Chapter 5 - CLAUDIA’S REAL FEAR
Claudia tried to leave the estate the next morning.
She made it as far as the gate.
Alessio’s men stopped the car.
Evelyn was beside her.
When Alessio arrived, the ten-year-old girl was crying.
Not because of him.
Because her mother had packed without explaining anything.
Claudia stepped out.
“Move your men.”
“No.”
“This isn’t your prison.”
“Then stop behaving like someone running from one.”
Claudia glared at him.
“I have a daughter.”
“So do I.”
“That is exactly why I’m leaving.”
Alessio looked at Evelyn.
“Go inside.”
Claudia reached for her.
Evelyn pulled away.
“I want to stay.”
Her mother stared at her.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“You keep saying that.”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“And everything gets worse.”
Alessio saw Claudia absorb the sentence.
He knew it hurt because versions of it had been spoken to him.
“Inside,” he told Evelyn more gently.
She left.
Claudia waited until the door closed.
Then she turned on Alessio.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“You won’t like it.”
“I stopped expecting to.”
Claudia laughed bitterly.
“Serena hated me.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You hated her.”
“That too.”
The admission was clean.
“Why?”
Claudia looked toward the eastern garden.
“Because she saw through me.”
Alessio waited.
“My husband, Thomas, died six years ago.”
“I remember.”
The family had been told Thomas suffered a fatal heart attack during a business trip.
Claudia continued.
“He didn’t.”
Alessio’s eyes narrowed.
“He was killed.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop giving me that answer.”
“I truly don’t.”
Her voice rose.
“Thomas worked for Gabriel.”
Silence.
“After the fire?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
Alessio stared at her.
“You knew Gabriel was alive.”
“No.”
“Your husband worked for him.”
“Thomas never gave me the name.”
Claudia stepped closer.
“He called him the Gardener.”
The word landed strangely.
Alessio looked toward Serena’s flowers.
“What did Thomas do?”
“He carried messages. Money. Weapons when necessary.”
“For Gabriel?”
“For whoever the Gardener was.”
“You just said Gabriel.”
“Because Serena later told me.”
Claudia swallowed.
“Thomas wanted out after Evelyn was born.”
“What happened?”
“He received a black rose.”
Alessio’s jaw tightened.
“Three days later he disappeared.”
“And you told everyone heart attack.”
“I was told to.”
“By?”
“A voice on the phone.”
“Man?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Claudia closed her eyes.
“Your daughter sleeps beside the blue room.”
Alessio understood.
They knew Evelyn’s bedroom.
Exactly what Serena later feared for Ruby.
Claudia had spent six years obeying.
Giving small pieces.
A guest list.
A travel date.
A gate code.
Nothing that felt fatal alone.
Everything useful together.
“Then Serena found out.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She caught me copying the estate schedule.”
Alessio felt anger rise.
“She should have come to me.”
“I begged her not to.”
“And she listened?”
“For Evelyn.”
Claudia looked toward the house.
“She loved children more than she hated me.”
That sounded like Serena.
Too much.
“What did Serena do?”
“She started feeding them false information through me.”
Alessio’s eyes narrowed.
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To learn who moved when the information changed.”
Serena had built a trap alone.
That was both brave and infuriating.
“Did it work?”
Claudia’s face went pale.
“Too well.”
“What happened?”
“We gave them a false route for you.”
“When?”
“The week Serena died.”
Alessio remembered.
He had been scheduled to drive north.
At the last minute, Serena convinced him to stay home with Ruby.
He thought she wanted a family dinner.
Claudia continued.
“Someone attacked the empty convoy.”
Alessio knew.
Two vehicles burned.
One guard wounded.
No one understood why the attackers hit cars Alessio was not in.
Now he did.
“Serena identified someone.”
“Who?”
“She never told me.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed one more day.”
Alessio closed his eyes.
Serena died the next night.
Her car left the road near Blackstone Bridge.
Fire consumed the front half.
By the time Alessio arrived, she was gone.
Claudia whispered:
“Before she left the estate that night, she gave me the black key.”
Alessio opened his eyes.
“You buried it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She told me to.”
“Under Ruby’s flower?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said nobody in this family would touch something Ruby believed belonged to her mother.”
Except Claudia.
Alessio’s anger sharpened.
“So why destroy it yesterday?”
Claudia’s mouth trembled.
“Because the black rose appeared in Evelyn’s room.”
Silence.
“Yesterday morning?”
Claudia nodded.
“On her pillow.”
Alessio felt cold.
The enemy had entered Claudia’s home.
“You should have come to me.”
“I thought if I destroyed the garden, whatever Serena hid would disappear.”
“Instead you used Ruby.”
Claudia looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“No threat made you do that.”
“I know.”
The answer surprised him.
Claudia began to cry.
Quietly.
“I hated Serena because she died brave.”
Alessio said nothing.
“And I stayed alive afraid.”
For the first time, Claudia stopped defending herself.
That did not make Alessio forgive her.
It made her useful.
“What did the message with the rose say?”
Claudia looked up.
“Finish what Serena started, and Evelyn joins her.”
Alessio’s face became stone.
“Good.”
Claudia stared at him.
“Good?”
“Now we know what frightens them.”
“What?”
May you like
Alessio looked toward the garden.
“Whatever Serena left unfinished.”
