened?”
“Mommy mad?”
Dante felt the question differently than he expected.
“Celeste is not coming in here tonight.”
“Because shiny thing?”
“Because grown-ups need to figure some things out.”
Ava looked at him carefully.
“I didn’t take it.”
“I know.”
“It was on floor.”
“I know.”
“Marcus drops them.”
Dante kept his expression neutral.
“Okay.”
He did not ask more.
The next morning he hired Dr. Allison Grant, a child psychologist with no connection to the family.
He also called Claire Donnelly, the outside attorney he used whenever he needed legal advice untouched by Caruso influence.
Claire arrived before breakfast.
“You threatened to kill one of them?” she asked.
Dante stared at his coffee.
“I was angry.”
“That sentence has put a lot of men in prison.”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Excellent start.”
He gave her a look.
Claire ignored it.
“What actually happened?”
Dante told her.
She listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she asked the question that bothered him most.
“Do you have evidence of an affair?”
“A cufflink in my bedroom.”
“That is evidence a cufflink was in your bedroom.”
“My brother panicked.”
“That is evidence your brother panicked.”
Dante leaned back.
“You’re irritating.”
“That is why you called me.”
She recommended three immediate steps.
Preserve the bedroom.
Review estate access records.
Separate the marital issue from Ava’s welfare.
“Do not make your daughter responsible for proving anything.”
“I know.”
“Good. Because adults have a remarkable ability to turn children into evidence when they’re hurt.”
Dante looked toward the stairs.
That would not happen.
By noon, Leo had the first security report.
Marcus had entered the residential wing eleven times in the previous four months when Dante was not home.
Dante stared at the dates.
“Eleven?”
Leo nodded.
“Late evenings mostly.”
“Does Celeste show in the same wing?”
“She lives there.”
“You know what I mean.”
Leo understood.
Four dates aligned with nights Dante was out of state.
Three aligned with nights he attended late meetings downtown.
The remaining four occurred while Dante was somewhere else on the estate.
The appearance of an affair strengthened.
Then Leo showed him something odd.
Marcus had never used the bedroom door.
At least not according to the electronic access sensor.
Dante frowned.
“How does he enter the wing eleven times without entering the room?”
“Could have been let in through the dressing-room door.”
“Tracked?”
“No. Interior door.”
Possible.
But not clean.
Then there was another detail.
On six of the eleven nights, Marcus remained in the wing less than twelve minutes.
Dante looked at Leo.
“Twelve minutes?”
“Sometimes seven.”
That did not resemble the secret affair Dante had begun constructing in his mind.
It resembled meetings.
Fast ones.
Private ones.
Claire arrived while he was reviewing the logs.
She looked at the dates.
“Anything else happen on these days?”
Dante shrugged.
“I run six legitimate companies and a family organization. Something happens every day.”
“Then find common events.”
That afternoon they did.
Three dates matched major financial approvals from the Caruso family office.
Two matched board meetings.
One occurred hours after Dante rejected Marcus’s request to participate in a waterfront redevelopment project.
Dante looked at the cufflink photograph again.
May you like
Maybe the bedroom was not where the betrayal happened.
Maybe it was only where two people thought nobody would look.
