Chapter 12 - DAMIAN’S SECRET
Alessio sent Ruby inside.
He waited until the greenhouse door closed.
Then he hit Damian.
Once.
Damian staggered against the stone table.
He did not defend himself.
Alessio grabbed his shirt.
“The night before.”
“Yes.”
“You saw my wife.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Damian looked at him.
“Because she made me swear.”
Alessio hit him again.
This time Claudia stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Alessio turned.
She did not retreat.
“If you kill every person Serena trusted with something you didn’t know, you will eventually kill everyone she was trying to protect.”
The words stopped him.
Barely.
Alessio released Damian.
“Talk.”
Damian wiped blood from his mouth.
“The night before Serena died, she called me to the greenhouse.”
“Why?”
“She had the knife.”
His father’s old knife.
“She asked me what I knew about Dominic.”
“What did you say?”
“The truth.”
“That your father worked for mine.”
“Yes.”
“That he was at Gabriel’s warehouse.”
“Yes.”
“You knew that?”
“I knew he was there. I didn’t know why.”
Damian sat.
“Serena told me Gabriel believed Dominic helped your father arrange the fire.”
“And?”
“I believed her.”
“Why?”
“Because Father once told me Gabriel should have died younger.”
Alessio felt rage at a dead man.
“What else?”
“Serena found the knife inside Thomas’s old hiding place.”
“Why D.V.?”
“She believed Dominic carved it.”
“Meaning?”
“Salvatore and Dominic.”
Two men.
One order.
The old generation had created the first betrayal.
“What did Serena ask you to do?”
“Watch Ruby.”
Alessio’s eyes narrowed.
“She thought the Gardener would come for her?”
“She thought someone had inherited Dominic’s routes.”
“Did she suspect you?”
“Yes.”
Damian almost smiled.
“That is why she called me.”
“What did she say?”
“If you’re the Gardener, you already know I found the knife. If you’re not, prove it by protecting Ruby.”
Alessio could hear Serena saying it.
Bold.
Dangerous.
Smart.
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
“She met Gabriel.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
Alessio’s fist tightened.
“Where?”
“Blackstone Bridge.”
“That was the night she died.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
“She told me not to follow.”
“And you obeyed?”
“No.”
Damian looked at him.
“I followed anyway.”
Silence.
Claudia stepped closer.
“You saw the crash.”
“No.”
“What did you see?”
“Gabriel’s car.”
Alessio stopped breathing.
“Where?”
“Leaving the bridge road.”
“With Serena?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“What happened when you reached her car?”
“Empty.”
Alessio stared.
“No body?”
“No.”
“But the reports—”
“Your men found remains later after the fire spread.”
Alessio’s face hardened.
He had never personally seen Serena’s body clearly.
The damage had been severe.
He hated himself for the detail.
Damian continued.
“I thought Gabriel took her.”
“And you said nothing.”
“You were already tearing the city apart looking for who hit the car.”
“You let me.”
“I was trying to find Gabriel first.”
“Why?”
“Because if I told you your brother took your injured wife, you would have started a war before we knew why.”
Alessio laughed bitterly.
“Everyone knows me so well.”
Damian lowered his eyes.
“Too well.”
“What happened four days later?”
“I received Serena’s necklace.”
Alessio went still.
“What?”
Damian reached beneath his shirt.
He removed a thin chain.
Small gold pendant.
Serena’s.
Alessio nearly lost control.
“You’ve had that?”
“For eleven months.”
Claudia whispered, “Damian…”
He placed it in Alessio’s palm.
“A black rose came with it.”
“Message?”
“One sentence.”
“What?”
Damian looked at him.
“TELL ALESSIO SHE DIED, OR RUBY LEARNS WHAT FIRE FEELS LIKE.”
The greenhouse became silent.
Alessio closed his hand around Serena’s necklace.
Damian’s voice broke for the first time.
“I chose Ruby.”
Alessio wanted to hate him.
Part of him did.
Another part understood exactly why Serena had trusted Damian with the impossible choice.
“What did you do?”
“I told you the remains were hers.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Were they?”
“I don’t know.”
Alessio stared.
Everything he had called grief became uncertainty.
“What do you believe?”
Damian looked toward the garden.
“I believed Serena died later.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel sent me one final message.”
“When?”
“Three weeks after the funeral.”
“What did it say?”
Damian took a breath.
“SHE WAS BRAVER THAN BOTH OF US.”
Alessio closed his eyes.
Not proof.
Not certainty.
A sentence.
It could mean death.
It could mean survival.
Claudia whispered, “Where is Gabriel?”
Damian shook his head.
“Gone.”
Alessio opened his eyes.
“No.”
He looked at Serena’s necklace.
“He isn’t gone.”
Damian frowned.
“What?”
“Serena built all of this so I would find him.”
The garden.
The keys.
The hidden routes.
The flower map.
She did not leave a trail toward a dead man.
She left a trail toward an answer.
Alessio looked at the rows of flowers.
“What is missing?”
Claudia frowned.
“From where?”
“The map.”
They returned to the greenhouse steps.
Old estate.
White roses.
Lavender.
Peonies.
Black dahlias.
One section remained empty.
A narrow strip beside the north wall.
No flowers grew there.
Only dark soil.
Damian stared.
“That should be the old family chapel.”
The chapel had been demolished before Ruby was born.
Alessio looked at the empty bed.
Serena had intentionally planted nothing there.
May you like
Because the absence was the marker.
“Dig.”
